A short history of out-of-home advertising

Out-of-home advertising is any advertising people see outside their homes: on walls, roadsides, transit, and inside stores. The history of out-of-home advertising runs from painted signs and printed posters, through the billboard era, to digital screens that can change messages in seconds. Each stage kept the same basic idea, reaching people where they go, and added new ways to do it.

Understanding that history helps explain why in-store screens work the way they do.

Where did out-of-home advertising begin?

With signs and walls. Merchants have marked their shops with signs for as long as there have been shops. Painted walls and hand-lettered notices announced goods, services and events long before modern media existed.

Printing changed the scale. As printing became faster and cheaper in the 1800s, posters spread through cities. Theaters, circuses, shops and manufacturers pasted bills on walls and fences. Color printing made them brighter and more eye-catching.

Placement mattered even then. A poster on a busy corner was worth more than one on a quiet lane, and advertisers competed for the best walls. That idea, paying for a location because of the people who pass it, is still the foundation of out-of-home pricing.

The format was simple: a big image, a few words, a place where many people passed. That formula still guides out-of-home creative today.

How did billboards change things?

By organizing space. As roads and car travel grew in the twentieth century, standardized billboard structures appeared along highways and in cities. Companies leased space on them, and advertising became a planned business rather than a matter of pasting posters wherever there was room.

Billboard design developed its own craft: large type, bold images and very few words, built to be read at a distance and at speed.

Regulation followed. Federal and state rules on roadside billboards, including those tied to the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, shaped where and how billboards could appear. Local rules continue to vary.

The industry also organized itself. Trade groups such as OAAA, the out-of-home industry's association, formed to set standards and represent the business. Audience measurement became more formal, so advertisers could compare locations.

When did out-of-home go digital?

Gradually, then quickly. Digital screens began appearing in public places in the late twentieth century, and by the 2000s and 2010s digital billboards and indoor screens were common. Digital out-of-home, or DOOH, allowed several advertisers to share one screen in rotation, and messages could be changed without printing and posting new materials.

Screens moved indoors too: airports, gyms, offices, transit stations and stores. Indoor screens brought advertising closer to specific activities, such as waiting for a train or paying for groceries. The broad category of out-of-home advertising now includes all of these.

Digital also changed measurement. Screens could record when each ad played, which gave advertisers more precise delivery data than printed posters ever could. Estimating who saw those plays remained harder, and it's still an area of active work in the industry.

More recently, programmatic buying, where inventory is purchased through technology platforms, has extended to DOOH. That's made it easier for advertisers to plan out-of-home alongside other digital media.

Where do in-store screens fit in this history?

At the point of purchase. Earlier out-of-home placements reached people on the way somewhere. In-store screens reach them where they buy. That shift connects out-of-home advertising with retail media, the advertising sold by retailers and retail networks.

NRS Digital Media runs digital advertising screens on NRS point-of-sale systems in independently-owned stores. The network includes 34K+ independently-owned stores and 39K+ measured digital screens across 8.5K+ zip codes. It's one example of how out-of-home has moved from roadside to register.

The basics haven't changed. A clear image, a few words, the right place. What's new is how close the place is to the purchase. To learn more, visit the NRS Digital Media site or contact the NRS Digital Media team.