Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising, also known as out-of-home advertising, is advertising that reaches consumers when they are outside their homes. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America says that’s where consumers spend 70 % of their time.

Types of Outdoor advertising

The most commonly known type of outdoor advertising is the billboard. Common forms of outdoor advertising today fall into three categories:

1- Billboard Advertising :-  Most people are familiar with billboard advertising, regardless of where they live or travel. Billboards are placed next to high-traffic highways as well as along less-travelled roads in non-urban areas. Drivers see them almost anywhere because they are an efficient and cost-effective means of communicating information that is geographically important – the location of the closest chain fast food restaurant on the route, the nearest motel, or campgrounds at the next exit.

2- Street Furniture :- A bit of a misnomer, “street furniture” applies not just to bus or park benches but also to bus shelters, news racks, and telephone kiosks, among others.

3- Transit :- Ads on the sides of busses are the most common form of transit outdoor advertising, but outdoor advertising is common in subway stations and within subway cars, in taxis, along airport walkways, and wrapped around vehicles – one of the newer trends.

4- Street furniture :-  Ads on bus shelters, kiosks, benches, parking garages, bathrooms and more

5- Cinema advertising :- Commercials before films begin and other ads around the movie theatre

Other Forms of Outdoor Advertising

Advertising seems to follow consumers wherever they go – in supermarket shopping carts, in sports arenas, and in health clubs. They can be high-tech – think digital – or low tech – think personal-computer generated mini-posters offering dog-walking services pinned to a coffee shop bulletin board.

Digital Outdoor Advertising

Also known as digital signage, digital outdoor advertising is a specific type that uses electronic technology to change what’s displayed on a screen. Digital billboards feature messages from a handful of advertisers that rotate every six to eight seconds. Other digital signs might be free-standing on an urban sidewalk or courtside at a college basketball game.

For Small Businesses

The most important outdoor ad for any small brick and mortar business is its built-in outdoor advertising: exterior signage. Business owners want crisp, clear signage that communicates well from a distance. While it should convey the company’s brand image, it should also help the business get discovered and found.

Why Is Outdoor Advertising Important?

We spend a lot of time outside the home — they engage in activities such as work, leisure and sport an average of 8.74 hours per day, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. That’s fully a third of your day when you are not in your house. Since another one-third of your time is spent sleeping, that leaves only a few hours for advertisers to connect with you in your home through television, magazines and radio.

Snipe that, then, is the importance of outdoor advertising. It allows advertisers to find you when you are occupied outside the home, and often at a time when you are receptive to advertising.