Survey Says: Digital Signage May Eat Some TV Dollars


NEW YORK: A new survey of strategic media planners reveals a dramatic increase in their intention to include digital place-based media in ad plans, with nearly 44 percent saying they will accomplish this by shifting some television dollars to digital place-based. This, according to the Digital Place-based Advertising Association.

For 2012, 86.3 percent of media planning respondents said they intend to include digital place-based media in their plans, up from 75.5 percent in 2011 and from the 65.3 percent who said they incorporated the medium in their plans in 2010. These figures represent a two-year gain (2010-12) of 32 percent.

Planners were asked: “When considering digital place-based networks for inclusion in your media plan, from which existing media would you fund the ad dollars?” Respondents were asked to check all that apply from a list of options. The top four most frequently cited were:

Outdoor: 54.2 percent
Television: 43.8 percent
Digital/Online: 22.9 percent
None (zero-based approach): 19.8 percent

The survey was conducted online from May 6-June 6, 2011 by the DPAA among nearly 1,000 strategic media planners from around the country.

“Revenue growth for the digital place-based industry was 24.5 percent in 2010 over the previous year, and this new survey points toward a continuation of this strong growth in the coming years,” said Susan Danaher, DPAA president. “It is particularly interesting that 20 percent of the media planners state that digital place-based media is included in their media plans by virtue of a ‘zero-based approach.’ What that says to me is that the sector is making great progress by being included in the very initial consideration set of media forms, and valued for enabling clients’ messages to be at the right place, at the right time.”