When Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments he experienced exactly the same difficulty facing any operator in the communications business. And time has not changed the challenge.

For maximum communications effectiveness that challenge is:-     

1. To reach as many as possible of your desired target market -whether mass or niche is immaterial to the issue; 
2. In as short and as concentrated a time frame as convenient; 
3. In a compelling high attention environment, and 
4. As cost effectively as possible

In today's interactive, digitally enhanced, consumer driven, pan-national media environment, you would not have expected to find a solid reminder of these four basic communication fundamentals emerging from a cutting edge study from the long established Out of Home media sector. Yet the CBS Outdoor study "Europe on the Move" does exactly that.

No need to spend too much time deliberating what nuances of target market you need to reach. Instead just recognize that higher consumer spending is perfectly and very highly correlated with distance traveled. The higher the amount of economic activity the more mobile is the consumer. And the more mobile you are the more Out of Home media you encounter.

It's not only mobile media that benefit. It's also the static, precinct, roadside and travel media that hit that audience. And this applies on a national and trans national basis, delivering large numbers of a key target audience in a short time effectively.

The research evidence on "noticeability" of OOH advertising and the heightened degree of consequent "buying consideration" among the mobile audience is strong. The lack of any comparators of effectiveness across the degrees of mobility (High mileage to Low mileage etc) is a limitation that makes it difficult to fix the value for money equation.

Nevertheless this report highlights one major on-going un-changing media "truth".
 
If you want to reach those high spending highly mobile consumers, the Out of Home medium, especially now with its added digital and interactive capability, is still a serious candidate for the most discerning advertisers' communications budget.

For people on the move - out of home- what was good for Moses all those years ago is still good for today

Here in October 2009 we are at the heart of the 2010 media trading season for advertising space and time.
It's clear that recession remains a dominant world wide factor.
But the numbers are taking shape and we can see a clear picture.

Every media owner is on the look out for new money
Every advertiser is demanding cheaper prices and a "better deal"
Every media agency is doing everything possible to attract new business and improve margins.

2010 is the year when the dominant forces in media trading emerge from the shadowy background into the full light of day

2010 is the year when the 5 largest media owners will dominate the communication scene. It is they who will determine what money goes where.

This is not the domination of NBC, CBS, Disney, Fox, News Corp, Google.These are yesterdays big media owners

In 2010 the 5 Largest Media Owners are Aegis, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis & WPP.

So dominant have they become that they swamp the trading inventory of the traditional media owner and create deals for their portfolio of advertisers receiving additional income from the traditional media that allow the new media owner to discriminate who gets what inventory and at what price

Advertisers looking for deals have to inquire now where they sit within the portfolio of the new 5 largest media owners. If advertisers want a better value deal they have to talk longer and deeper with the media agencies - the new media owners

I have found a bundle of nonsense where the media agencies have wrapped up deals that exploit the inexperience of advertisers for their considerable advantage. << MORE >>

Why bother with a media agency especially when the guts of the client revenue has to be passed on to an outside party. Integrated seamless client service is a pipe dream, and it's happening everywhere. << MORE >>

Next time your media buyer tells you it’s all about scale tell him you have the evidence he’s in the Media Madness house. Scale benefits the buyer’s cost base and hinders his ability to deliver for the advertiser << MORE >>

Several major advertisers want media agencies to advance them 120 days credit. General Motors are in effect passing their "bankruptcy" onto the agency.<< MORE >>

Among the few certainties in life is that “50% are worse than average” One major media agency group is trying to bust this self-evident truth. It’s created either a ground breaking concept or a short self-inflicted suicide note. << MORE >>

You may imagine that trading newspaper ad. space, does, in some meaningful way, relate the price of the goods to the audience delivered. You would be wrong. << MORE >>

If you thought the media owner commission system ensured the advertiser got the best, impartial advice, look at this horror story. << MORE >>

The objective of delivering a higher, longer, faster media & marketing effectiveness service has got fouled up in inadequate processes, misguided operations, confused logistics, faulty metrics and inappropriate structures<< MORE >>