Offline advertising channels and outdoor advertising formats

Outdoor advertising is the earliest advertising medium in China. It is currently the third largest media in China after Internet media and party and government media (radio, television and print media). The popular name around the world is: Out Of Home Media, which means that outside the home, starting from elevator media, all belong to outdoor advertising, including office buildings, shopping malls, subways/buses, airports/airplanes, express lockers, express package cartons, even drones and fireworks and rural broadcasts, all belong to outdoor advertising.

With the change of demand and technological innovation, offline outdoor advertising has roughly gone through the following four stages based on the media that carry the advertisements: the ancient advertising period dominated by physical objects, hawking, signs, and sound; the modern advertising period dominated by trademarks and brand names; the modern outdoor advertising period dominated by posters and electronic screens; and the future outdoor advertising period dominated by technology and interaction.

The communication media are developing in every period, and the development of media is constantly enriching the form of outdoor advertising, drawing a long-term outdoor advertising atlas.

Starting with hawking and selling goods

Outdoor advertising is gradually gaining popularity in ancient China

The information transmission in primitive society mainly includes three categories: symbol transmission, physical display and oral communication. Advertising was born out of these primitive information exchange activities.

(Symbol transfer diagram source: Huitu.com)

(Source of oral communication: Huitu.com)

(Source of the actual display image: Huitu.com)

During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, physical advertising and oral advertising developed further. The line "The man is stupid, carrying cloth to trade for silk" in The Book of Songs records the early physical advertisements; and the line "Shi Wang is in the market...beating the drum and sword and raising the voice" in The Chu Ci: Heavenly Questions, "beating the drum and sword" and "raising the voice" are classic oral advertisements (just like the voice broadcast advertisements on buses and subways today, they all belong to the voice category).

(Source of the selected excerpts from the Book of Songs: Baidu)

(Source: Baidu)

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, hanging object advertising and banner advertising began to develop. Due to the large number of businessmen, in order to attract people's attention, they hung up the goods displayed on the ground in order to achieve the purpose of attracting customers to buy. Thus, outdoor advertisements such as hanging objects and hanging banners gradually began to appear.

(Banner advertisement source: Sohu News)

(Source of the hanging object advertisement: Sohu News)

During the Han Dynasty, market pavilions and market drums appeared. The market pavilion is a landmark building in the market. The flag hung high on the market pavilion is called a flag pavilion, which can serve as a notice; the gongs and drums hung on the market pavilion are called market drums, which serve to remind people of the opening and closing times of the market. This is a more classic outdoor advertising landmark.

(Han Dynasty Market Pavilion Source: Ranking123.com)

The practice of selling medicine by hanging pots also began in the Han Dynasty. Medical practitioners would set up fixed locations in the market to operate their businesses and hang medicine pots as outdoor advertising symbols for selling medicine.

(Photo source: Phoenix.com)

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in addition to traditional outdoor advertising, more distinctive commodity fairs also appeared. In order to show the prosperity and wealth of the capital, Emperor Yang of Sui held special merchandise displays and exhibitions in Fengdu City many times during his reign, using a variety of colorful outdoor advertising forms such as flags, signs, etc.

(Photo source: Phoenix.com)

At that time, people attached great importance to ceremonial advertisements. These ceremonial advertisements, which consisted of flags, umbrellas, fans, weapons, and auspicious patterns, were used when emperors and officials went out. They only had advertising functions and did not have much practical effect. They were a special form of outdoor advertising that demonstrated one’s status.

(Photo source: Phoenix.com)

In the Song Dynasty, advertising forms were extremely prosperous. Print advertising made its first appearance in Chinese history and lasted for thousands of years, spanning the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It started to play a huge role in advertising information.

(China's first flat outdoor paper advertisement - Jinan Liujia Kungfu Needle Shop)

Voice advertising also began in the Song Dynasty, which combines shouting with songs and music to attract the attention of passers-by.

(Beat the clappers to attract business in Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival")

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when feudal ideas were at their most mature, brand names and couplet advertisements flourished. The Li Zi Hao is a commitment and guarantee made by the operator to the quality of the goods it sells and the integrity of its customers.

(Photo source: Tong Ren Tang)

Couplet advertising is a form of text advertising that originated from Spring Festival couplets and emphasizes formal beauty.

(Photo source: Phoenix.com)

During the Qing Dynasty, monuments were often erected in towns, villages, along major roads or at bridgeheads. This was a more permanent form of outdoor advertising, used to publish government documents, record someone's life, and praise famous mountains and rivers.

(Bai Juyi Memorial Monument)

(The "Prohibition of Killing Farming Oxen" Monument of the Qing Dynasty)

By the late Qing Dynasty, wall advertisements had become a very common advertising medium. In the old photos of Nanjing Road in Shanghai, a large number of wall advertisements filled people's vision.

(Image source: Baidu)

Before this, outdoor advertising had developed steadily from scratch and was full of Chinese characteristics.

Western cultural input

Outdoor advertising forms are becoming more diverse

After the Opium War, with the invasion of Western capital, China's outdoor advertising began to be gradually filled with Western colors. What are unforgettable are those beautiful and classic calendar posters (Outdoor Advertising Insider believes that this is very similar to our modern elevator frame posters. I wonder if the current elevator posters are inspired by the calendar posters).

(Image source: Baidu)

Calendar posters are advertising posters used by foreign businessmen to promote foreign goods. Foreign merchants initially hoped to promote their products with Western pictures, but with little success, they switched to using pictures that were in line with traditional Chinese aesthetics and similar to New Year pictures, highlighting folk content.

(Image source: Baidu)

Products, business names and trademarks were marked at appropriate positions on the screen, and accompanied by a Chinese and Western annual calendar or Western monthly calendar, which was given to customers as gifts and began to gain popularity.

Traffic advertising also appeared during this period. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, cars were introduced to Shanghai, and advertisements were placed on the exterior surfaces of trams, cars, ships, trains, etc.

(Outdoor advertisement of "Kwang Shi Toothpaste Qianlixiang" on the trolleybus)

(Advertisements can be vaguely seen on the rear of vehicles on the streets of Changchun in the puppet Manchukuo)

(Double-decker bus body advertisement during the Republic of China period)

(Mobil advertising ship)

Window advertisements, road sign advertisements, and neon sign advertisements also emerged as Western culture infiltrated.

In 1917, Shanghai Xinshi Department Store began to use window display advertisements. Soon, this trend became popular in larger stores in Shanghai, such as Xinshi, Wing On, Xinxin, and Daxin.

(Baofang Company record display window advertisement)

(Smith's window advertisement of Wing On Company)

In the 1920s, road sign advertising became popular, and many companies posted colorful printed posters on the walls. Later, they switched to wooden frames, lead installations, and paint. The road sign advertisements are innovatively designed, and their content mainly contains information about cigarettes, medicines, and movies and dramas, etc. They are mostly concentrated in busy and noisy neighborhoods, traffic intersections, rooftops along railways, and scenic spots.

(Some road sign advertisements in the 1920s)

According to statistics from the Shanghai Public Utilities Bureau in 1933, there were 216 civilian and commercial billboards in 236 public places in Shanghai, covering an area of ​​2,822 square meters.

In 1926, Evans Book Company on Nanjing Road in Shanghai installed a neon chandelier with the words "Royal Typewriter" in its window. This was the earliest neon advertisement in my country. By the 1930s, almost all shops in downtown Shanghai were equipped with neon signs and advertisements, and the entire "foreign concessions" were brightly lit all night long, as if it were daytime.

(Neon advertising in Shanghai in the 1930s)

Gradually, with the economic prosperity and continuous technological advancement, neon advertising became all the rage. Among them, Hong Kong neon advertising has become a city symbol, attracting a large number of tourists and businessmen.

(Hong Kong neon advertising)

During this period, China's outdoor advertising was infiltrated by Western culture and prospered greatly. It was no longer limited to wooden plaques, lanterns and flags, but had more advanced and modern diversified advertising forms.

Multiple delivery scenarios

Outdoor advertising is colorful

So, if you want to carry out offline advertising channels, what are the specific forms of outdoor advertising? The industry platform - Zhaoguang.com divides its outdoor media into five major scenarios: transportation scenarios, family community scenarios, public scenarios, commercial space scenarios and other scenarios.

Outdoor advertising in transportation scenarios includes: airport media, train and high-speed rail media, subway and light rail media, parking/charging lot media, bus media, gas station media, bus stop media, highway media, urban road media, rural road media, bus station media, long-distance bus media, taxi media, truck and van media, bicycle media, bridge and dock media, airplane media, ferry and cruise ship media, and aerial object media.

In the family community scenario, there are: general residential media, apartment media, high-end residential media, foreign-style house and villa media, and township and rural media.

Public scenes include: landmark building media, street facility media, citizen square media, cultural and sports venues media, overpass media, underground passage media, school media, medical facility media, park scenic area media, tower base station media, village center media, exit port media, government agency media, overseas landmark media, etc.

Commercial space scenarios include: office building media, cinema media, supermarket media, bank finance and insurance media, hotel media, beauty and health media, home market media, bar KTV media, catering and tea media, exhibition center media, industrial/technology park media, convenience store media, express delivery point media, 4S car store media, fitness/swimming pool media, rural store media, golf course media, wholesale market media, logistics park media, interest and parent-child media, and fun and sports media.

Other outdoor advertising scenarios include: packaging media, ticket and coupon media, clothing media, etc.

Nowadays, outdoor advertisements are mostly posters, LED luminous characters, and LCD electronic display screens. More and more traditional outdoor advertising is moving towards new technology. Here is a brief list of several common forms in the current outdoor advertising market.

The first is outdoor electronic screen advertising, which has diverse advertising scenarios and good advertising presentation effects.

(Outdoor LED large screen)

(Lobby screen advertising machine)

(Outdoor advertising in elevators)

The second type of pillar advertising, also known as Optimus Prime, advertising tower, and anti-aircraft gun, usually stands on both sides of the road, mostly on highways.

(Single-post advertising - two-sided signs)

The third type of wall advertising is a large-scale advertising painting painted on a wall or supporting surface, mainly in the form of exterior wall spray painting. This type of advertising is gradually being transformed into electronic screen advertising.

(Advertisement on the wall of a shopping mall)

The fourth category of poster advertising includes table stickers, door stickers, and glass stickers.

(Desktop Advertisement)

(Elevator door sticker advertisement)

(Glass sticker advertising)

The fifth type is gantry/overpass advertising. This type of outdoor advertising is located on a pedestrian bridge, overpass, or gantry that crosses the road.

(Overpass advertisement)

(Gantry advertising)

The sixth type of light box advertising is mainly used on both sides of roads and streets, as well as in cinemas, subways, high-speed railways, commercial downtown areas, platforms, airports, docks, parks, communities and other places.

(Light box advertisement on a subway line)

The seventh category is vehicle body advertising, which currently mainly includes bus body advertising.

(Light box advertisement on a subway line)

The eighth category is the hottest outdoor advertising at present - naked-eye 3D. Ever since the naked-eye 3D large screen in a certain place in Chengdu came out, naked-eye 3D has blossomed in major cities in China, showing a blowout growth.

(Light box advertisement on a subway line)

Of course, there are other types of outdoor advertising. The various forms of outdoor advertising have contributed to our colorful and beautiful world and have become an indispensable part of modern people's lives.

In addition, compared with ancient and modern times, in addition to technological innovation, modern outdoor advertising also has more systematic integration of advertising resources.

Advertising itself is an information war, and the more information you have, the more competitive advantage you will naturally have. In the 1920s, China's first advertising company was born in Shanghai, and advertising agencies gradually came into being. With the development of the times, Internet advertising has seized the market and become the mainstream, and more and more advertising companies have shifted their focus to online advertising.

However, outdoor advertising still has irreplaceable advantages. As many advertisers focus their attention on Internet advertising, outdoor advertising revenue continues to rise. GroupM predicts that the growth rate of outdoor advertising in 2022 will exceed the annual growth rate of Internet advertising, reaching 14.9%, making it the advertising media with the highest growth rate in the country. However, due to the special nature of the industry, outdoor advertising can only find suitable parties by visiting and communicating with them one by one, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

"Zhaoguang.com" was born based on this. It is a portal website dedicated to integrating information resources of China's outdoor advertising industry. Its goal is to make it possible to sell outdoor advertising space without any difficulty in the world. Currently, there are 200,000 people working in the outdoor advertising industry and tens of millions of outdoor billboards on the platform, connecting the two ends of outdoor advertising information acquisition and delivery. Whether it is looking for cooperation, outdoor advertising contacts, offline advertising channels, or various forms of outdoor advertising resources, it is very easy, and almost all the resources on the platform are first-hand outdoor advertising resources.

The integration advantages of the Zhaoguang.com platform make outdoor advertising more convenient and secure, improve the previous problems of difficulty in integrating outdoor advertising resources, and greatly promote the development of the offline outdoor advertising industry.

Creativity and technology support

Will set off a boom in outdoor advertising

In the future, outdoor advertising will develop more rapidly. There are several trends:

First, new consumer brands have become major outdoor advertising players. According to the CTR Media Intelligence's outdoor advertising rankings in the first quarter of 2021, new consumer brands accounted for 86% of the top 50 brands, while in 2016, this proportion was only 56%. It can be seen that new consumer brands are paying more and more attention to outdoor advertising.

Second, outdoor advertising is accelerating its “sinking” and optimization. Chinese Internet companies have been working hard to expand into lower-tier cities. Domestic giants such as Alibaba have begun to expand into third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities, which has driven the development of outdoor media. Third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities have also become an important battlefield for outdoor media competition. Currently, there are no excellent media integrators in this market, so there are great opportunities.

Third, outdoor advertising and online advertising are increasingly integrated. For example, a certain plan launched by a certain media company in cooperation with a large Internet company has opened up the entire online and offline links, helped to achieve brand and effect integration, and improved sales conversion.

Fourth, with the support of 5G technology, “technology + outdoor advertising” has become the mainstream. The combination of technology and outdoor advertising will bring new ideas to outdoor marketing. The application of Metaverse and ARVR advertising connects outdoor advertising with people in the scene, which will help advertisers quickly capture the audience's attention.

Summary: Looking back at thousands of years of Chinese history, outdoor advertising has gradually developed and improved from nothing to something, and from something to something more sophisticated. In the future, I believe that outdoor advertising will only increase and not decrease, and will continue to play its unique communication advantages.