Out of home overload

Times Square was however the exception, except of course, for Las Vegas, when it came to cluttered outdoor environments. Touring many places, big and small, it became clear that American outdoor operators believe in less is more and size really does matter. Highways and byways have fewer billboards, making hoarding stand out more impactfully.

Groaning under the weight

Back home, South Africa is groaning under the weight of what can only be described as outdoor overload. The communication on major roads and highways is overwhelming. Not only traditional billboards, company signage, even inflatable dancing men.

What's more, the flood shows no sign of letting up. Has anyone tried to buy a really good billboard in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town? It's proving virtually impossible. Media owners appear to be on a massive acquisition drive to grow their real estate portfolios, resulting in more and more clutter. The outcome? Clients will continue to pay more for sites and garner less impact.

The creative on the outdoor scene also seems to be moribund. It is glaringly obvious brands take a print ad, stick it on billboards and hope for the best. The old creative adage of ‘maximum one image and five words' has gotten lost along the way.

Breaking away from this untidy roadside hodgepodge, building wraps have enjoyed a boom. Done well, wraps deliver stunning stand-out impact. The recent Johnnie Walker wraps in Johannesburg spring to mind. However, once again, wraps are rapidly becoming overtraded. It's not strange to see what looks to be a couple of kilometres of wrap almost on top of one another.

Clutter vying for space

A few years ago, Citilites entered an uncluttered environment. Salvation! Impact at a reasonable price, everyone said. Since then they themselves have created clutter vying for space. These sites are now a dime a dozen and the poorer sites are being sold as package deals.

So what's the Utopian ideal for the Out of Home industry?

• Advertisers pay more for billboards. (Gasp!). Pay more, yes, but for better quality, and excusive postions. Instead of twenty sites on top of each other, each priced at R10 000, have only five for R40 000.

• Government and municipalities legislating and policing the industry, drawing clear lines as to what is legal and what is not. There may be some unhappy clients out there for a year or two, but hopefully it will lawfully remove some of the clutter.

• Creatively, advertisers pay individual attention to each site, putting a message on the hoarding that suits. Simple, succinct, and entertaining No more visual fruit salad.

• The industry is revolutionised and modernised. Billboards with rotating faces should be sold on the model used by TV and radio. Client One exposed during morning drive, Client Two through off peak. A structured rate package allowing time-specific use of the board. Want to be there during drive time? Pay more!

• Sell billboards on shorter-terms and make rotation more regular. Research shows people's driving habits and routes don't change drastically on a day-to-day basis. After three weeks, 90% of consumers find that a once-striking message is wallpaper.

• The GPS-based AC Nielsen Outdoor research tool is successfully launched - then we can see which billboards perform well and can start profiling sites.

What will probably happen…

• The outdoor industry continues to grow bigger and bigger. Picture it. Table Mountain branded Coca-Cola Red by 2010. The N1 highway painted McDonalds yellow and the playing surface at Ellis Park coated in Outsurance green. Farfetched? Maybe. Maybe not.

• Media owners will be licking their lips at the thought of hundreds of thousands of tourists in 2010. Airport space will become even more expensive and cluttered. Small towns like Polokwane and Rustenburg will be covered from top to toe in branding platforms no one will be able to sell once the tourists are gone.

• Government will continue to drag its heels in legislating the industry. Billboards will mushroom tarnishing environments better left alone.

• The Citilite concept being expanded to the nth degree in suburbia. Short of cash, Granny van der Merwe next door offers her front garden wall to be branded by the local grocer. SOLD!

The Out of Home (OOH) Industry in SA has not changed drastically in the past 50 years. Proliferated, yes! Changed? Not much. Let's hope things get better leading up to 2010.