A
Allotment: The number of units needed to reach the GRP level in any market.
Alternative Media: Outdoor formats that are not billboards, street furniture, or transit. This media is used to create custom solutions.
Approach: The distance among the line of travel, the point at which an advertising unit becomes initially visible, and the point at which advertising is no longer legible.
Audited Circulation: The certification of traffic circulation by the Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB).
Awareness: The ability of an individual or audience to recall the message of an OOH advertiser. This awareness is dictated by the consumer’s relationship to the product and their reaction to the creative copy.
B
Bi-Directional Diagnostics: Two-way communication between a display and the controller. Used for maintenance and trouble-shooting.
Billboard: A type of large-format advertising viewable from distances of more than fifty feet. Billboards may include posters, spectaculars, bulletins, etc.
Bleed: The display area that carries over to the edge of the finished size, beyond the limits of the live copy.
Bulletin: The largest standardized OOH format, measuring 14’ by 48’ in most instances. It may be sold as permanent displays or in rotary packages.
Bus Shelter: A shelter located along bus routes, sitting curbside at stopping points. Also called Transit Shelters.
C
Calibration: Adjusting the color and intensity of an image to assure consistency across the entire display.
Campaign: The amount of time an OOH ad, or several related ads, run.
Cancellation Period: The time limits in which the termination of a contract is allowed.
Candela: The measurement of directional light intensity.
CBSA (Core Based Statistical Area): The United States Office of Management and Budget defines this as a metropolitan area within bigger markets that contains large populations. Together, these communities influence the society and the economy. CBSA acts as a standard for buying, selling, and trading media.
Center-To-Center Spacing: The distance between the center point of a pixel and the adjacent pixel on a video or message center display. Sometimes called a pitch.
Character Height: The height of the largest letter able to be displayed on a message center.Charting: The act of selecting and scheduling unit locations in a way that maximizes a campaign’s objectives. Also called Charting a Program.
Circulation: The amount of traffic volume in a market. These figures are based on the number of people with the chance to see out of home displays, rendering them no longer as accurate as other media metrics.
Cluster: Grouping of LEDs that act as one pixel.
Code of Industry Principles: Voluntary principles, per the OAAA, that pledge operating in the best interest of the public.
Color Accuracy: Conformity and exactness within a primary color group of red, green, or blue.
Color Shift: The angle where a change in pixel coloration occurs.
Color Temperature: The hotness or coolness of a color, measured in Kelvin. The standard white in the US for NTSC is 6,500 degrees Kelvin.
Commercial Audience: The estimated number of people exposed to actual advertising. TAB OOH Ratings differentiate between those exposed to advertising and those exposed to editorial content (such as newspapers or magazines).
Continuity: Elimination of gaps in a media schedule so that the campaign can be maximized.
Contrast Ratio: The measurement of brightness when a screen is displaying a black video signal and when it is displaying a white video signal.
Controller: The computer used to program and operate digital displays.
Copy: The artwork displayed in an ad.
Co-op: Sharing of advertising costs between distributor and manufacturer.
Copy Area: An OOH unit’s viewing area.
Coverage: The percent of a population within a geographical area that can be reached by the media operator’s total inventory.
CPM – Cost Per Thousand: The cost of 1,000 impressions from potential customers who view the advertising on displays in a market.
CPP – Cost per Ratings Point: The cost of exposure opportunities (equaling one rating point in any geographical market).
Count Station: Sections of road that have a specific pattern of traffic.
Creative Brief: The marketing objectives detailing the campaign design.
Cross-Read: An ad that is visible from the opposite side of the roadway, across traffic lines.
C-Store Display: Point-of-purchase displays positioned at the entrance of convenience stores.
Customer Market: A market used by an advertiser other than MDA or CBSA. Custom markets can highlight OOH delivery in chosen areas (often counties).
D
Daily Effective Circulation (DECs): OOH’s historical audience measurement system. It averages the number of people in cars passing advertising.
Daily Impressions: The estimated number of people passing an ad in a day.
Demographic profile: The description of an audience based on age, race, income, education, gender, etc.
Digital Billboard: Billboards using digital technology – static content with several messages appearing every few seconds.
Digital OOH Media: A OOH display that changes its content with digital technology.
Digital Place-Based Media: OOH digital displays that change advertising content remotely. This term excludes roadside digital OOH media (billboards and bus shelters).
Dimming: Changing the brightness of a display. These are lower at night.
Display Period: The amount of time an advertising campaign is viewed.
Dissolve: An LED message transition accomplished by light intensity or pattern disruption – the first message gradually dissipates while the second message appears. Also called Fade.
Distribution: The placement of OOH units across a market in a strategic manner.
DMA – Designated Market Area: A Nielson Media Research-defined television market. These are used by advertisers for media planning purposes.
Dwell Time: The amount of time a consumer is near an OOH ad.
E
Effective Reach: The number of people inside a target audience exposed to an ad for an average of at least three times.
Efficiency: The degree of value, often expressed as CPM or CPP.
Eco-Poster: Substrates that are environmentally friendly, 100% polyethylene. They attach as a single sheet to a bulletin or poster. Also called Eco-Flex Vinyl.
Embellishment: Creating special effects on an OOH unit with letters, lighting, mechanical devices, and figures.
Emerging media: New and innovate outdoor formats.
Expected lifetime: The length of life anticipated for an LED (typically between 50,000 to 100,000 hours of use).
Exposure: A measure of actual eye contact with an OOH media unit and ad.
Extension: A cutout of the area of copy that falls outside the restrains of a poster or bulletin.
F
Face: An OOH unit’s surface area where ad copy is displayed. A unit may have more than one face.
Facing: The OOH unit’s cardinal direction.
Fade: An LED message transition accomplished by light intensity or pattern disruption – the first message gradually dissipates while the second message appears. Also called Dissolve.
Finishing: Hemming of the edges of posters and bulletins. Finishing may involve welding pockets or creating ways to hang billboard units.
Flagging: Poster paper that is unattached from a panel face or bulletin.
Flighting: The length of time an ad campaign runs, usually divided into segments.
Foster and Kleiser: An advertising company founded in 1901 that established the standards of the OOH industry. The company is now called Clear Channel Outdoor.
Frame: A static screen on an LED display; the metal around the edges of a poster.
Frame Effect: The visual effect of an LED display applied to a single frame to appeal to viewers.
Frequency: A calculation of the number of times someone sees an OOH advertising message during a certain period, such as four weeks.
G
Gamma Correction: The use of video images to correct brightness and micro-contrast inside an image.
Geopath OOH Ratings: This system was designed to provide OOH advertisers credible metrics upon which to rely. These ratings are achieved by researching audiences who actually see ads. They take into account circulation, visibility, eye tracking, demographics, trip modeling, frequency models and reach.
Gross Impressions: The total number of impressions registered against a target audience.
Gross Rating Points (GRPs): The number of in-market impressions delivered on an OOH schedule. This is expressed as a percentage of the population. One rating point is equal to 1 percent of the market population. Also called Total Rating Points (TRP).
H
Highway Beautification Act of 1965: A federal law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that allows for state controls on OOH media on interstate highways. Also called the Lady Bird Johnson Act.
I
Illuminated Unit: An outdoor unit with lighting that illuminates an ad’s message. Usually used from dusk to midnight. Also called Illuminated Face.
Impressions: The number of times people notice an ad inside an OOH display. These may be Gross or In-market. Gross are those delivered against a demographic audience while In-market track how many times people inside a defined market notice an ad.
Intensity: The brightness of an ad, measuring candelas per square meter.
J
Junior Poster: A poster format that measures 6’ by 12’. Previously, it was known as an 8 sheet.
L
LED Brightness: The brightness of an LED measured in mill-candelas, determined by materials used during manufacturing.
LED Degradation: The method used to determine LED life expectancy; degradation occurs when the LED is 50 percent as bright as it was on day one.
Lifestyle/Retail: OOH media used to create customized advertising programs targeting specific consumer audiences. This may include arenas, for instance.
Light Detector: A sensor used to detect the amount of ambient light near a display. The ad can adjust accordingly when dimming is set to auto.
Likelihood to See (LTS): The portion of an Opportunity to See (OTS) audience that saw an ad.
Line of Sight: Viewing more than one OOH unit concurrently.
Location List: All locations and displays in a specific OOH program.
M
Mall Displays: Backlit advertising inside shopping malls, located at strategic points; often, these are dual or tri-sided.
Market: Areas defined geographically and used to buy and sell media. DMA and CBSA are the standards.
Market Ride: Inspecting the OOH units physically.
Media Audit: An audit of consumer retail behavior, product consumption, media usage, lifestyle and demographics.
Media Mix: The combo of various media types used during a single advertising campaign.
Message Duration: How long an OOH advertising message is viewed.
Milli-Candela: One/thousandth of a candela.
Mobile Billboard: A truck with poster panel units. It can be parked or driven to specific destinations.
N
Net Reach: The total number of people inside a target audience that are exposed during an ad campaign; this is often displayed as a percentage.
O
OBIE Award: An annual advertising award celebrating creative excellence and marvels of marketing; the OBIE Award program is administered by the OAAA.
Official Counts: Traffic counts taken from government sources, such as the DOT.
Off-Premise Sign: A sign advertising products that are sold, produced, or furnished off of the property where the sign is located.
On-Premise Sign: A sign advertising products that are sold, produced, or furnished on the property where the sign is located.
Opportunity to See (OTS): A basic measure, measuring media exposure (i.e., watching a TV show) and not advertising. OTS acts as the standard for reporting ratings for all media types with the exception of OOH.
Out of Home Media (OOH): Media formats that intend to reach customers when they are outside of their homes.
Outdoor: See OOH; Outdoor products fall into four categories: billboard, street, furniture, and alternative media.
Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA): The national trade organization that represents OOH suppliers, companies, and affiliates.
Override: The continuation of an outdoor ad campaign past the contracted period, at no additional cost to the advertiser.
P
Permanent Bulletin: A bulletin that is permanently placed in a designated area throughout the length of a contract. Designed to build brand recognition.
Percent Composition: The percentage of a total audience that a brand target’s demographic group compromises.
Photocell: The component within a photosensor that is light sensitive; a photoelectric cell.
Place-Based Media: Media used to target specific people by advertising in places like theaters, stadiums, retail outlets, health clubs, and restaurants.
Plant: A media company and its entire OOH advertising inventory in the market.
Polyethylene (PE): A commonly-used type of plastic that is recyclable; it’s used to make single sheets and billboard substrates.
Polypropylene (PP): A commonly-used type of plastic with an intermediate level of crystallinity that is recyclable; it’s used to make single sheets and billboard substrates.
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): A commonly-used type of plastic made of vinyl groups and ethynyls; it’s used to make substrates for bulletins and some poster products.
Poster: A poster measuring 12’3” by 24’6”. Previously, it was known as a 30-Sheet.
Posting Date: When a poster program is scheduled to commence. A five-day leeway is standard.
Poster Panel: An outdoor unit that holds 30-sheet or 8-sheet poster displays.
Posting Window: The window of five working days after a scheduled posting period provided to allow all posting without penalty.
Posting Instructions: Directions given to OOH companies by an advertiser assigning specific copy to certain locations.
Premier Panel: The standard display format, measuring 12’3” by 24’6”. They stretch a vinyl face over a standard poster panel.
Premier Panel: The standard display format, measuring 25’5” by 24’6”. They stretch a vinyl face over two standard poster panels.
Pre-Ride: An in-market field check to determine the location of a showing for available panels.
Printed OOH Media: An OOH display using a printed substrate to advertise.
Proof-of-Performance (POP): Certification by an OOH company that the contractor has rendered agreed upon services.
Propinquity: The proximity, in time and space, to a purchasing decision.
R
Reach: The percent of a target audience’s population who sees an advertising message at least once during any given OOH campaign.
Refresh Rate: The number of times each second that a screen is refreshed or updated.
Recency Theory: The Theory that advertising messages sell to people who are ready to purchase.
Remote Control: The control of a display via a communications network from a remote location or a central location.
Rotary Bulletin: A standard 14’ by 48’ bulletin that is placed in different market locations at specific intervals (often every 60-90 days). This helps achieve a greater reach.
Row: A horizontal line on a table (in print graphics) or a horizontal line of pixels.
S
Saturation: An image’s color intensity. There is no saturation in a grayscale image.
Screen: An out of home (OOH) advertising display able to render digital content.
Scroll: The movement of an LED display where the message appears to come across the display surface vertically.
Sequence: A group of at least two frames consisting of graphic, words, or animations grouped together under a single name.
Shipping Instructions: The instructions sent to printers for shipping billboards to OOH companies. These include snipe text, number of faces, contact information, a list of materials, and a design description.
Showing: The level of delivery that is directly related to the population in a market. The standard levels are 100, 75, 50, and 25 GPR per showing.
Sign: An outdoor unit; any structure that is used to display information.
Single Sheet Poster: A poster constructed as a single, continuous substrate. These are recyclable.
Snipe: The adhesive used to cover some of the copy displayed on an OOH unit.
Spectacular: A bulletin larger than 14’ by 48’; It is positioned in a prime market spot.
Spotted Map: A map that shows every location included in an outdoor program.
Standardized Face: OOH faces that were constructed in accordance with OAAA specifications.
Standardized Unit: OOH units that were constructed in accordance with OAAA specifications.
Street Furniture: Advertising displays on shopping mall panels, kiosks, newsstands, etc. positioned at eye level or curbside.
Street Side (or Line): The side of the street (or highway) where the OOH advertising faces.
Substrate: The material used to produce OOH displays; substrates come in a wide variety.
Surface Arterials: The major streets in a town or city that carry heavy traffic.
T
Target Audience: A population of the most desired consumer prospects for a service or product.
Target Rating Points (TRPs): The in-market impressions from a target audience delivered by an OOH campaign; these are expressed in percentages.
Traffic Count: The number of vehicles and pedestrians passing outdoor advertising structures. Also called Gross Rating Points (GRP).
Traffic Origin: Information about who is passing outdoor advertising structures. This research uses license plate numbers to obtain demographics and residential information.
Transition: The visual effect on an LED display that changes one message into another.
Transit: Displays on mass transit or near transit stations – airport panels, taxi panels, bus stations, etc.
Transit Poster: Posters attached to busses or commuter trains. They are displayed in king panels (on the street-side), queen panels (curb-side), or tail panels (at the back).
Transit Shelter: A shelter located along bus routes, sitting curbside at stopping points. Also called Bus Shelter.
Travel: An LED display where the message appears to move across the screen horizontally.
Tri-Color Chip: An LED Package that has the three primary colors (red, green, and blue) forming one pixel.
Trim Size: The dimensions of an ad substrate after it has been prepared for placement onto an OOH unit.
Tri-Vision: An OOH unit with a three faces that allows different copy messages revolving at intermittent intervals.
U
Ubiquity: The ability to be omnipresent, everywhere all at once.
Unit: An outdoor advertising display.
Unilluminated Unit: An outdoor unit without lighting or illumination of the ad’s message. Also called Unilluminated Face.
UV Coating: Coating applied over ink that products from UV radiation.
V
Vinyl: A single-sheet with an advertising message placed via computer production. Vinyl is the main material used on bulletin faces and premiere products.
W
Wall Mural: A mural painted on the exterior surface of a building. Trademarked as Wallscape.
Wavelength: The distance between two points of conforming phases; in LED, this determines color.
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