Outdoor - The power of the poster

Although the rollout of digital screens has been gathering momentum, the days of static posters are far from over.

"Digital is an absolute fraction of the total revenue and panel numbers," says Nigel Clarkson, national sales director at outdoor advertising company Primesight. "At the moment, 97-98% of outdoor advertising is still traditional paper and paste."

Digital's slice of the outdoor pie may grow over the next decade, but traditional out-of-home media is still expected to maintain its massive lead in the market. According to Alan James, chief executive of the Outdoor Advertising Association, digital will constitute 12% of outdoor and generate £190m in revenue by 2016. "Although this shows a huge growth rate, it is still the minority by a long way," says James. "Non-digital formats will still be very much alive and kicking."

Thanks to a track record of delivering success at a reasonable price, traditional posters could remain the advertisers' medium of choice long beyond 2016.

"It is a fast, effective and low-cost way to build brands," says Spencer Berwin, managing director of sales at outdoor giant JCDecaux. "Paper works well in any environment and there is nothing to go wrong with it. That is as true today as it was 10 years ago and it will be 10 years in the future."

Currently media owners such as BSkyB and the BBC are most likely to exploit traditional posters, with entertainment campaigns accounting for 20% of all outdoor revenue. Telecoms companies are not far behind at 14%, followed by finance, travel, transport, retail and government campaigns. But, says CBS Outdoor's national sales director Peter Charlton, no one overlooks paper. "As one of the last - if not the last - mass media, you will see examples of all categories using the medium."

Roadside panels

Regardless of the category, the vast majority of outdoor advertising campaigns will include roadside panels. With around 124,000 panels dotted around Britain's streets, roadside advertising accounts for 52.2% of all outdoor revenue. And this figure is unlikely to change, even in an increasingly digital age.

"Traditionally, people use roadside panels for cover building and then pick and choose for the sharp end of the campaign," says Primesight's Clarkson. "Roadside posters will never be replaced by digital screens. The capital cost is just too high."

Paper and paste works equally well on the road as it does by the road. CBS Outdoor recently proved this with a large-format poster on buses travelling up London's main shopping street. Abercrombie and Fitch launched its new flagship store in Savile Row last month with a massive campaign on London buses, alongside one poster on Clear Channel's premium M4 Chiswick Tower site. CBS Outdoor's Charlton says: "A T-side three times the size of a six-sheet with a strong still visual and a simple message going up and down Oxford Street definitely captivates a consumer's attention. The store has literally been swamped ever since."

Perhaps the biggest indication of paper and paste's popularity is the number of advertisers regularly using the medium. "Ten years ago, less than half of the top 100 spenders used outdoor," says Clarkson. "Last year 98% used some element of it."

Clearly the same cannot be said of digital.

"Let's be real," says Natasha Murray, head of media at agency MPG. "Digital is still relatively London-centric; there is not enough understanding about consumers' consumption of it yet and clients and creative agencies aren't quite sure how to use it to its full potential."

Traditional posters, it seems, are here for the long haul. As Clarkson says: "The real question is not whether traditional posters can survive digital, but whether digital can survive traditional posters."

DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADITIONAL POSTER ADVERTISING

Super-sizing is not the sole preserve of the fast food industry. Thanks to Primesight, JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Viacom and Titan's combined £170m investment in the outdoor infrastructure since 2001, advertisers now have the option to make the ultimate brand-building statement.

Last year, JCDecaux introduced a super-sized 48-sheet format providing 450sqft of back-illuminated display. EyeCorp, meanwhile, unveiled the huge T3 banner, a 200sqm front-lit display, at Manchester Airport last month.

Size also matters for JCDecaux's tower on London's A3. Launched this month, the 23.5m high structure offers 54sqm of advertising space on each of its two back-illuminated faces. The A3 tower joins the outdoor giant's two existing superstructures on the M4 motorway - the Torch, which houses two immense 6.75m x 4.5m advertising panels, and a tower consisting of two 50sqm backlit panels.