Media Forum: Do poster buying giants work?(Poster Publicity merger)(outdoor advertising)

Does the consolidation of outdoor buying benefit advertisers?

The poster medium is clearly the place to be these days. While other traditional media face declining audiences and other long-term structural problems, out-of-home is blooming. Last month, the Outdoor Advertising Association revealed that the medium was on target to achieve one of its long-term goals of taking a more than 10 per cent share of the display advertising market for the first time in living memory.

There's even more potential for growth too. The fundamental driver for all of this is the fact that we now spend more time out and about, and less time lazing at home. Despite the rise of digital mobile media, outdoor is the pre-eminent medium for people on the move. And that effect has been enhanced by consolidation on the media- owner side - creating a small group of global media owners that are very focused and highly professional.

That consolidation has in turn been replicated on the buying side - last week saw another small but significant step in that direction when PHD pulled out of Outdoor Connection (control of which had been acquired by WPP) and shifted its pounds 30 million billings into the Aegis-owned Posterscope.

Since the merger of Poster Publicity and Portland earlier this year to form Kinetic, the buying market has been dominated by the big two - the WPP-owned Kinetic and the Aegis-owned Posterscope. Which is all very well for the holding companies but perhaps not such unreservedly good news for media owners. Or, come to that, advertisers, who are increasingly deprived of choice when it comes to outdoor specialists.

That's not a huge concern, Jeremy Found, the head of media at COI, responds. COI is one of the few advertisers to insist on making direct appointments in outdoor, rather than being swayed by media agency alignments.

He states: 'The fact outdoor specialists are now able to invest more in understanding the medium is a clear benefit of consolidation. It's true there is also the question of choice but I'm sure we will continue to see new companies emerging. There will always be companies able to offer different services for advertisers with specific requirements. It's all down to what a particular advertiser wants and needs.'