I believe the reason outdoor advertising spending has increased while other venues have decreased is due to the ongoing poor economy/sluggish recovery. Below I will list specific reasons that factor into this:
High unemployment/underemployment: With people hitting the road in search of work in numbers unseen since the Great Depression, outdoor advertising has a larger than usual impact.
Less discretionary income: Obviously goes with the employment figures to some degree. People are being more cautious with their money.
Increased company conservatism: Companies are obviously aware of the first two issues, and as such want to get the greatest ROI from their advertising dollars.
Increased "getting out of the house" type day-trips: This is 100% theoretical, I have virtually no data to back it up. It is my theory that given the sad state of our country's economy, people may be getting together with friends and family more; or else taking a "Bus-cation" (business vacation). When everything on the TV, Radio, and Internet reflects a stagnant economy, who doesn't want to get away for a while?
I am including three photos of billboards for my blog posting. The first one obviously lacks an ad; however it touched upon something we were instructed to weigh when designing our billboards (background color for all seasons). I was thinking of yellow, and since the sign company agrees with me I assume I am on the right track.
I chose the Hollyrock's billboard because I thought it did a nice job of showcasing a succinct but memorable message. No fancy pictures or designs; the one flaw I see personally is lack of an address or website.
Lastly I chose an institution of higher learning for some contrast for my own work. Pretty standard stuff, if viewed closely the woman does not have the most photogenic appearance in this picture.....
I decided to watch Adult Swim for an hour because I have a strong affinity for adult cartoons. I had hoped to stay up late because I know their commercials get progressively more and more segmented/strange (less likely to be ones used on other channels). Alas, in my old age I only made it through the 9-10pm hour of "American Dad", though there were some unique commercials worth highlighting.
First I should touch upon the programming and types of advertisers. For those who don't know, Adult Swim is Cartoon Network's post 9pm offering to grown-ups who still love to nurture their inner child through watching cartoons (albeit adult-themed cartoons). "American Dad" and "Family Guy" are both shows from FOX that have their own hour on Adult Swim, and I don't feel as though either one really needs an introduction. There is also "Robot Chicken" (claymation sketch comedy is how I would describe it), "Super Jail" (Willy Wonka with anger issues meets prison, after copious amounts of LSD), and "Venture Bros" (Scooby-Doo type animation, fun story line about a semi-successful scientist, his sons and bodyguard, and their many super villian type adversaries); among others.
This type of programming obviously lends itself to a nice segmentation of the market for advertisers. There are the usual fast food commercials, car commercials, and the like. However, it does invite edgier products/methods (such as condoms, in the example I am about to include below this paragraph). There was also a trailer of the movie "Taken 2" that featured more violence than on more mainstream channels, as well as a trailer of the same movie that was a simply awesome paper cartoon that I cannot find video of anywhere I (if I find it by Monday I will insert it).
Also, Adult Swim features some of the most original and weird self-promtions I've seen anywhere. I feel they hit their audience perfectly with the vast majority of these, and will include an example or two below before I begin to break down the advertisements more specifically.
Creativity: In terms of creativity, there are almost unlimited possiblities given the market advertisers reach via Adult Swim. For example, the paper cartoon trailer of Taken 2 cannot be undersold, and I am bummed I cannot find it (someone was looking for it on Yahoo questions, so I may revisit that post to see if it gets answered). It is a very liberal audience (obviously), which allows for unique methods not possible on many other networks.
Length: Often the Adult Swim bumps are fairly succinct, but at the same time extremely memorable. Commercials in general appear to be shorter on Adult Swim, perhaps making a statement about the viewers attention span (ha ha), more likely the freedom of the network placement allows them to get their point across quicker.
Format: It is not unusual to see animated commercials, which I would think cut down production costs to a great degree. Also at times they have advertising that doesn't have any spoken words, or at times just a photo rather than video. All in all I think the wide array of formats allows companies to save a great deal of cash.
Objectives: Advertisers using Adult Swim must have a product they consider marketable to a relatively small segment. Given the potential trend setting options available coupled with the loyal market (still watching cartoons!), provided they are creative and thoughtful they can sell a lot of products utilizing this venue.
