Olympics will boost outdoor advertising

Mike Baker the new CEO of the Outdoor Advertising Association expects the sector to gain at least 1% market share because of advertising surrounding the London Olympics.

He says: “Visitors to the UK won’t be watching TV, reading UK newspapers or listening to radio but outdoor will be visible throughout the Games and in the run up.”

Earlier this month, LOCOG appointed CBS Outdoor to handle the traditional and digital outdoor media account for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Baker also believes the outdoor advertising industry will escape the worst effects of government spending cuts because “structurally the industry is in a good place. Only six of the Top 100 advertisers don’t use outdoor media.”

He says that while the outdoor sector will inevitably be hurt by cuts to COI advertising budgets, it will not be as severely affected as other media.

According to Nielsen figures the COI accounts for just 2.7% (£10m) of the outdoor industry’s total revenue (£365m) from the Top 100 advertisers.

The COI accounts for 25.8% (£56m) of the total radio spend of £215m so a cut in COI spending will have a more marked effect on Radio than it will on outdoor.

Because any fall in advertising from the COI will affect other media sectors more harshly, Baker suggests it might be a good opportunity for outdoor to grow share.

For an in-depth look at how the COI spending cuts might affect the radio industry read Marketing Week’s analysis here.