US Digital Signage Market to Grow by One Third in 2009

Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh

Now don’t get too excited just yet. We’re not talking about this business of “ads” in DOOH – this is firmly centered on the actual hardware/software/services business of DOOH.

According to Business Wire: http://au.sys-con.com/node/868973 the business is expected to grow 33% this year alone in new implementations and deployments, despite the fact that many folks know it will take some time for the revenue side to pay off. For the opportunistic:

Cost is also a factor, especially now. “Although digital signage technology promises increases in sales and revenue, such growth is not immediate,” cautions Aima. “The investment in installing a network can still be very high depending on the number of sites and the cost of the other components. Yet, businesses with ready access to capital may see a real opportunity here.”

This follows on the heels of DailyDOOH’s comments on 6 new 3000+ execution in tender.

I get to be pretty close to a lot of the new executions and while I’m not surprised on the growth, it’s a harbinger of things to come. While 2009 may see “modest” growth in DOOH (latest numbers say 9%) there’s some buy in on several levels out there and the business of DOOH simply isn’t going away.

The more of these major executions start to appear and get deployed, the harder it becomes for brands/agencies to ignore the “medium”. On the flip side, the more difficult it also becomes to understand, plan on and manage for the agencies – especially when the agency business growth trails the growth of brands as the economy fully recovers in 2010 (meaning in the interim there are less bodies to do more work) and clients demand new options.

Quite the conundrum.