Wide Format Imaging

Summer may be drawing to a close, but even in the colder regions of the country, there are still a couple of months of nice weather left. That means there remains plenty of opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, and at the same time marvel at the amazing evolution taking place in outdoor graphics and signage.

Everywhere you look, it seems, displays are growing bigger, bolder and more creative. That spells opportunity for shops eager to produce outdoor ads and signage.

Compared with advertising in general, outdoor advertising is enjoying a banner year, says Stephen Freitas, chief marketing officer of the Washington, DC-based Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). While advertising as a whole is up just four percent, outdoor advertising has climbed eight percent year to date.

As a subset of outdoor advertising, transit advertising has risen 20 percent this year. "In terms of transit specifically, the growth is coming from the fact that some of the mainstream formats like billboards have tight inventory, so advertisers are looking at next-tier media, including bus shelters, transit advertising and airports," Freitas says.

If there are overarching themes this year, they may be "bigger is better," and "think outside the box," he adds. For instance, while bus side panels remain popular, more and more advertisers are thinking big, and opting to wrap entire buses.

As for outside-the-box ideas, Freitas points to HBO wrapping the entire interior of a New York City train car, mimicking the look of an old Western saloon to promote its Deadwood series. Bus shelters are also benefiting from creative thinking. "They're wrapping the entire shelter, or using 3-D embellishments on the roof, to take advantage of the full environment," Freitas says. "For instance, one dog food company wrapped a shelter with visuals of dogs hungrily eyeing the brand's dog food bag," he says.

Digital billboards represent another bright idea. The industry is now deploying standard bulletin and poster-sized LED units that replicate traditional standard billboards, but allow rotation of different advertisers in succession, while also permitting advertisers to change messages on the fly based on real-time information.