It's been a tough couple of weeks lying on the sofa admiring elite athletes doing their stuff. But it hasn't all been loafing about, oh no. Yesterday I leapt up to wave at the gold-nosed 747 as it passed by on its final approach to Heathrow, and in the interludes when I haven't been glued to a TV or radio the Olympics has provided some valuable food for thought on the future of outdoor advertising.
My home isn't far from the elevated section of the M4 where it leaves London (a flightpath and a motorway, how nice, I hear you cry), and the so-called "golden mile" of the Great West Road. This high traffic area has become a hot spot for landmark outdoor sites, including JCDecaux's Torch, an attention-grabbing iconic display almost 30 metres high, featuring two huge 6.75 metre x 4.5 metre digital display panels.
Appropriately enough given that its shape is supposed to evoke a victory torch, during the Olympics it has been used to impressive effect by London 2012 to plug the next games and celebrate the success of Team GB in Beijing. The benefit of the digital medium being that it allowed the content to be switched to topical congratulatory messages as the medals piled up. Watchmaker TAG Heuer did something similar during the British Grand Prix, when it booked time on all of JCDecaux's digital screens across the capital and updated its message to laud Lewis Hamilton's victory in the race.
Of course this type of high-profile digital campaign on premium sites comes with a matching premium price tag that puts it out of reach for many advertisers. In my humble opinion the quality and legibility of the images rendered is also open to question. But the flexibility and timeliness offered by digital advertising screens is indicative of the future challenges facing outdoor print specialists. While we aren't living in a Blade Runner-esque environment just yet, it's clear that investment in digital is a high priority for the major media owners. CBS Outdoor has already installed more than a thousand digital screens across the London Underground, and its massive £72m investment means that by the end of the year that number will be nearer 2,000. These are sites where printed posters were previously the norm.
With London 2012 set to spark a big increase in outdoor advertising and promotions of all kinds, printers operating in this space will need to be as fast and flexible as the athletes taking part if they are to ensure that print options get a fair share of what will be a massive media cake.
