MOVE has launched its annual update and for the fifth year running, since the launch of the out-of-home (OOH) audience measurement system, MOVE (Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure), OOH audiences have grown.

Audiences in 2015 have grown by 3.4 per cent across all mainland capital cities. Audiences have also grown across the suite of OOH formats.

The 2015 MOVE update sees 300,000 more people, on average, in OOH environments each day. OOH can now reach 12.2 million people daily who are making 51 million trips across the five markets, an increased exposure for the vast majority of the 73,800 advertising faces measured by MOVE.

“We find ourselves in an enviable position, as fragmentation of other traditional media channels solidifies our position, because the undeniable fact is that our audiences keep growing. Growing audiences with the added values of immediacy and flexibility that digital growth offers us gives advertisers the opportunity for deeper audience engagement and the ability to reach 9 out of 10 people who leave home every day,” said Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the OMA and MOVE.

The 2015 annual MOVE update reflects new data in the system including: updated Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2013) population and employment levels across 17,800 separate travel zones; changes to transport infrastructure; changes to public transport routes; new signs and; updates to trip attractors in each travel zone including shopping centres and school enrolments.

Also included in this update is a new format, the measurement of Train Externals (advertising on the outside of trains).

Outdoor audiences have grown across the five mainland capital cities. Perth leads with an increase of 6.4 per cent year-on-year, followed by Melbourne (+5.1 per cent), Adelaide (+5.0 per cent), Brisbane (+2.8 per cent) and Sydney (+1.6 per cent).

Moldrich added: “It is the nature of the channel that our OOH signs are strategically placed in the most populated areas and along the busiest transport and public transit corridors.”

It is no coincidence that the industry is growing at such a rate as audiences grow. The third quarter 2015 saw the industry revenues grow by 16.8 per cent year to date building on the unprecedented annual growth of 10 per cent in 2014.

According to CEASA (The Commercial Economic Advisory Services of Australia), OOH accounted for 5.2 per cent of the $11.6 billion advertising spend in Australia in 2014 (excluding classifieds and directories), up from 4.8 per cent in 2013.