Outdoor advertising as experiments

Can outdoor advertising substantially influence in purchase rates? The answer in brief: the limited evidence from field experiments indicates that outdoor advertising is likely to increase sales. The evidence from survey research studies in the form of verbal reports indicates substantial increases in shopper/visitor traffic and purchase rates associated with the use of outdoor advertising signs. However, only two published and no unpublished studies could be found that include the use of true experimental or quasi-experimental designs to learn the effects of outdoor advertising on purchase rates. Research on the sales effects of another form of advertising media signage is available for comparing the relative quality of outdoor advertising effectiveness studies. Telling evidence does exist indicating that indoor (point-of-purchase) advertising increases purchase rates. A substantial number of field studies using true experimental and quasi-experimental designs are needed to provide similar hard evidence that outdoor advertising works. Some suggestions for using such research designs are provided for the outdoor advertising industry.