Out-of-home advertising media: theoretical and industry perspectives

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising media traditionally have not accounted for a large share of advertising budgets, but overall expenditure has grown considerably in recent years. Due to the transformation of the OOH advertising media landscape, and the diversity and ubiquitous nature of these media, there seem to be a discrepancy between the views of academic and industry experts on exactly what constitutes contemporary OOH advertising media. This article addresses the identified academic-practitioner divide by presenting both sides of the coin. An integrative review of OOH advertising media taxonomies in prominent academic sources, as well as specialists’ industry publications from Canada, South Africa, America, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom, was conducted. This resulted in a new conceptualisation of four key platforms for a contemporary OOH advertising media classification framework: outdoor advertising, transit media advertising, street-and-retail-furniture advertising, and digital and ambient OOH media. Clear direction for future research was given, specifically testing the proposed conceptualisation, the impact of OOH audience environments and mood on message delivery, and digital OOH advertising as one of the fastest growing media types.