If we look at the future of Outdoor from the point of view of the consumer, we have three reasons to be cheerful - these reasons are that Outdoor is 'timely', 'efficient' and 'really there'.
In order to reach this conclusion, we need to consider the broader consumer context within which we're operating and to draw out the implications for outdoor advertising.
The main point to make is that we're living through a period of tremendous upheaval. Change is impacting on all spheres of life. Traditional certainties can no longer be taken for granted. Demographic and social trends, new technology - all these factors are conspiring to upset our view of the world.
So what does all of this mean for advertisers? Well firstly, the consumer is not who we think they are...we have to remember that social change is outpacing our own cultural norms. Our perceptions lack reality.
Outdoor is timely
Rather than thinking of consumers in terms of demographics - age, social grade, gender and so on - it is more useful to think in terms of 'modes': working at the moment, in a spending mode, in a relaxing-with-friends mode, active versus inactive mode and so on. Instead of sequential life stages we should also think of life modes - single, in a relationship, single again, with children, without children and so on.
Remember my three reasons to be cheerful - Outdoor is an ideal 'modally-targeted' medium. Each site could be described in terms of the 'moments when we might' be in a certain mode or frame of mind. For example, using Outdoor you can catch people on their way to and from work (the basis behind Titan's Office Net and Home Net packages), going out with their friends, going on holiday, shopping with the kids and so on.
Outdoor is efficient
Time squeeze. It's a cliché in today's society - but it doesn't make it any less real. Consumers don't have enough time to do everything that they want and need to do.
Relentless time pressure means that those that can afford it are prepared to use time as a new currency... Time is money. The words we use to talk about time are the same terms that we use to describe money - we spend time, save time and invest time and of course we waste time.
People are looking for opportunities to use time more efficiently - we call these 'time deepening' activities. For example, if you go dancing tonight then you're basically multi-tasking - dancing gives you the quadruple benefits of a social night out, exercise, beer and music!
At the end of the day, value for time is becoming as important if not more important than value for money.
And Outdoor is a good value medium on both counts - it has no additional cost to the consumer and it uses dead time that you couldn't fill in any other way. In this respect, Outdoor is an ideal medium for the modern consumer. Radio is also interesting as it's also low cost and is often used to fill dead time in the car or on journeys. Perhaps it's no surprise that over the past few years Outdoor and Radio have been the two fastest growing categories of ad expenditure. In contrast, multi channel TV is expensive in terms of time and money and the Internet isn't far behind.
Incidentally, the reason mobile phones/WAP have been included on this chart is that they are increasingly offering new channels to communicate directly with the consumer. The mobile operators are already providing information services such as news, weather and access to the Internet from mobile devices.
Outdoor is a 'real' medium
Increasingly the world is going virtual - services are by nature intangible. The internet and other on-line media are remote, unreal and can be scary for some consumers. The beauty of Outdoor is that it is firmly in the real world. As a medium, Outdoor can give virtual brands a presence on the street - a public face. Outdoor can be used as a means of building familiarity and trust.
And a final thought to leave you with, that seals the fate of outdoor as a medium that is well placed for this millennium:
It seems that with the Internet we've gone full circle - the vocabulary we use to describe the Internet is borrowed from Outdoor - we talk of sites, traffic, flows. Banner ads are simply the posters in cyberspace. The fact that Outdoor is the currency for such a new medium suggests there are opportunities to exploit synergies between new and old. Perhaps that's the real challenge for today’s planners.