Outdoor advertising explained

Outdoor advertising or out-of-home (OOH) advertising includes public billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while "on the go". OOH advertising formats fall into four main categories: billboards, street furniture, transit, and alternative.^[1]

Advertisements are commonly placed by large companies like JCDecaux and Clear Channel Outdoor.

Digital

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) refers to dynamic media distributed across place-based networks in venues including.

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Advertising

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising refers to the use of digital screens to deliver promotional content in public spaces. Unlike traditional OOH formats such as billboards or posters, DOOH utilizes dynamic displays that can showcase interactive, real-time, and customizable campaigns.

Key Features of DOOH:

• Dynamic Content: Advertisers can update campaigns instantly to reflect weather changes, events, or real-time data.
• Audience Targeting: Leveraging data like foot traffic patterns and demographics, campaigns can be more precisely tailored.
• Interactivity: Touch screens, QR codes, or motion sensors create engaging consumer experiences.
• Integration with Online Campaigns: DOOH bridges offline and online strategies, driving traffic to websites or apps.

^[2]

Programmatic

See also: Demand-side platform, Supply-side platform and Ad exchange. Within the DOOH industry, advertisements might be purchased through programmatic platforms. Programmatic platforms ask marketers to specify desired audience characteristics and automatically locate the media vehicles to deliver that audience. These platforms may allow buyers (the demand side) to plan, execute and monitor campaigns across multiple media platforms (the supply side) using a familiar workflow.^{[3] [4]} A major difference between programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) and traditional OOH or DOOH is that programmatic automates the process of buying, selling and delivering inventory across multiple screens with enhanced capabilities. These enhanced capabilities include the creation of measurable, highly targeted campaigns by utilizing geolocation data to activate the best DOOH screens in real-time based on consumer behaviour and audience movement patterns.^[5] Additionally, programmatic allows buyers to set specific parameters or conditions (also known as triggers) for a campaign or inventory and unleash the potential to power campaigns with unlimited data sets from a myriad of data sources. Only when the selected conditions are met will an ad or content be served onto the screen.^[6]

Printed

Printed out of home refers to static media distributed across physical spaces.^[7] Examples include:

• Aerial advertising: Aerial advertising includes towing banners via a fixed-wing aircraft as well as airships like blimps and other airborne inflatables above beaches, events and gridlock traffic.^[8]
• Billboard bicycle: is a new type of mobile advertising in which a bike tows a billboard with an advertising message. This method is a cost-efficient, targeted, and environmentally-friendly form of advertising.
• Brochure Distribution: Information displays in public gathering spaces such as transportation centers, lodging facilities, visitor centers, attractions, and retail environments are targeted methods to distribute effective messaging to a targeted audience. This method is slightly different from traditional OOH as the consumer self-selects the messaging material, and can take that message with them.
• Billboards: (or Bulletins) are usually located in highly visible,^[9] heavy traffic areas such as expressways, primary arterials, and major intersections. In the US bulletins are usually illuminated. The ad artwork, commonly digitally printed on large vinyl-coated fabric membranes, is often "rotated" by the outdoor plant operator amongst several locations in a metropolitan area to achieve the desired reach of the population as defined in the sales contract. With extended periods of high visibility, billboard advertisements provide advertisers with significant impact on commuters. This is the largest standard out of home advertising format, usually measuring at 14ftx48ft in overall size.
• Bus advertising: Firmly establish brand awareness and generate quick recall with high-profile exposure near point of purchase locations.
• Commuter rail display: Reaches a captive audience of upscale suburban commuters. Additionally, reaches lunch-time patrons, shoppers and business professionals.
• ComPark advertising: ComPark is a device used for car park advertising, which is placed onto the parallel lines of a bay and is able to gain instant exposure from motorists that have parked their vehicle. The ComPark also serves as a guide to assist motorist in adhering to the parking bay size.
• Gas Station Pump Top Advertising: Printed Signage is inserted into sign holder frames above the Pumps. These are called Pump Top advertising and are generally eye-level height. Average dwell time for customers to refuel their vehicle is 3–5 minutes which make this form of advertising very effective to reach automobile drivers.
• Inflatable billboard: similar to regular 2D billboard, but imposed on 3D object.
• Lamppost banner advertising: Lamp columns are sited everywhere, allowing advertisers and events to use banners to target precise geographical locations and create promotional awareness.
• Mobile billboard: Mobile billboards offer a great degree of flexibility to advertisers. These advertisements can target specific routes, venue or events, or can be used to achieve market saturation. A special version is the inflatable billboard which can stand free nearly everywhere. This product can also be used for outdoor movie nights.
• Poster: Target local audiences with these billboards, which are visible to vehicular traffic, and are ideal for the introduction of new products/services. Marketers use posters to achieve advertising objectives and increase brand awareness by placing multiple units in strategic locations while lowering the cost per thousand impressions. This is a standardized poster format, typically measuring 12'3" x 24'6"; formally known as a 30-Sheet Poster.
• Premier panel: Premiere panels combine the frequency and reach of a poster campaign with the creative impact of a bulletin.
• Premier square: Bright top and bottom illumination on a premiere panel provide extra impact after dark.
• Street advertising: The use of pavements and street furniture to create media space for brands to get their message onto the street in a cost-effective approach.
• Taxi advertising: Taxi advertising allows advertisers to highlight their products, whether brand awareness, or a targeted message, directly to areas where people work, shop, and play.
• Wallscape: Wallscapes are attached to buildings and are able to accommodate a wide variety of unusual shapes and sizes. These billboard advertisements are visible from a distance and provide impact in major metro areas.
• Aircraft Advertising: Aircraft advertising includes product or service branding inside and outside the aircraft. This includes wrapping the aircraft with printed SAVs, baggage tag branding, boarding pass branding, tray table branding and more.
• Walking Billboards: These billboards are strapped on to the human shoulder and are carried along the targeted geographic area. These billboard advertisements are also visible during night. It helps the local advertisers as it is very cost effective and can be geographically targeted to a particular area.

Other types of non-digital OOH advertising include airport displays, transit and bus-shelter displays, headrest displays, double-sided panels, junior posters and mall displays.

Space advertising, by use of an array of small satellites that reflect sunlight, has been evaluated by researchers at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.^[10]

Regulations

United States

• The states of Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska prohibit all billboards.
• The other 46 states permit multiple forms of OOH advertising.
• Billboards are regulated by all levels of government. The regulatory framework, created by the federal Highway Beautification Act (HBA), calls for billboards to be located in commercial and industrial areas. Billboard permits are issued by state and local authorities. Under the Highway Beautification Act, states have strong regulatory powers including the authority to ban billboards.
• Most states have taken steps to regulate digital (electronic) billboards, which feature static images that change (typically) every six or eight seconds. In 2007, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued Guidance to the states regarding regulation of digital billboards. Scenic America challenged the federal Guidance in federal court on procedural grounds. On June 20, 2014, US District Court Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed this case, with prejudice.
• Regulations governing digital billboards prohibit animation and scrolling. Digital billboards are equipped with light sensors to adjust billboard lighting to surrounding light conditions to avoid glare, per the industry code.

Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil, established an almost total outdoor advertising ban in 2006. The ban required that all billboard and banner advertisements be removed and that store signs be greatly reduced in size and prominence.^[11]

Switzerland

The Swiss municipality of Vernier banned outdoor advertising.^[12]

Finland

Outdoor advertising in Finland is subject to license. According to section 52 of the Finnish road law outdoor advertising along roads is forbidden in principle, but a Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment can grant an exceptional permit for advertising, if it does not endanger traffic safety and is not in conflict with the environment. In places subject to zoning the permit is granted by the local municipality.^[13]

Outdoor advertising has also been criticised because of landscape protection or because it would cause environmental damage or "visual pollution" in the landscape. Loose advertising billboards placed on sidewalks in front of businesses cause harm and danger to the visually impaired. Many municipalities in Finland require a minimum of 1.5 metres' width of free passage space and that billboards can only be used while the businesses are open. Municipalities also give guides and grant permits for placing construction signs, signs about events and other advertising devices.^[14] In 2002, the predecessor of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency published a guide for advertising along roads together with the Ministry of Environment and the Finnish Municipal Association.^[15]

The difference between outdoor advertising and display window advertising was discussed because of a series of 16 illuminated advertising displays placed inside a series of windows on the corner of the streets Runeberginkatu and Mannerheimintie in Helsinki showing animated advertising for several years. This advertising display had been criticised because of dazzling and light pollution. According to the advertising company, the display was a case of common display window advertising. In May 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland confirmed the decision given by administrative court in January 2023 about evicting the display but specified that advertising displays can only be removed by officials, not by the housing cooperative.^{[16] [17] [18]}

One form of criticism towards outdoor advertising is about which images are considered appropriate for outdoor advertising because of sexual equality or in the interest of child protection. In 2003 the ethical council for advertising received a complaint about a Christmas advertising campaign for Hennes & Mauritz underwear showing Naomi Campbell and other famous international models in 1930s-style glamour images. The council ruled the campaign as a whole did not go against the international rules for advertising or the council's own equality principles.^[19] In contrast, in 2008 the council gave the same advertiser (H&M) a warning about "sexualising the public space". According to the council, the six-story high underwear advertisement on the corner of the Forum shopping centre in central Helsinki featured the 24-year-old model Isabeli Fontana in "unnatural positions" and thus was a "passive object" of the advertisement.^[20]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Outdoor Media Formats. oaaa.org. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090621033934/http://www.oaaa.org/marketingresources/outdoormediaformats.aspx. 2009-06-21. 2009-07-17.
2. https://placebased.media/blog/marketing-with-digital-out-of-home-advertising-dooh
3. Web site: What is Programmatic Advertising? CAASie.co Blog. 2021-07-23. caasie.co.
4. Web site: What is programmatic DOOH?. 2021-07-23. Broadsign. 27 May 2020 . en.
5. Web site: Vol. 1 - What yOOH need to know: DOOH vs pDOOH. 2021-07-27. www.hivestack.com.
6. Web site: Learn the pDOOH basics with Hivestack. 2021-07-27. www.hivestack.com.
7. Hans-Jürgen Tast: Immer mit einem Lächeln auf den Lippen! Die bunte Fotoflut im Straßenbild., Kulleraugen Vis.Komm. Nr. 43, Schellerten 2013, .
8. Web site: Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Inc. > About OOH > OOH Basics > OOH Media Formats > Airborne. Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Inc.. www.oaaa.org. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160812175117/http://www.oaaa.org/OutofHomeAdvertising/OOHMediaFormats/Airborne.aspx. 2016-08-12.
9. Chmielewski, Sz., Tompalski, P. (2017). Estimating outdoor advertising media visibility with voxel - based approach. Applied Geography, 87:1-13 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.07.007). Preprint download: Web site: Estimating outdoor advertising media visibility with voxel-based approach (PDF Download Available) . 2017-10-02 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20171002220053/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318744436_Estimating_outdoor_advertising_media_visibility_with_voxel-based_approach . 2017-10-02 .
10. Web site: Berger . Eric . 2022-10-05 . Who is ready for a fleet of cubesats flying over cities, displaying ads? . 2022-10-05 . Ars Technica . en-us.
11. Web site: Sao Paulo: The City With No Outdoor Advertisements. www.amusingplanet.com. 13 June 2015. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150511152228/http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/07/sao-paulo-city-with-no-outdoor.html. 11 May 2015.
12. News: 2024-07-26 . A Swiss Town Banned Billboards. Zurich, Bern May Soon Follow . 2024-10-16 . Bloomberg.com . en.
13. http://www.liikenneturva.fi/www/fi/kysyttya/kevytliikenne.php?we_objectID=7268 Kysyttyä: Ulkomainonta
14. Kauma-Laula, Kaisa: Mainospaikat, City of Turku. Accessed on 27 March 2012.
15. Tienvarsimainonnan käsikirja - Mitä, missä, miten. Helsinki 2002. .
16. https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000009393678.html Valomainosyhtiö jatkaa häädettäväksi määrättyjen mainostaulujen käyttöä Mannerheimintiellä
17. https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000006409649.html Pormestari Jan Vapaavuoren mukaan valomainospäätöstä täytyy vielä pohtia – kuvailee asiaa poikkeukselliseksi ja periaatteellisesti merkittäväksi
18. https://www.kak-laki.fi/kho-linjasi-taloyhtiolla-ei-ole-keinoja-poistaa-valomainoksia/ KHO linjasi: Taloyhtiöllä ei ole keinoja poistaa osakkaan huoneiston sisäpuolelle kiinnitettyjä kirkkaita valomainoksia
19. http://www.keskuskauppakamari.fi/Palvelut/Asiantuntijapalvelut/Mainonnan-eettinen-neuvosto/Lausunnot/Mainonnan-eettisen-neuvoston-lausunnot-2003/MEN-lausunto-29-2003 MEN lausunto 29/2003
20. http://www.keskuskauppakamari.fi/Palvelut/Asiantuntijapalvelut/Mainonnan-eettinen-neuvosto/Lausunnot/Mainonnan-eettisen-neuvoston-lausunnot-2008/MEN-lausunto-6-2008-Sukupuolten-valinen-tasa-arvo MEN lausunto 6/2008