Friday, December 18, 2015

With Gas Prices Down, Opportunities for Advertising Goes Up

You might be wondering what the price of gas has to do with advertising. Seems like a long stretch, doesn’t it? Well, think again. With the price of gas going down all across America, consumers are choosing to take advantage and get out more. For advertisers, this means more people to interact with while they are outside of their homes.

In America, the average price of gas in October 2014 was roughly $3/gallon. October 2015 lowered the average price to around $2.25/gallon. On this December day, I drove to work in Kansas City, MO, and saw gas prices for as low as $1.53/gallon.

The first trend influenced by lower gas prices is that Americans are driving more miles every year. As you can see from the graph below, provided by the Census Bureau, 
Americans are rapidly increasing the number of miles they drive.



The Census Bureau found that sales at restaurants/bars and hotels have increased from last year by 8% and 5%, respectively.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Out of Home (OOH) advertising is, “second only to digital media in total growth from 2014-2016 (based on actual and projections)”.


Marketers now have a larger audience to reach while they are out and about and likely to be influenced. Consumers can be reached on a variety of OOH platforms like billboards, smartphones, social media, and more. For advertisers, this can be seen as a huge opportunity. Consumers now have more disposable income to spend along with the drive (pun intended) to spend it. 

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