The Outdoor Media Centre announced this month that revenues for the period October-December 2010 reached £251.8m, significantly its strongest quarter of the year in absolute revenue terms.
Year on year this figure represents an increase of 6.9%. For the full year, outdoor revenue totalled £879.8m, which is growth of 12.5%.
The biggest outdoor advertiser was BSkyB, with expenditure of £30M in 2010 (source: NMR).
For the quarter, the retail sector performed most strongly, reflecting investment in malls and increased digital penetration, with retail revenues in excess of £20m (up 14%). Transport and roadside had steady quarters (up 6% and 4% respectively).
Digital continued to show good growth, beating market growth with 17% growth in the quarter. Digital revenues passed £30m for a quarter for the first time, and for the year also passed the significant threshold of £100m for the first time, reaching £101m for the calendar year 2010. This gives digital a 12% share of all outdoor revenue for Quarter 4, and 11.4% for the full year. Digital Outdoor now wins £1 for every £8 spent on outdoor as a whole.
Banners also enjoyed excellent growth in 2010, up 40% in the quarter and 49% for the year.
“We are pleased to finish the year with strong growth of 12.5%. We believe that this puts outdoor right up with TV as one of the best performing media of 2010. It will certainly increase outdoor’s share of display spending”, said Mike Baker, CEO of the Outdoor Media Centre. “All sectors showed growth in the quarter and the year. We have recovered significant ground from the 2008-2009 low point. It’s a step in the right direction but we are ambitious in terms of how much further we think we can go.”