Media Life Magazine is a daily online newspaper for media planners and buyers, published in the USA since 1999. In June of this year, Media Life began publishing a very interesting series of articles titled "Change has come: the new face of outdoor advertising." The goal of this series is to describe the changes that have occurred in the outdoor advertising industry in recent years and help media planners better understand the new possibilities offered by this advertising medium. The authors of the articles decided to examine the impact of digital technology development on OOH advertising, investigate the influence of social media on this form of advertising, explore advances in outdoor advertising research and measurement methods, delve into advertising spending analysis to forecast their development for the coming years, see what's trendy and what's not in OOH, and tell about changes that are possible in the near future.

The golden years of outdoor advertising in the USA were the 1950s. There were no highways then, so long-distance travel took roads through cities, towns, villages, separated by stretches of fields.
The only entertainment during such a journey - besides listening to the radio - was looking at advertising billboards, massively installed along the roads. Then wide highways appeared, driving speed increased, and much changed.

Currently, a new era of outdoor advertising has begun.
This medium looks very optimistically to the future. OOH is one of three media showing steady growth in the American market (alongside cable TV and internet advertising) and one of four whose consumption time is increasing (alongside cable TV advertising, mobile advertising
and video game advertising).

Where to look for the source of these good results?
In the changes that have occurred in the OOH industry.

Just a few years ago, outdoor advertising was mainly billboards. Today billboards generate only 35% of OOH spending (in 2002 this share was 45%). Their number has dropped to about 160,000 across the entire United States. Today OOH advertising includes not only billboards, but also digital screens, cinema advertising, ambient media. The spectrum of technologies used in outdoor advertising has expanded. Print and magazines didn't experience anything like this, this medium remained tied to printing technology and when the internet appeared, the industry fell
into gigantic trouble.
Another thing is the fact that outdoor advertising didn't lose, but on the contrary, greatly benefited from the development of technologies associated with such innovations as online advertising, mobile advertising, social media.

Take social media, for example - an interesting advertising campaign taking place on the street is photographed, filmed with smartphones by passersby and then appears online
and generates a new, large audience there. Another thing is the lack of regulations in the field of outdoor advertising that limit free market operations in the way they do, for example, on radio or television. OOH advertising is where people are, it's closest to the point of sale.

Unlike television advertising, for example, outdoor advertising is a medium that can be targeted. It's not as mass a medium as TV.
OOH advertising can be directed to a precise target group. It's also a medium that hasn't undergone such extensive fragmentation.
OOH advertising works more than other media through its visual aspect. To be effective, it must attract attention and stir the imagination.
And finally - you can turn off the TV, get up from your desk and walk away from the computer, turn off the radio, close the magazine, but sooner or later you'll leave the house, and there outside, outdoor advertising is waiting...

Outdoor advertising has a bright future not only in the USA.
We have no doubt about it.
That's why we invite you, check out blOOH - we'll acquaint you with information that will appear in subsequent episodes of the series "Change has come: the new face of outdoor advertising," published by Media Life.