There’s been plenty of news on the out-of-home sector on B&T of late; however, CEO of oOh!media, Brendon Cook, says a study of the $4 billion worth of Australian ad campaigns shows out-of-home delivers ROI.

Research of more 140 econometric studies of $4 billion worth of Australian ad campaigns, 90% of them including out-of-home components, provides ample proof of the added value that out-of-home (OOH) delivers for advertisers.

The 140 econometric studies was the largest pool of Market Mix models used in a research evaluation of advertising campaigns.

While all other media, from newspapers, TV and radio to the proliferation of online sites, either shrinks or fragments the market, OOH audiences continue to grow as both the population increases and the mobility of people’s lifestyles matures and becomes more varied.

Couple that with the rapid introduction of digital technology to the OOH sector, which allows the flexibility and frequency of multiple campaigns to be run on screens with a mix of news and information, as well as the interactivity with portable devices such as smart phones and tablets.

It therefore comes as no surprise that I was interested to read Kellogg’s John Broome’s recent views on OOH and ROI in B&T in which he said the company would not include OOH in their media mix as, in his judgment, it had not delivered the ROI they were expecting.

Whilst I am not familiar with the results nor the methodology of the actual econometric study that John is referring to, I am very familiar with an independent econometric research project that we were part of.

This detailed study delivered proof that OOH advertising is, in fact, one of the most powerful advertising channels to drive sales and delivering high comparative ROI compared with other media.

The research, by world experts in strategic research consultancy, The Leading Edge, is grounded by solid data drawn from in excess of 140 econometric studies of Australian campaigns totaling in excess of $4 billion and with 90% of them including Out-of-home as part of their advertising mix.

As part of this process we spoke with a number of research companies who offer Australian clients market Mix Models and we believe The Leading Edge has the best methodology as they use consistent inputs across all channels to ensure a like for like comparison when looking at TV vs Digital vs OOH.

The Leading Edge’s paper – “Out of Home Effectiveness” – shows that if you take TV ROI as the baseline, our retail ShopaLite panels delivered 99% , experiential offering 26% and big billboards returned a 6 per cent greater ROI.

The Leading Edge’s paper – “Out of Home Effectiveness” – showed that TV, Digital and OOH are the top 3 most powerful mediums when it comes to generating sales and delivering return on investment for advertisers. The report also shows that of the OOH formats, retail (+99%), experiential (+26%) and big billboard (+6%) formats deliver greater results than television advertising.

In other words, we know that OOH as a medium works and it works well! We expect that the ROI from OOH as an industry will only increase as this sector is one of the few, if not the only, medium that is increasing its audience.

Furthermore, we are not being disrupted by technology like many other mediums – including TV – and are in fact seeing technology as not a disruptor but as an enabler.

It is important also to remember that over the last 12 months the OOH industry has experienced double digit growth in a flat market which is a great indication that OOH works very well for many other Australian clients.