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Major events to draw millions of people out of the home

March 07, 2011

People are moving around outside the home more than ever before, with the average adult now spending more than seven waking hours a day outside the home, and the next 18 months will see a significant increase in the number of people on the move in the UK.

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th is expected to bring an extra 2.3m visitors to London from around the UK while it is predicted that 11.4m people will go to an Olympic venue during the London 2012 Games.

On both occasions this surge of visitors to the capital and wider UK cities will be an opportunity like no other for advertisers to make an impact using Out of Home (OOH).

Not only will the audience increase dramatically from the usual impact figures but they will be an excited and engaged audience in a positive and receptive mindset which is ideal for taking in brand messages.

Extra visitors to boost economy

Kinetic Panel data released this month (March) showed more than a third (34%) of Londoners and nearly a quarter of the UK (23%) are excited about the Royal Wedding. It showed 14% of Londoners will travel into the centre of the capital for the event, which will fall on a specially created bank holiday, while 2.3m visitors will travel into London from around the UK as a whole.

This is great news for the country’s tourism as well as OOH advertisers, coming less than a week after the four-day Easter weekend. 1 in 5 Britons will take extra time off around the period and 10% will travel within the UK, with only 7% saying they will take the opportunity to go abroad.

Kinetic predicts sponsors will spend around £100m on OOH advertising over and above their normal UK budgets between July 2011 and September 2012 and our team of experts will be advising clients how best to take advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunities.

Although still a year away people have a positive attitude towards the Olympics, with 51% of Londoners and 40% of people from across the UK saying they are already excited about the Games, up 5% since October 2010.

While 59% of Brits are concerned about the cost of staging the Olympics, 39% believe the benefits will out-weigh the costs. Despite only 20% of people saying they will try and get tickets to any of the events, 34% of people who are planning to visit Olympic events have yet to register for tickets but plan to do so soon.

The UK economy will see a significant boost from both the Royal Wedding and the Olympics with attractions in London and around the country particularly likely to benefit. Our panel showed 70% of people think the Games will boost the UK’s economy with 45% of those planning to visit the Games saying they will visit other attractions while in London.

Many councils have announced they will not be charging for people wishing to close streets for Royal Wedding parties and pubs and bars will be extending their opening hours to accommodate the festivities.

New infrastructure offers new opportunity

London’s transport system is gearing up for the influx of passengers in 2012 and media owners are preparing for the increase of ad sites on trains and buses and in Underground stations and rail termini.

81% of people anticipate using public transport during their visit to the Games, 56% exclusively. Only 27% of people asked expect public transport to be overcrowded and to have poor service during the Olympic period and only 18% expect it to cope well with the extra passengers.

Kinetic conducts regular online panel surveys to gauge how seasonal and one-off events will affect Britain on the move, in turn advising advertisers how this highly active audience can best be reached.