Industry Paper Releases

This 25-page report includes 18 charts and graphics detailing trends in the $7.5 billion Outdoor Advertising category. It's the most comprehensive report you'll find anywhere, offering detail on each of the four types of outdoor: billboards at $4.7 billion, transit at $1.3 billion, alternative (stadiums, malls, etc.) at $977 million, and street furniture at $414 million. Each is analyzed in detail, offering spending history since 2006 and the forecast through 2021. Analysis and detail is also offered on digital signage, which now accounts for 17% of all billboard ads. The report includes three appendices on point-of-sale (POS) signage, state-by-state estimates for local and national spending on outdoor ads, and state-by-state estimates for local and national spending on cinema advertising, which some also consider a part of "outdoor."

Our 42-page report on DMS dissects how $613 billion is being spent this year across all sizes of businesses that are trying to polish their digital presence. Among the findings: The two categories that businesses spend the most on -- web hosting and design -- are switching positions with SEO and social media management. In short, advertisers have finished the basic structure of their digital storefronts and are venturing out into their SIMS-like communities to find virtual customers. For media companies, ad agencies and others who are rushing to offer digital services, the report offers some advice: Be wary of the "S" in the SMBs. The smallest of businesses spend less than $1,000 per year on DMS; the sweet spot are those with 50 or more employees, where annual spending jumps into the tens of thousands. This is a must-have report for anyone in the business of selling SEO, hosting, web design, social media management, mobile marketing, and email management. It includes 30 charts and graphics, plus an appendix that offers greater detail on how the smaller local businesses, SMBs, are utilizing digital services and how that is likely to change over the next four years. An Executive Summary and Table of Contents is available for free.

It's going to be a richer year for political advertising than we initially thought. We're upping our estimates 3.1%, to $1.7 billion. The biggest beneficiaries of this additional $357 million in spending will be digital, radio, and cable -- and local media in general. With broadcast TV inventory clogged, campaigns and PACs have been turning to available inventory such as cable and radio spots and digital banner ads. Also, expect the national vitriol to cause a trickle-down effect at the state and local level. Candidates and PACs are likely to rush to the airwaves to caricature their opponents and tie them to deeply negative aspects of their party's nominee. This 21-page report includes 6 charts and tables, plus three appendices. Apppendix A offers nine charts that breaks out spending estimates for President, Senate, House, Governor, Attorney General, State Assemblies, County/Local, and State Ballot issues. Appendix B offers our Political Local Ad $pending Report (LA$R)(TM) and Appendix C delivers state-by-state spending estimates. An Executive Summary and Table of Contents version is available for free.

This is a must-read report for anyone managing local digital sales operations. The 45-page report offers insights from revenue performance at 10,395 local media entities across the U.S. and Canada – something we’ve been doing for 14 years to help companies determine how well they’re doing in digital sales. The report includes 22 charts and tables that offer digital-revenue benchmarking for local operators by eight different types of parent company: daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, local radio stations and clusters, TV stations, yellow page directories, cable systems, and local Internet pureplay companies. It also offers two appendices that list local digital advertising expenditures by format (banners, paid search, etc.) for each of 513 local Digital Marketing Regions (DMRs) in the U.S., both for 2015 and forecast for 2016. An Executive Summary is available for free. The full version is available for purchase, or free to Borrell subscribers.

The pot of gold at the end of the digital rainbow is looking less like an advertising business and more like a marketing services business. This year, SMBs are poised to spend $84 billion on digital services – everything from SEO to website design to video production. And for many media companies, these services are necessary evils to maintaining client relationships and tapping ad budgets. This 14-page report details the growth in digital services and includes the results of a survey of 257 managers whose companies are trying to tap that well. It includes 12 charts and graphics, plus an addendum with sample comments from survey participants. The report is the third in a four-part “Outlook” series and is available to subscribers only.

This 24-page report details our forecast for changes in local advertising for 2016. We foresee a 16.4% increase in local advertising – something others aren’t predicting – based on significant budget increases coming for digital advertising and political advertising. Newspapers, direct mail, directories and radio are all in for declines this year, while local magazines, cable, TV and online are on the rise. Digital advertising is forecast to grow at another raging two-digit rate – 36.4%. For the first time, digital media will account for half of all locally spent advertising, forming an X as it heads toward what we believe will be a two-thirds share before it levels off in 2019. The report includes seven charts and graphs, plus an appendix of digital ad-spending estimates by format (banners, email, video, etc.) for each of the 513 U.S. Digital Marketing Regions (DMRs).

To kick off 2016, this report offers the "best of the best" predictions from our 300-member Expert Panel. Will prime-time TV programming go all streaming? Will print coupons disappear? Will 7-day-a-week newspapers disappear? Are media-born digital ad agencies a fad? Will all banner ads eventually be sold via programmatic networks? The panel issued its clearest predictions on these questions and five more in 2015, and we highlight them – with predictions on when events might come to pass – in this insightful 18-page report that includes 20 charts. This report is available only to subscribers; it is not available for individual purchase.

• Political advertising is forecast to hit a record $11.4 billion in 2016, 20% more than the last comparable Presidential Election year of 2012. Adding what will be spent on next year’s contests in 2015, political advertising still holds a whopping $16.5 billion. See what the forecast looks like 2016 and beyond.
• aught up with other categories that earmark 30%-50% for digitals. Find out who the big winners are.
• The presidential race has allowed 2016 election spend to bleed into 2015 at the National level, but nearly half of all 2016 political dollars will be spent on local (state and below) campaigns – in different media. Check out which local contest will outspend any National contest in Radio.
• Appendix A: Lists 2016 spending estimates for each state, broken out by type of races (presidential, U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, etc.) and amounts spent per eligible voter. What’s being spent in your state?
• Appendix B: Political Ad spending estimates and forecasts 2013- 2016 by medium.