Office-Based Digital Media Screens Influence Affluent Business Consumers

A new media channel that delivers news and advertising to business professionals at their workplace is highly effective in reaching influential purchasing decision-makers, according to a recent Arbitron study conducted for The Wall Street Journal Office Network, writes MarketingCharts.

The study, which surveyed over 1,100 business professionals, found that more than 9 out of 10 view the WSJ Office Network screens in their building lobbies:

• Of those viewers, 88 percent consider the Network’s programming of live updates from WSJ.com to be valuable.
• A surprising 68 percent of respondents agreed that the advertising messages on the WSJ Office Network are relevant to them.

The WSJ Office Network, launched in 2006 by Dow Jones & Company and Office Media Network (OMN), delivers continuous business news updates, along with landlord-tenant messages and relevant advertising, on high-definition, flat-panel LCD screens in the lobbies and high-traffic areas of class A office buildings in the top 15 DMAs. The Network will extend to office tower elevators by the end of the year.

Other key findings of the Arbitron study:

• More than 75 percent of those who noticed The WSJ Office Network screens said that they impacted some level of corporate spending in the last 12 months.
• One in six viewers of the Network screens authorizes or influences business expenditures of more than $100,000 per year (see chart of viewers who authorize or influence business expenditures).
• Nearly every person (93 percent) exposed to the WSJ Office Network in an office building lobby recalled seeing the screens.
• Among those who noticed the screens, 84 percent recall seeing stock market info and 76 percent recall news stories (see chart related to content recall)—and nearly 60 percent recall seeing one of three advertisers featured in the survey (see chart related to ad recall).
• A typical viewer is exposed to the network an average of five times per day, generating cumulative viewership of 3.3 minutes.
• 61 percent of top-level executives believe they were more likely to watch content from The Wall Street Journal compared with other news sources.
• The WSJ Office Network viewer is primarily highly affluent: average household income is $159,000 and 48 percent earn an annual household income of $100,000 or more.
• 54 percent of those exposed to the Network classify themselves as top-level executives, managers or professionals (see chart of titles of business professionals viewing the WSJ Office Network screens).

Office-based digital media is one of the fastest-growing categories in advertising: Overall, marketers are investing $1.2 billion of their national media budgets in out-of-home advertising, including office building-based media networks, according to Profitable Channels, a marketing services company.

Spending on the video advertising channel specifically grew 28 percent in 2006, according to PQ Media’s “Alternative Out-of-Home Media Forecast 2007-2011,” and growth is expected to continue at the same pace in 2007.

About the study: The study, titled The Wall Street Journal Office Network: Influencing Business Decisions Where Decisions Are Made, examines overall viewership, demographics and purchase behavior, along with the consumer’s level of engagement with the network’s advertising and content. The data used to support the findings in this report are based primarily on original research conducted by Edison Media Research in cooperation with Arbitron Inc. The 1,172 respondents who participated in this study were recruited in nine office buildings containing The WSJ Office Network screens in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, DC. The survey was completed online.