In cities all across America, digital billboards are springing up,
bringing the benefits of instantly changeable digital graphics, images
and text, to a medium where advertising contracts were traditionally
sold for months or longer at a time.
As of January 2007, about 400 digital billboards populated the U.S.
landscape, according to an article in The New York Times. Quoting a
forecast from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, OAAA, the
article reported that about 4,000 digital billboards will be in use in
10 years.
A recent example of the use of a digital billboard probably
encapsulates the reason why they're so appealing better than a
10,000-word treatise on them ever could. Digital billboard operators in
Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Waterloo, Iowa, teamed up Jan. 3
to deliver news from the Iowa presidential caucuses that was updated
every seven to 10 minutes till the process was complete and Senator
Barak Obama and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee were declared
the winners.
Having access to that sort of immediacy on such a scale in the outdoor advertising
arena was unthinkable a few short years ago. What that translates to on
a commercial basis is the same digital sign can be used to advertise
hundreds and hundreds of products in the same day -not the same product
for months on end.
To date, the dominant display technology responsible for these
digital billboards is a particularly bright, particularly responsive
light emitting diode -LED. Just as TVs -whether their LCD or plasma
flat panels or old-fashioned cathode ray tube televisions- make
pictures based on tiny discrete picture elements called pixels,
light-emitting-diode-based billboards rely on an array of LEDs to
display text, graphics and video. (Video is a major application in
stadiums; it's more doubtful how useful or safe it would be if the
intention was to communicate with drivers zipping down the interstate
at 70 miles per hour.)
While highly effective, large LED signs are quite expensive and
power-hungry. A Washington Post article last spring quoted an executive
with CBS Outdoor, one of the three largest outdoor advertising
companies in the world, as saying a 14-by-48-foot LED digital billboard
costs about $450,000. With that sort of price tag, it's easy to
understand why the OAAA forecasts their number to grow to only 4,000 in
10 years while there are about 450,000 billboards across America. It's
also not too hard to imagine that full-on, high-quality video-, text-
and graphic-based LED signage may be out of reach for literally
hundreds of thousands of other outdoor signage applications.
However, there is an alternative. New high-gain projection screens,
such as the XL-A-Vision screen from AccelerOptics in Carthage,
Missouri, have the ability to reject enough ambient light -even the
intense noonday sun- to make the use of video projectors a practical,
affordable alternative. Depending on the type of configuration
specified, this approach to outdoor digital signage can cost in the
tens of thousands or dollars, not several hundred thousand dollars as
with the LED-based approach.
Recently, the first major outdoor application of an XL-A-Vision
screen went online in Grants Pass, Oregon, where the developer of a
modern office complex installed a double-sided outdoor projection-based
sign based on the high-gain screen. The 10.5-by-15-foot sign, which the
building's owner has dubbed "The Paragon," offers all of the advantages
one would expect of a digital sign, including the opportunity for ad
sales to offset the cost of the display.
However, what really drives home the point of why this approach to
outdoor digital signage is significant is the fact that the building's
owner, Consolidated Financial, did not have the budget to pay for an
LED-based digital sign. If projection-based signage made possible by a
high-gain projection screen technology had not been available, the
company would have abandoned the idea of installing an outdoor digital
signage.
While the number of digital billboards using LED-technology will
climb over the next 10 years, think of how many more applications for
outdoor digital signage will be enabled by this revolutionary,
affordable approach to projection screen technology. High-gain
projection screens, like those used for The Paragon, may have as big of an impact on the outdoor advertising landscape -if not bigger- than LED-based approaches.
Digital Out Of Home
BIA/Kelsey Forecasts Digital Out-of-Home Ad Revenues to Grow
Last Updated on Friday, 20 November 2009 10:47
BIA/Kelsey Forecasts Digital Out-of-Home Ad Revenues to Grow from $2.2B
in 2009 to $3.7B in 2013, Driven by Consolidation, Partnerships and Platforms
Outlook for DOOH among key topics on the agenda at BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media 2009 conference, Dec. 9-11 in Los Angeles
CHANTILLY, Va. (Nov. 4, 2009) – Analysis by BIA/Kelsey indicates digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising, which leverages spending trends toward digital media, hyperlocal, personalization and engagement metrics, is poised to be the next major growth area in local advertising. BIA/Kelsey forecasts DOOH advertising revenues to grow from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $3.7 billion in 2013, representing a compound annual growth rate of 13.5 percent. During the same period, traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising revenues will only grow at a CAGR of 1.4 percent, from $4.4 billion in 2009 to $4.6 billion in 2013.
DOOH comprises digital billboards and place-based digital networks, which the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) defines as follows:
· Digital billboards are static roadside displays that rotate advertising messages every eight to 10 seconds.
· Place-based digital networks are often indoors and positioned in commercial areas where groups of people congregate. Place-based digital networks carry both video content and static advertisements.
In a recent report on DOOH (“Digital Out of Home: Hyperlocal and Hyper Growth?”), BIA/Kelsey notes there are more than 2,100 outdoor advertising companies in the United States. The newer digital segment has more types of companies and is much less concentrated and faster growing than OOH. The OOH advertising industry is heavily concentrated with just three firms earning 85 percent of traditional billboard revenues. Billboards account for 66 percent of all OOH revenues. The remaining 15 percent of the market is highly fragmented.
“OOH is relatively easy to plan and buy since it is so concentrated,” said Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer, BIA/Kelsey. “DOOH must get easier to plan, buy and measure in order to reach scale. With consolidation, partnerships and interoperable platforms, we see the buying process becoming more integrated, which will spur growth.”
The outlook for DOOH is among the local advertising topics on the agenda at BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming conference, Interactive Local Media 2009 (ILM:09), Dec. 9-11 in Los Angeles, California. The program features a session titled “Digital Out-of-Home: Expanding the Interactive Experience for the Consumer,” which will cover the emergence of the “fourth screen” for audience engagement through video screens at gas stations, on city buses, on roadside billboards, in-store, and in venues such as bars and restaurants, health clubs and public spaces. Moderated by BIA/Kelsey’s Ducey, this session will include panelists Adam Bleibtreu, CEO, Retail Media Co.; Stephen Randall, CEO, LocaModa; and Lori Schwartz, Senior VP and Director, Interpublic Emerging Media Lab. Brian Buchwald, Executive VP, Local Integrated Media & NBC Everywhere, NBC Universal, is also expected to touch on DOOH during his keynote address on day two, in which he will share his company’s local strategy and perspective on the future of Web-infused TV.
ILM:09 is BIA/Kelsey’s annual conference devoted to digital media with a local focus. The theme for this year’s event is “Monetizing the Local Opportunity,” and the agenda will cover a range of important topics, including local social media, local search and mobile search. Conference sponsors include 3L System Group, Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Exalead, Kenshoo, Local.com, Local Matters, Localeze, Marchex and MatchCraft. Association partners include Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), International Classified Media Association (ICMA) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). Media partners include AIM Group, TVover.net and YP Talk. For more information, visit www.kelseygroup.com/ilm2009.
The “Digital Out of Home: Hyperlocal and Hyper Growth?” report is available to clients of BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media Continuous Advisory Service. Contact Michael Taylor at
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for more information on BIA/Kelsey advisory services.
About BIA/Kelsey
BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through Consulting and Valuation Services, Research, Continuous Advisory Services and Conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directories markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey’s annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com. The company’s blogs are located at http://blog.bia.com/bia/ and http://blog.kelseygroup.com, and it can be found on Twitter through http://twitter.com/BIAfn.
Eileen Pacheco
For BIA/Kelsey
(781) 556-1026
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MacKenzie Lovings
BIA Financial Network
(703) 818-2425
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