The great outdoors

Hi,

Before television arrived in 1956, radio was king. But there was only one mass medium: the newspaper. Especially the evening newspaper. There were usually 2 tabloids. Every bloke going home from work would have the paper under his arm, read the headlines and the sports on the tram, then hand it to the wife who'd read the woman's page and look at the specials in the retailers' ads. The eyeballs were all in the same place.

TV destroyed the evening paper. From 2 papers to 3 channels (commercial) wasn't too much fragmentation and mass advertising made mass marketing possible. Eyeballs in the same place.

Then came cable TV and the internet, DVDs and the resurgence of cinema. Television got the wobbles as the mass audience fragmented. Eyeballs going everywhere. Advertisers saw the writing on the wall.

The only place all the eyeballs can be trapped now is outdoors. Everyone has to go outdoors at sometime. Outdoor advertising is the last mass medium. That's why every static and moving surface - even the moon - will eventually have an ad on it.
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Cheers!

Michael Kiely