LAGOS/JOHANNESBURG: The outdoor advertising sector on the African continent has received a boost with the recent deployment of the first digital roadside billboards in South Africa and a major audience research project in Nigeria.

Continental Outdoor Media, a specialist in outdoor advertising, has installed seven digital roadside billboards in Sandton, an upmarket Johannesburg suburb, capable of reaching up to 6.7m people a month.

Lelanie Butler, sales director of Continental Outdoor Media, said the new billboards offered advertisers "tactical messaging, day-part message management and real-time updates". Starcom Mediavest has already taken space to promote the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

And Bazil Lauryssen, CEO of Continental Outdoor Media, saw digital out of home getting larger in format and more prolific. "The advancement of technology and its ability to personalise and encourage interactive behaviour is redefining Outdoor Advertising's role," he said, in remarks reported by Gadget.

Further north, in Nigeria, the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) announced an outdoor audience research project, the first of its kind in West Africa, that aims to produce outdoor audience figures in line with those already available for radio, TV and press.

George Noah, LASAA managing director, described it as "a defining moment" in outdoor advertising practice in Nigeria, reported Business Day, adding that data analysis of the target market was vital to enable advertisers to make informed decisions.

"Scientific audience measurement will provide details of 'realistic opportunity to see' with eye-tracking studies, which will [also] gauge the 'likelihood to see' factor of the various types of display," he explained.

Noah further noted that the outdoor medium was changing at a rapid rate and said "we must think from the point of view of the audience, not from the position of a billboard structure".

He also thought that the research results would "reveal the marketing potential of previously ignored areas".

Data sourced from Business Day, Gadget; additional content by Warc staff