Outdoor up 25% in Q3, 2012, with boost from London 2012
Biggest quarter in UK outdoor history
5th consecutive quarter of growth
Digital up 70% year on year
The Outdoor Media Centre today announces that outdoor revenues grew 25.4% year on year in Quarter 3 to £268.9m (£214.4m in 2011). This makes Q3, 2012 the largest quarter in UK history, beating the previous high of Q4, 2006 by some £12m.
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were the biggest contributor to that growth, with London-based media owners benefitting in particular. All major environments (transport, roadside, retail and leisure) were significantly up year on year.
Revenues in the digital sector grew 69.9% to £52m as advertisers found new ways to use digital advertising, and media owners continued to invest, transforming sites in the best locations to digital. Digital made up 19% of the total revenue this quarter, another record.
All the Olympic sponsors enjoyed a strong presence at the Games. McDonalds, Visa, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Panasonic, UPS, EDF Energy, Heineken, BP, BT, BA, Cadbury, Adidas, Lloyds, Procter & Gamble, BMW, GE, Atos, Deloitte, Dow, Glaxosmithkline and Holiday Inn all went with powerful outdoor creative executions during the Games, as did Nike and other sports-related clients. Research from YouGov showed that the advertising during the Games was highly visible. 62% of Games visitors remembered seeing outdoor ads, 56% said that outdoor was a good medium for advertisers to link to large events, and 52% agreed that the outdoor advertisements added colour and vibrancy to London. Voxpops undertaken on the street by the Outdoor Media Centre showed a high level of brand recall and recognition.
“It’s been a quite exceptional quarter” says OMC’s chief exec Mike Baker. “Outdoor is the best medium for visual branding and advertisers have embraced that idea in spades. The industry has never seen so many dominations, wraps and spectaculars. Because all advertisers linked their creative to the Games, it made a continuous colourful canvas which really unified London and brought the city to life. The Olympics was the greatest show on earth and outdoor did it proud. Now the hard work begins as we look to sustain the growth.” Around a fifth of London outdoor sites were related to the Games.
Notes to editors:
· The Outdoor Media Centre is a resource centre for all those involved in the inter-media planning process. It provides data, argument, audiovisual support and proof of outdoor’s effectiveness
· The OMC launched in January 2011, with its website at outdoormediacentre.org.uk. Council members are CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel, JCDecaux, and Primesight.
· In April 2012, OMC unveiled its landmark research report The Customer Journey, outlining a key role for outdoor in influencing the customer on their path to purchase across a wide range of categories. Other research initiatives include Public Perception of Posters (YouGov, 2012), the Last Window of Influence (Helen Harrison Associates, 2011), and Sexualised Imagery in Outdoor (Credos, 2011).
· A photographic gallery of London 2012 outdoor advertising is available on the OMC website and an accompanying video will be available shortly.
