The business he is cutting adrift is more exciting than it sounds. Outdoor (or what adepts call “out of home”) advertising “is one of the few traditional media channels forecast to grow over the next few years,” says Anastasia Kourovskaia of Millward Brown Optimor, a consultancy. America’s $6.5 billion market grew by more than 4% last year and is expected to top that rate in 2013. Global spending is rising faster. People may fast-forward through television ads and dispense with newspapers, but they still drive and take the train, where outdoor messengers can get to them.
Much of the growth comes from a switch away from paper and neon to digital billboards and posters, which makes signage almost sexy. Screens are being fitted with cameras to determine the age and sex of people drawn to them and tailor messages accordingly. With WiFi they can zing ads to the mobile phones of passersby. Soon shoppers may buy things by touching phones to digital displays.
In Britain about 20% of outdoor ad revenue comes from digital screens. America is behind: only 1% of roadside signs are digital.
Read more at The Economist
