Digital signage in Europe keeps traditional out-of-home sector afloat

This is a summary of survey that shows OOH advertising sector, article of Nurlan Urazbaev, www.blog.broadsign.com



A new study released by Screen Digest predicts that, due to the revenues resulting from the continuing migration to digital technology, the out-of-home advertising sector will be the only traditional medium with positive growth in Western Europe in the next few years.
The preamble to the report says: “‘Digital signage’ networks of connected digital screens in public spaces (airports, stations, trains, supermarkets, hotels, surgeries, etc) are generating opportunities for traditional out-of-home contractors, digital specialists, technical enablers and system integrators, display manufacturers, venue owners and advertisers.” (Source: http://www.researchandmarkets.com).

The key findings of the report include:

• Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising revenues in Western Europe will quadruple over the next five years from 160m in 2007 to 626m by 2012. By 2012 DOOH share is expected to grow to approximately 10 % of total OOH ad revenues
• Driven by the migration to digital and the incremental revenues generated from digital sites, the out-of-home sector will be the only traditional advertising media to post real revenue growth in the next five year.
• Thanks to the increasing affordability of digital displays, digital signage networks not only conquer brand new spaces for advertising (e.g. in-store point-of-sale advertising) but also upgrade static poster format sites in a growing number of locations (airports, stations, roadsides, etc.).
• Sales of displays and other hardware for digital signage generated revenues in the amount of approximately 4m in Western Europe in 2007.
• Lower maintenance costs and higher revenues, combined with reduced hardware costs, are making a profitable business case out of upgrading many existing to digital, as well as creating new sites intended to reach audiences on the move.
• The added value of digital OOH formats over traditional OOH formats (superior impact of moving image, creative and dynamic copy, booking flexibility and scalability, etc.) allows contractor to sell inventory at premium rates.

Study: "Digital OOH Media Awareness & Attitude Study"

This study presents awareness, perception and attention paid to digital signage compared to other media.

Most adults say advertising on digital signage catches their attention - and they consider such advertising unique and entertaining, and less annoying than both traditional and online media, according to a study by OTX (Online Testing eXchange) conducted for SeeSaw Networks, reports sister site MarketingCharts.
The “Digital Out-Of-Home Media Awareness & Attitude Study" is the first to compare digital out-of-home media to other media, SeeSaw said.

Among the findings of that study:

Awareness of digital out-of-home media is high:
Some 62 percent of adults have seen digital signage in the past 12 months - levels similar to:

• billboards (66 %)
• magazines (67 %)
• and newspapers (63 %)
• That compares with 92 % for TV
• 75 % for radio
• 78 % for internet
• and 10 % for mobile phones.
  

On average, people notice digital signage in six different kinds of locations during their week, giving advertisers the opportunity to intercept people at various touch points.

Digital out-of-home advertising is engaging:
Respondents found digital signage advertising to be:

• more unique (58 %)
• interesting (53 %)
• and entertaining (48 %)
• and less annoying (26 %), than other media

Some 63 percent of those who have seen digital signage say it attracted their attention, compared with

• 58 % for billboards
• 57 % for magazines
• 56 % for TV
• 47 % for internet
• 40 % for newspaper
• 37 % for radio
• and 10 % for mobile

Some 44 percent of adults say they pay some or a lot of attention to digital signage advertising, placing it ahead of traditional billboards, the internet and mobile phones, and on par with magazines, radio and newspapers.

Reaching young people is a strength of digital out-of-home media:
75 percent of 18-34-year-olds have seen digital signage in the past 12 months and notice digital signage in seven different locations during their week.

This demographic finds the advertising on digital signage to be more unique (63 percent), interesting (57 percent) and entertaining (53 percent) than advertising on other media and rates the media even higher than the general population across these measures.