OOH travel patterns and projections

Published: July 21, 2020

This may be one of the most critical times in our history to advertise. With more people out and about, it’s time to have your message be seen and heard. Traffic is everything in out of home advertising. There’s no doubt there was a slow down in traffic numbers the last few months, but people are moving again.

Let’s take a look at traffic data and projections for the out of home advertising industry.

According to Apple, the relative volume of directions requests made in the Apple Maps app in the U.S. was down 63% in mid April due to stay at home restrictions. However, July has shown an average daily direction request to be rising, with an increase of 38% over the same time last year.

Geopath reports that the average total miles traveled per day has increased by at least 50% since the April low-points in the top 100 DMAs.

“The question of whether to reinstitute shutdowns is a complex one,” said Dr. Purnima Madhivanan, an infectious disease epidemiologist and associate professor at The University of Arizona in Tucson. “It's going to be very, very context-driven" (Source)

One of the biggest factors that led to cities being shut down was that hospitals were running out of beds and equipment. The equipment shortage has mostly been taken care of, however, there is not a lot you can do about the space issue. With some states seeing a rise in Covid-19 patients, it’s possible that hospitals will again run out of space to keep them.

In June, BusinessWire reported that the out of home advertising industry should still see a growth of 5.41% in the year 2020, despite the impact of Covid-19.

While we are not quite at the levels we were pre-Covid, the data does show that individuals are still traveling outside of their homes, often out of necessity. Their visits to a healthcare professional, grocery shopping or picking up take-out from their favorite restaurants can still be a great opportunity for you to connect with your audiences in a meaningful way by conveying your message.

Written By: Shane Hutton

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