2009.12.08

Digital Out-of-Home to Lead OOH Growth, Soar 13.2%

Out-of-home ad revenue will climb 4.9% from 2008 to 2013, compared to a 3.3% decline for
traditional advertising, with growth driven by digital billboards, out-of-home digital video
networks and alternative ambient advertising, which includes guerilla advertising, street teams and other nontraditional approaches.

Digital out-of-home spending will leap 13.2% from 2008 to 2013, and total spending will reach $4.53 billion, up from $2.6 billion this year, according to Media Life. Total out-of-home spending will reach $10.28 billion in 2013.

Video ad networks, including screens in office buildings, health clubs, fast food chains and gas stations, will make up the largest portion of digital out-of-home spending in 2009, growing 5.8% from last year. Growth has slowed due in part to a reduced rollout of new screens and the failing of some smaller companies. However, as providers become more consolidated in the next couple of years, making it easier for advertisers to make buys with a broader reach, growth will return to double digits.

The fastest growth in the digital out-of-home category will come from digital billboards, which will soar 15.5% this year, to $551 million, despite the advertising downturn.

Of the three digital categories, alternative ambient advertising will grow at the slowest pace, up 1.8% to $552 million in 2009.

Spending on alternative media as a whole, which includes digital out-of-home, is projected to
reach $139.45 billion in 2013, representing 29.7% share of total advertising and marketing
spending, up from just 18.2% in 2008.

In addition to out-of-home advertising, other bright spots in the advertising and media industry will be internet media, business information, direct marketing, event marketing, PR, and b-to-b electronic media, all of which will grow over the next five years. Newspapers, broadcast TV, consumer and b-to-b magazines, yellow pages and traditional out-of-home are expected by Veronis Suhler Stevenson to shrink during the five-year period.

Alternative marketing segments – including branded entertainment and word-of-mouth marketing – will grow at 12.6% annually from 2008-2013.

The communications sector overall will be the third fastest-growing economic sector going forward, rising from its current position in fourth place. The communications industry as a whole will decline 1% in 2009, but grow faster than the GDP this year and over the next five years, VSS says.