by TRC_Admin | Apr 25, 2020 | Advertising Industry
“…Analysts have marked down oOh!media’s revenue prospects as the outdoor media leader, already dealing with a weak advertising market, sees its audience head indoors and away from billboards.
Industry insiders say the pullback from some outdoor advertisers during the coronavirus crisis has been swift.
Much of the call to action billboard advertising, such as attending an event or going to a sale, is fast becoming redundant as consumers stay at home with streaming media services running hot…
oOh!media this week: ‘Deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and resultant market uncertainty caused by COVID-19 has made forecasting full year revenue in the current environment difficult. This is particularly relevant for oOh! given the Company has nine months remaining in its financial year to December 2020.’
‘The company is taking decisive action to proactively manage the business through this period and ensure it remains well positioned for when conditions stabilise, and continues to make every effort to achieve the prior earnings guidance.’
Brian Han, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, is impressed with oOh!media’s fighting spirit as the outdoor advertising specialist tells the market it will make “every effort” to hit previous prior earnings guidance.
But Morningstar has cut its fair value estimate for oOh!media by 14% to $3.20 a share, reflecting the estimated impact of COVID-19 on revenue. Dividend expectations for 2020 have been cut to zero.
‘Demand for outdoor advertising is bound to be depressed when an expanding chunk of the economy is bunkering down at home and practising aggressive social distancing,’ says Han.
‘And those clients who are still standing and care to advertise outdoors, one can be sure they will be driving a hard bargain with oOh!media amidst the current malaise.’…”
— Chris Pash, AdNews
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by TRC_Admin | Apr 25, 2020 | Advertising Industry
Photo: Jeenah Moon, Reuters
“The cancellation of major sporting events and the decimation of the luxury, entertainment and travel industries is delivering a hammer blow to a global advertising industry that was already reeling from years of tech-led turmoil.
What should have been a bumper year with the Euro soccer tournament, Tokyo Olympics and U.S. election looks like it could be one of the worst for ad giants WPP (WPP.L), Omnicom (OMC.N), Publicis (PUBP.PA) and IPG (IPG.N) as the economy shuts down.
Advertising executives told Reuters that clients are pulling campaigns, photo shoots for glossy magazines are off and major brands are cutting budgets to conserve cash after the outbreak upended the way consumers go about their daily lives…
‘This is a very sudden, immediate and significant hit to people’s revenue and bottom line. A lot of people will go to the wall as a result of it,’ Michael Moszynski, chief executive and founder of the LONDON Advertising agency, told Reuters.
‘All the media agencies globally are being told by their clients to cancel their spend.’
The sudden withdrawal of a chunk of the $600 billon of pure advertising money that goes via agencies onto media platforms such as Facebook (FB.O) and Google (GOOGL.O), broadcasters, magazines and billboards will be felt far and wide.
While the industry has faced crises before, including 9/11 and the 2008 crash, the rapid spread of coronavirus through every continent and every sector poses an unprecedented threat.
‘You don’t advertise for flights that don’t exist,’ Brian Wieser, an executive at WPP’s Group M media buying arm, told Reuters. ‘If you can avoid it you will stop the spend.’
WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group with more than 130,000 employees, traditionally keeps its staffing levels in line with revenue growth.
It has already been through two years of pain as clients started placing ads directly on major tech platforms and others took some digital advertising inhouse. Its shares have fallen 54% in the last three months, the worst hit of the four groups.
REVENUES SHRINK The global fallout can be seen first in China where the virus emerged. Its biggest search engine Baidu predicted sales from advertising could fall by up to 18% in the first quarter.
In the United States the New York Times has forecast a fall in quarterly total advertising revenue in the mid teens due to a slowdown in international and domestic advertising bookings.
And in Europe, broadcasters such as Germany’s RTL (RRTL.DE) and Britain’s ITV (ITV.L) have been hit by the departure of big advertisers such as cruise companies and airlines.
The postponement of the James Bond movie and the Euro 2020 championship will hit sponsorship, pure advertising and the dated 2020 merchandise that had already been made.
Around the world, outdoor advertising is being particularly hit as consumers stay at home. As luxury fashion sales plunge the companies are still paying for billboards in airports that are largely empty. Some glossy magazines could also fail.
William Eccleshare, the Worldwide head of one of the biggest outdoor groups, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, said some advertisers had pulled out of the medium in countries that were shut down while others delayed bookings.
He told Reuters they would negotiate cancellations with both the landlords they rent the space from, and the advertisers who pay to use it. ‘We show flexibility where appropriate but it’s judged on a case by case basis,’ he said.
The pain will also be felt early in the digital market dominated by Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google and Facebook (FB.O) where spending is more easily adjustable.
‘What’s the first thing that you will turn down? It’s variable marketing spend,’ Johannes Reck, co-founder and CEO of Softbank-backed Berlin travel startup GetYourGuide, told Reuters…”
— Kate Holton, Reuters
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by TRC_Admin | Mar 7, 2020 | Advertising Industry, City Signs, Codes, Controversial, Legal
Photo: Villages-News.com
“Two elected officials in The Villages have raised objections to residents one day soon purchasing the golf cart bridges that will act as billboards advertising Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
The golf cart bridges being erected across State Road 44 and the Florida Turnpike will provided a crucial artery for golf cart transportation to and from the Village of Fenney, the massive yet-to-be-constructed Villages of Southern Oaks and other areas in the southern end of The Villages…
‘I don’t know what it’s costing to build those bridges, but it’s got to be millions,’ said CDD 8 Supervisor Larry McMurry. ‘We are going to get to buy it, and we are going to get to maintain it.’
He said it’s not too soon to begin forecasting what the cost of maintenance of the bridges will be, if for nothing more than ‘transparency’ for the residents who will soon be footing the bill…
CDD 8 Supervisor Sal Torname had a slightly different take on the golf cart bridges that remain under construction in the southern end of The Villages. He said the bridges are giant advertising billboards for The Villages.
‘Why doesn’t the Developer offset the cost for us with advertising expense? We are promoting The Villages,’ Torname said. ‘We are providing the structure that supports the advertisement for The Villages, and they are selling housing.’
A district official said PWAC will take over maintenance of the bridges ‘six months after they are operational.'”
— Meta Minton, Villages-News.com
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by TRC_Admin | Mar 7, 2020 | Advertising Industry, Floating
Photo: Splashboard Media as seen in FHN
“A billboard mounted on the back of a boat makes frequent appearances along local coastlines and at Crab Island in the summer.
But Splashboard Media’s 110-foot boat, complete with large, lighted billboard, was put to use last week to keep boaters away from a live-fire military exercise in the Gulf of Mexico.
The blue boat and its sign were visible to motorists crossing the Marler Bridge in Destin on Thursday. It was anchored near the base of the west jetty.
‘This is our third year of working with the Air Force or the Air Force contractors providing mission support,’ said Chris Kopecky, one of the company’s owners…
Their business does everything from notifying boaters of closures to sharing flag conditions with beachgoers and showing movies at Crab Island.
The sign is 20 by 30 feet and is mounted on the large blue boat operated by a Coast Guard-certified 100-ton captain.”
— Wendy Victora, NWFdailynews.com
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 7, 2019 | Advertising Industry, Billboards, Interactive Advertising, Technology
Photo: Consumer Reports
“How the most intrusive parts of the web are expanding into the real world, complete with data collection and targeted ads.
On a bright Friday morning, Frank O’Brien is giving me a tour through Times Square in New York City. Thousands of strangers are milling around us on the sidewalk, and in the crowd, it’s easy to feel anonymous. But according to O’Brien, many of the billboards and screens towering over our heads in every direction know a lot about who we are.
‘As we stand here, there are devices behind that screen that are picking ID numbers from our cell phones,’ O’Brien tells me, gesturing toward a billboard at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue. Using those devices and other technology, he says, ‘We know who is in Times Square at a given moment.’
O’Brien, the CEO of a high-tech advertising platform called Five Tier, launches an app on his phone. He taps a few buttons and in an instant, the billboard changes to display a picture of me I’d sent him the day before. Suddenly, I’m famous, with a 20-foot-high photo of me gazing out over the tourists. ‘It still amazes me sometimes,’ he says…
Data including your gender, age, race, income, interests, and purchasing habits can be used by a company such as Five Tier to trigger an advertisement right away. Or, more often, it will be used for planning where and when to show ads in the future—maybe parents of school-age children tend to pass a particular screen at 3 p.m. on weekdays, while 20-something singles usually congregate nearby on Saturday nights.
Then the tracking continues. Once your phone is detected near a screen showing a particular ad, an advertising company may follow up by showing you related ads in your social media feed, and in some cases these ads may be timed to coordinate with the commercials you see on your smart TV at night.
It doesn’t stop there. Advertisers are keenly interested in ‘attribution,’ judging how well a marketing campaign influences consumer behavior. For instance, is it better to target people like you with online ads for fast food right after you see a restaurant’s new TV commercial, or to wait until after you drive by a new billboard the next day? The advertising industry looks for the answers by watching where you go in person, what you do online, and what you buy with your credit card.
Charts: Example shown in Consumer reports
These aren’t futuristic scenarios. They are a recent but growing trend, according to executives in the advertising business. ‘The industry has really started to wake up to this within the last year,’ says Ian Dallimore, the director of digital growth for Lamar Advertising, a leader in out-of-home advertising. ‘If you’re not using data to better plan and buy ads, then you’re probably not doing out-of-home the right way.’
Researchers say that as tracking and ad targeting spill over from the web into the real world, our collective privacy and sense of control are eroding. If you don’t want to see ads at home, you can close your browser or turn off your phone, but you can’t avoid the ads you see in public. And there’s no practical way to completely block the location tracking used to place those ads…
Photo: Consumer Reports
Lawmakers and regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission are paying more attention to data privacy, but it’s not clear how the measures being put in place will affect the way individuals are tracked through their phones, and how the data is used by data brokers and their clients. Several out-of-home advertising companies I spoke with said they already comply with GDPR, Europe’s sweeping privacy regulation that was implemented in 2018. The companies also say they are prepared for the most stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., the California Consumer Privacy Act, which is supported by Consumer Reports and goes into effect in January 2020.
Five Tier’s Frank O’Brien says that, just like every other industry, the out-of-home advertising business should be regulated. But for now, if you’re not comfortable with how out-of-home advertising uses your information, you don’t have much recourse. ‘I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it,’ he says. ”
— Thomas Germain, Consumer Reports
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by TRC_Admin | Jun 30, 2019 | Advertising Industry
Photo: Getty in Forbes
“…’When it comes to contextual relevance, digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising can be particularly effective. The use of geo-location data for attribution studies and mobile surveys have found that DOOH is instrumental in building brand awareness, purchase intent, plus web and store traffic with a contextually relevant and a timely ad message. As a result, DOOH plays an important part in new business pitches and client retention strategies with ad agencies.
Mike Cooper, the global president and CEO of Rapport Worldwide, the out-of-home media planning and buying agency of IPG Mediabrands, says, ‘Not including DOOH in a new business presentation shows a complete lack of understanding of where consumers are today.’ Cooper also cites new technology and the physical inventory of DOOH as instrumental in helping with a client’s messaging by using the space to create and deliver content. As an example, the agency has created small screen events with clients using DOOH screens which then go viral online, attracting millions of views. This allows for marketers to interact directly with consumers.
Out-of-home is the lone traditional ad-supported medium in which revenue has been increasing both in the U.S. and globally. With more ad dollars being allocated to digital media (especially mobile), marketers have become aware of their compatibility with DOOH. Recent industry studies reveal mobile click-through rates and search engine usage increase when consumers are exposed to a DOOH ad. In fact, many prominent tech companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google are using DOOH as an integral part of their marketing strategy. Furthermore, Netflix recently spent a reported $150 million on a string of 32 high-profile DOOH billboards on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
Why is ad revenue for DOOH growing? Rick Ducey, the Manager Director of BIA, says ‘It’s a laundry list: the high quality of display technology, more standardized ad units, automated workflow, programmatic trading, measurability, cost efficiencies and viewability have been strong growth drivers. DOOH can draw the attention of a captive audience with video messaging in taxicabs, elevators, etc. DOOH ads are also being delivered with point-of-sales ads at interactive kiosks. The one key is advertisers know exactly where the ad impressions will be seen.’
Ducey continues, ‘In the past, I think OOH and DOOH maybe have been seen to be top of the funnel channels, but their role in the media mix has become far more impactful at lower funnel levels. DOOH has a lot of cross-platform capability and this flexibility serves advertisers well.’ In the U.S., BIA forecasts video OOH’s compound annual growth rate to be a strong 4.8%, and non-video DOOH growing at healthy rate of 4.5%.
..Nowadays, the average worker spends over 26 minutes commuting to work each way (or roughly nine days each year), up from 22 minutes in 1990. The trip is longer in urban areas such as New York and Washington. This provides workers ample time and opportunity for digital signage exposure. Additionally, for advertisers, DOOH offers a brand-safe environment with 100% viewabilty, the ads are not skippable, and there isn’t any fraud’…”
— Brad Adgate, Forbes
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