英语四级写作：广告牌的崛起
ROADSIDE billboards, posters on buses and subway escalators, ads in airportterminals—a type of publicity known as out-of-home advertising—used to be the
dull end of the industry. No more. The falling price and improving quality of
flat-screen displays mean that static posters printed on paper are being
replaced by snazzy digital commercials with moving pictures, sound and sometimes
interactive features. As some advertising media, especially newspapers, see
their audiences fade, streets, airports and other public spaces are becoming
crowded with more potential viewers than ever, as people continue moving to
cities and travel more.
MagnaGlobal, a media researcher, predicts that worldwide spending on
out-of-home advertising will expand by 8.3% in 2011 to about $26.4 billion,
faster growth than that seen for other non-internet forms of advertising.
Spending on digital billboards and posters is expected to double in the next
five years, to $5.2 billion. William Eccleshare, who runs the international
operations of Clear Channel, an American firm which is one of the largest
out-of-home ad companies, thinks that in some countries more than 90% of its
business will be digital by the decade's end.
His arch-rival, Jean-Charles Decaux, the boss of France's JCDecaux, agrees
that there will be a significant switch to digital, but mainly inside airports,
railway stations, shopping malls and other controlled environments. Ads in bus
shelters and other outdoor spots at risk of vandalism will take a lot longer to
move away from paper, Mr Decaux thinks. Digital displays already account for
about one-quarter of his company's sales in transport hubs, but for less than 5%
in street furniture and billboards.
The pace of the switch to digital is but the least of several areas of
disagreement between the two men. JCDecaux boasted in February that it had
overtaken Clear Channel to become the world's largest out-of-home ad company,
with revenues of €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) last year. “It is rare that a
European media company is bigger than an American one,” says Mr Decaux. Because
his group is less indebted than the others, Mr Decaux says it could consider
buying the American operations of CBS Outdoor, the world number three, or indeed
those of Clear Channel itself, if the opportunity arose.
Mr Eccleshare dismisses such provocative talk, noting that Mr Decaux has
repeatedly talked of big acquisitions in America—where it is a weak number four
in the market—without anything happening. He acknowledges that there will be
consolidation in the highly fragmented industry, though he expects it to take
place within, rather than across, national borders. For instance, China has
60,000 out-of-home advertising firms, many of them microbusinesses with one or
two signs, and is clearly ripe for rationalisation.
Clear Channel is so optimistic about digital posters because it believes
they offer enormous potential for making advertisements more effective.
Advertisers can tailor their pitch to the time of day: McDonald's can advertise
its sausage and egg McMuffin at breakfast time, change to its regular Big Mac
fare at lunch and follow that with ads for apple pie and ice cream during
teatime. They can also react to events as they happen: when Spain won the
football World Cup last year, digital billboards in Madrid, sponsored by Nike,
showed the result within seconds.
Advertisers constantly talk about wanting to “engage” with consumers, so
they are taking great interest in the potential for interactivity that digital
technology will bring. JCDecaux, for example, is offering a free iPhone
application called U snap: when a consumer sees a poster (paper or digital) for
something that attracts his interest and takes a photo of it on his phone, the
app recognises it, gives him product information and discount vouchers and
directs him to the nearest retailer.
Then there is “gladvertising” and “sadvertising”, a rather
sinister-sounding idea in which billboards with embedded cameras, linked to
face-tracking software, detect the mood of each consumer who passes by, and
change the advertising on display to suit it. The technology matches movements
of the eyes and mouth to six expression patterns corresponding to happiness,
anger, sadness, fear, surprise and disgust. An unhappy-looking person might be
rewarded with ads for a sun-drenched beach or a luscious chocolate bar while
those wearing an anxious frown might be reassured (some might say exploited)
with an ad for insurance.
Such Big Brotherish software would no doubt detect a satisfied grin on the
faces of out-of-home advertising bosses as they contemplate the next 18 months,
in which a string of big events will boost their business: the Rugby World Cup,
the American presidential election, the Euro 2012 football championship and the
London Olympics. Wherever you go—the street, the subway, the airport or the bus
station—there will be no escape from ads linked to these events, and the
out-of-home advertising firms will be raking it in.
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