Outdoor advertising surges

These days, it’s sometimes easy to forget that human response to stimuli doesn't change just because media changes. I thought about that when reading a recent story in MediaPost about the surge of the outdoor advertising business. Over the next four years, it’s expected to grow an average of 13% per year, more than any other conventional media.

The reason? People are more mobile these days. We carry our technology with us and we're never out of touch, which permits us to be on the road more than ever before. When we're mobile, we see things like billboards.

And there is technology innovation going on there as well. While passing through New Jersey recently I saw some video billboards that were truly stunning in their clarity and color.

Apple certain he understands the value of this 100-year-old medium. The company spends lavishly on outdoor advertising for its iPods. I suppose it reasons that a lot of target customers can be found standing at bus stops. Good call.

Labels: advertising

  ¶ 3:07 PM 1 Comments

  How to create brand advocates My article on brand advocacy published today on iMedia Connection. It's all about how to use electronic tools to engage with customers and make them your best sales representatives. I'd love to get your feedback and war stories. I'm starting work on a new book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, and tales from the field are a key component. Don't be shy to tell me your successes. Failures are welcome, too. Names will be changed to protect the guilty.

Labels: advertising, social_media

  ¶ 3:45 PM 0 Comments

  A distant mirror Media Post's coverage of Google's DoubleClick acquisition has a timeline of America's greatest ad agencies. Check out this one (emphasis added):

1873: Foote, Cone & Belding founded as one of America's first advertising agencies. One of its founders, Fairfax Cone, states: "Good advertising is always written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone."

So, 130 years after Fairfax Cone said that, the marketing profession is rediscovering the fundamental truth of those words.

Labels: advertising

  ¶ 6:57 AM 1 Comments

  Online advertising overtakes print in Britain The Guardian reports that online advertising now exceeds newspaper advertising in the UK. This in a country that has about 15 national daily newspapers and is addicted to its tabloids. Broadcast advertising is in a clear downward trend. Is this a leading indicator for the U.S.?

Meanwhile, newspaper editors fiddle while Rome burns.

Labels: advertising, mainstream_media

  ¶ 1:44 PM 0 Comments

  Online advertising still off the mark Dave Morgan of Tacoda has a thoughtful opinion piece in Media Post today about the failure of online advertising to live up to its potential to target viewers' interests. He points to a compelling statistic from a 2005 Roper Public Affairs study: "only 21% of people said that advertising adds to their enjoyment of the Internet, versus 47% for magazines and 47% for newspapers. "

Wow, that's backwards, isn't it? In theory, online advertising should be more useful and enjoyable because it's more relevant. But as Morgan points out, advertisers are still stuck on banners and buttons and leaderboards. Most efforts to make ads more effective have so far just made them more intrusive. Does anyone else get offended when they go to a website and an audio ad starts playing? Nevertheless, the online ad market continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Imagine what would happen if advertisers got it right?

Personally, I've had fun recently looking at the ads that show up in my Gmail box. I find Google's choice of what ads to show me based upon the content of e-mails is entertaining and often funny.

Labels: advertising

  ¶ 8:14 AM 1 Comments