Outdoor industry closes the year up 1%
Quarter 4 is second biggest quarter ever
Digital sector up 28%, continues to grow
Jan 30, 2012. The Outdoor Media Centre today announces that UK outdoor revenues for the period October-December 2011 reached £256.4m, up 1.4% year on year. Revenue for the full year 2011 was £886.3m, with the outdoor industry finishing the year off with 1% growth on 2010.
Mike Baker, CEO of the Outdoor Media Centre said:
“Despite the economic gloom, we have ended the year with some momentum, and seven out of the last eight quarters have shown growth, this past quarter is very close to being the biggest outdoor quarter ever.”
According to Nielsen, the top 10 advertisers in the quarter were Sky, Vodafone, Warner Bros, Tesco, Coca Cola, Universal Pictures, Everything Everywhere, Vauxhall, Paramount Pictures and E1 Entertainment. Categories which spent more this quarter compared to Q4, 2010, included drink, entertainment, telecoms, motors, retail, finance, clothing and cosmetics.
Looking at the major environments, transport (+2% overall for the quarter) and retail/leisure (up 13% overall for the quarter) were the strongest. In roadside, 6 sheets were the strongest format, up 1% October to December. As a percentage of total revenue, roadside accounted for 47%, transport for 39% and retail&leisure for 14%.
Digital revenues were up 28% to £39.3m for the quarter, a new record. A significant number of new digital sites came on stream during the final quarter of the year, reflecting sustained investment in digital and the ongoing conversion of traditional sites to digital in rail, airport, roadside and retail environments. In the year 2011, digital made up 14.1% of all outdoor revenue (11.4% in 2010), and twenty OMC members now offer digital screens as part of their portfolio. Across the environments, 44% of revenue came from transport, 30% from roadside, and 26% from retail&leisure.
The growth of the medium underlines the importance of outdoor delivering a strong visual contextual branding element to advertisers whose campaigns are arguably less visible with the transfer of press campaigns to online.
