This morning at the7stars HQ, we had a bit of a catch up on the outdoor market. Want to know what’s going on?

Well, first of all, we’re buying loads of it. As an agency, the7stars’ outdoor spend was up +233% YoY compared to Q3 last year. We are buying a hell of a lot – and making it work hard for our clients. Recently you may have seen our big impactful Converse sites, Discovery’s ‘Alone in the Wild’ as far as the eye can see, many new album launches…and also keep an eye out for our special builds for Phones4U and our Cocosa Bond Street digiwall in the near future.

Looking at the market more holistically, on a macro level, investment in digital outdoor has increased by 12% in Q3 of this year. This mirrors a trend that has run across the whole year, with spend on traditional sites down somewhat, but spend on digital sites increasing. Overall, avails for Q4 are looking very tight as clients from every industry sector gear up for the busy Christmas period. Other things to keep an eye out for include a roll out of new formats; including digital 6 sheets at bus stops, jazzy new ‘social’ digital screens in bars and nightclubs, and some upgraded large formats, such as those in Euston Station and in Manchester.

So looking forward to 2012, what’s coming up? With a year jam-packed with big events, there’s a lot going on. Many of the Olympics outdoor sites have already been booked up by the official sponsors, with taxis in particular being in extremely high demand.  In addition to this, we have a shortlist of a few trends to look out for, namely…

• Increased augmented reality interactivity with sites,
• Social media integration,
• Interactive gaming,
• Mobile connectivity,
• More live dynamic content.

The future’s looking bright – has there ever been a better excuse to get out?