It's nowhere near a recovery, but out-of-home advertising spending declines were slightly less awful during third quarter than they were during the first half.
Revenue still fell 17.2 percent during the period, according to numbers from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, to $1.34 billion, from $1.62 billion last year.
That's compared to an 18 percent slide in first and second quarters, and comes on top of a 6 percent decline in third quarter 2008.
Once again every top 10 advertising category was down compared to the previous year, and insurance and real estate suffered an especially steep slide, off 26.9 percent.
The one promising part of the report is that it marks the first time in more than a year that declines decreased quarter to quarter. They had been steadily falling since second quarter of last year, when spending grew a scant 1.7 percent.
The numbers, while showing slight improvements, will be a bit disappointing to those who had hoped that the recovery within the category would begin during third quarter.
Earlier this year, buyers had said that they were seeing more interest in buying traditional out-of-home venues such as billboards during the second half of the year, after clients pushed off first-half spending due to economic worries.
These latest numbers indicate that the recovery has yet to begin.
Still, there's another theory out there on why OOH has been slow to recover, and that's the fact that clients aren't reducing their activity. They're simply shifting money to less-expensive outdoor venues, such as alternative media.
That can include anything from flash mobs to so-called "backvertising" (using wax strips to make a message on a hairy man's back),to pop-up stores to elaborate displays in Times Square, such as a recent campaign by Radio Shack build around a giant laptop.
"I don't think spending is down. I think it's going to nontraditional media," says one media buyer. "I have friends at CBS and Clear Channel, they're dumbfounded when they look at this. They say that it's not profitable to construct and build these elaborate things."
Meanwhile, miscellaneous services and amusements were again the top advertising category in third quarter, for the third time this year. Advertisers spent $221.66 million on this category, off 15.1 percent from last year.
That's compared to a 13.4 percent dip during second quarter.
A few top-10 categories saw quarter-to-quarter improvements. Financial, for example, plunged 28.4 percent in second quarter and slipped a mere 4.7 percent in third quarter, with roughly the same level of spending in each quarter.
Insurance and real estate was up slightly quarter to quarter in terms of revenue, and it also had a less-drastic decline, 26.9 percent compared to 37 percent in second quarter.
OAAA figures are based on Miller Kaplan, TNS Media Intelligence data on out of home, its member company affidavits and media projections based on nationally syndicated data sources. Revenue estimates include billboard, street furniture, transit and alternative out-of-home media spending.
Nielsen also recently released first quarter numbers showing outdoor advertising dipped 15.1 percent during first quarter, based on billboard, poster, kiosk, transit and street furniture information.
