Chapter 1 - 5

05 business

Listen to a lecture in a business class. Fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

M: Today I want to focus on outdoor advertising. Now, the definition should be pretty clear: any advertising that happens outdoors.

But to give examples… uh, billboards−like the big signs you see on the side of roads−and then transit advertising, meaning signs on busses, the subway, or on the side of a truck.

OK, I think you get the idea. Anyway, you might be surprised to hear that outdoor advertising only accounts for about two percent of most firms’ advertising budgets.

However, there are some things about outdoor advertising that can be really attractive to a company… and there are, of course, things that are not attractive.

So, let’s go ahead and discuss the good and bad points of outdoor advertising.

First, outdoor advertising obviously has the ability to reach a vast number of people.

I mean, think of just any ordinary billboard on the side of a major road.

How many people do you think go by that billboard on their way to work, or school?

Well, quite a lot, depending on the road, of course.

But if a company manages to get a large billboard off of the highway, well, then it’s a definite way to make sure people see your ad.

One particular outdoor campaign for a beverage company helped increase the company’s revenue forty-four percent over the summer.

That’s a huge revenue increase! And, really, all they did was put up nice-looking pictures of their beverages.

So exposure is a definite advantage, but this exposure isn’t always what you want.

So much of advertising is targeted towards specific people, but you’ll have a lot of people viewing the ad that you don’t necessarily need or want−they aren’t part of the target audience.

Therefore, you get what’s called waste coverage. This means that you’re actually wasting money by advertising to people that aren’t interested.

So, on TV, there are channels designed for specific age groups, right?

Well, if a product is meant for young people, you can put an ad on a channel meant for young people.

However, with billboards, you can’t do something like that so easily.

OK, well moving on, there has been an increasing amount of creativity lately in terms of outdoor advertising, and consumers tend to like creative ads and, thus, pay more attention to them.

So the ability to create very creative ads is the next advantage.

Now, with TV you can be creative, sure, but you have to stick to the strict format of a message in video and voice.

With outdoor advertising, you can have billboards, blimps, flyers, clothing, or even the side of a truck or a bus.

Um, for example, think of an advertisement on the side of a bus.

Usually boring, right? Well, a recent TV network but a huge image of a shark on the side of a bus, and when the doors of the bus closed, the shark’s jaw closed, making it look like the shark had just eaten whoever walked onto the bus.

How’s that for an attention grabber? This is just one example of some of the new advertising that’s happening outdoors.

You would definitely take note of an ad like that.

Now, there’s also a downside to that, too.

Often, the most creative ads are extremely expensive to do.

The really popular locations for ads are quite expensive, and you generally have to pay monthly to keep that signage.

You want an ad in Times Square in New York City? You’d be looking to pay as much as two hundred thousand dollars per month.

Add that to the cost of making a creative ad and you’re looking at a lot of money.

1) What is the main topic of the lecture?

2) What aspect of outdoor advertising does the professor mainly discuss?