Retail Out-of-Home Leads Outdoor Media Resurgence Post COVID-19

With the out-of-home advertising category one of the hardest hit by COVID, the latest Standard Media Index* data reveals that retail out-of-home grew its share in the last quarter of 2020, leading the resurgence of the outdoor media category.

Tech leader Snapchat secured the top spot as the fastest growing media group year-on-year followed by Spotify, LinkedIn and Shopper Media. Shopper Media posted 8.4% growth, bucking the trend for the outdoor category, and securing the title of highest-growth offline media company in real dollar terms for the second consecutive year.

Ben Walker, CEO of Shopper Media, said that after a tough year for out-of-home there are really encouraging signs for a bounce-back for the outdoor media category.

“We saw outdoor hold its third-place position behind free-to-air TV and digital for the month of December. Combined with continually strong results during the last quarter of 2020, this points to a solid resurgence for the media industry into 2021.

Retail outdoor, or as we call it, retail out-of-home, staked its claim as the medium to watch, with its share up 4.5% to 24.6% of national Outdoor ad spend in 2020. This saw retail out-of-home leapfrog street furniture for the first time and continue to narrow the gap on billboards.

Retail out-of-home also secured the highest share of digital-format ad spend of any in the outdoor category, with its proportion of digital vs static inventory growing to 92.8% in CY2020 (+1.1%).”

This strong performance in digital out-of-home is supported by research undertaken by Shopper Media revealing that animated advertising in retail environments is 201% more effective than static advertising, resulting in greater engagement and higher peaks of memory encoding throughout the shopper’s journey**. With some outdoor formats not feasible for digital animation, retail out-of-home provides a powerful channel for many campaigns.

“Overall, the strong SMI results for retail out-of-home can be credited to our ability to offer rich data and insights to clients and shopping centre partners. Digital Smartlite panels offer the flexibility of online channels, however the messages cannot be skipped, turned off or blocked at the point of purchase. Combine this with contextually relevant shopping environments and proximity to purchase and retail out-of-home becomes a very compelling option for media buyers and marketers,” said Mr Walker.

Shopper Media currently boasts a portfolio of circa 400 shopping centres providing essential retail services for local communities across the country.

“We look forward to continued growth across the out-of-home category in 2021 and we remain focused on delivering highly relevant and contextual campaigns to Australian shoppers,” adds Mr Walker.

*SMI – Standard Media Index is the trusted source of advertising pricing and spend data in the marketplace.

**’The Power of Animation in Retail OOH Research Study 2020

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