Outdoor Advertising Is Much More Than Billboards These Days.

Outdoor advertising is no longer just billboards. It’s called "out-of-home" advertising, which tells us more about where the industry is not than where it is. Why not "outdoor advertising?" You’ll see in a minute.

The industry association is still called the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). The Out-of-Home Advertising Association of America (OOHAAA or OHAAA) just wouldn’t have a very good ring to it.

OAAA divides the out-of-home business into four categories:

1. Billboards
2. Street furniture. (Who coins these names?)
3. Transit
4. Alternative

Billboards Include 8-sheet and 30-sheet Posters

The billboard segment includes 8-sheet and 30-sheet posters in several types (paper, wrapped and wrapped square), bulletins, digital outdoor media, wall murals and what the industry calls "spectacular" boards. Spectaculars are huge, expensive boards made to order for special clients and special locations.

"Street furniture" includes advertising on bicycle racks, bus benches and shelters, kiosks, newsstands, sun shelters and beach panels.

"Street furniture" also confusingly includes in-store displays, convenience store displays, news racks, pedestrian panels and shopping mall displays. That indoor stuff explains why they’re drifting away from the name "outdoor advertising."

Transit Includes Airport and Cab Ads

"Transit" is what it sounds like it would be: airport terminal displays, exterior bus posters, interior bus cards and truckside advertising, as well as ads in subways, rapid transit systems and taxicabs.

The "alternative" category includes just about everything else you can stick an ad on, including airborne displays, blimps, golf carts and marine vessels, all of which might also fit under transit. Alternative also includes cartons, cups, confection packages, inflatables, dry cleaning bags, gaz nozzles, golf tee dividers, parking garages, parking meters, postcards, ski areas, stadium and arenas, trash receptacles, vending cart umbrellas and turnstiles.

Just in case you thought you could get away from it all for a while, it also includes highway rest areas.

Reference: Outdoor Advertising Association of America,org

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