PrintingNews.com

PN: How are things like cell phone marketing going to impact print advertisements?

AR: (It will) never happen. Cell phone advertisements are annoying. Most of us feel the same way. Direct mail, brochures, and PO are still far more fruitful in attracting sales for retail and service venues.

PN: What does the actual process of designing and printing a billboard involve?

AR: As I mentioned, design for vehicle wraps are difficult, propriety to the type of vehicle or shape requested. Billboard design is relatively simple. There are many template design formats programs available. Years ago, we scaled everything down into inches to fool or trick the design programs which only allowed limited sizes to be designed, and then we would output the job as double or quadruple the size as necessary to fit the application and tile the art manually.

PN: How would you decide where out of home media is placed (demographics, target audience, etc.) and what steps do you take to ensure it is going to be effective?

AR: As any well thought out plan, a lot of research is necessary; you don’t market surf boards in Alaska, nor do you sell snowshoes in Florida. There are many research firms that specialize in demographics and market analysis.

PN: Describe the overall quality standards of wide-format media versus regular print runs for brochures. What are the differences?

AR: Digital printing is a different animal than offset. The theory is similar but the process is vastly different. Many output devices don’t generate dot patterns like offset does, so color balance and color profiling is very important to achieve proper saturation and hue. Salespeople need to be educated so they can educate their clients as to the limitations of digital printing, for example digital cannot exactly match a PMS (Pantone) color as an offset press can do by printing a fifth color in the ink fountain. Many sales people don’t take the time to inform their clients of the differences, which usually comes as a surprise once an offset job is placed next to a digital job.

My suggestions:

• Calibrate your digital devices,
• G7 is the way to go if you wonder where to start,
• Generate color patches
• Employ an expert to correct the grey balance and gamut,
• Educate your sales force.

PQ Media’s U.S. Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast, 2008-2012

The Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) industry is facing its first economic slowdown, and the overall ad environment is expected to remain weak in 2009, particularly in the absence of Olympics and political advertising, which softened the blow in 2008.

However, while the economy struggles in 2008 and 2009 and traditional ad media post declines, DOOH is expected to continue to produce gains, although at a slower pace. Advertisers will continue to boost spending in DOOH as consumers spend more time outside the home and reduce traditional media usage.

Audience fragmentation has made it more difficult for advertisers to reach consumers through traditional media, so they will take advantage of DOOH’s ability to engage consumers in captive locations. Improvements in audience measurement systems and technological advances will also drive growth. DOOH vendors that provide advertisers with critical mass, as well as engagement and ROI metrics, will survive the industry shakeout and position themselves for growth.

The impact of the oil and credit crisis on consumer behavior has presented opportunities and challenges for the DOOH industry.

Consumers are driving and flying less, leading to fewer at-road and airport display impressions. But the rise in mass transit usage has increased the audience for displays in bus, train, and subway terminal stations. For example, Amtrak reported a double-digit increase in ridership in 2008, and many cities and states are reporting the onslaught of users has strained their mass transit systems.

Meanwhile, the consolidation that began in 2007 continued in 2008 as the industry moved into a shakeout phase. A number of deals went down in the second half of 2008 alone, including Zoom Media’s acquisition of ClubCom, TouchTunes’ purchase of Barfly and Fuelcast’s merger with Bhootan. Weak economic conditions and the advertising slump also caused financial turmoil at a number of DOOH vendors, prompting them to go on the block or shut down completely.

Interactive retail display system Reactrix went into receivership in late 2008, seeking buyers due to a lack of funds—a casualty of the credit crunch. In addition, major media companies are driving the mergers and acquisitions market as they seek entry into DOOH by purchasing existing vendors. These media conglomerates are looking to leverage their content across multiple platforms. Smaller DOOH companies, meanwhile, are aligning with DOOH ad networks to gain access to brand managers and ad agencies.

Consolidation, alliances, and ad networks have allowed DOOH vendors to offer advertisers a national reach through multiple venues. These strategies are likely to strengthen DOOH media when the overall advertising industry rebounds and elevate its position in the media mix.

Source: PQ Media, Global Digital Out-of-Home Forecast, 2008-2012: Advertising Spending, Trends & Analysis