Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Talon Outdoor has reported the latest findings from their proprietary Out of Home data management platform Ada, covering the week ending June 21, 2020, the first full week since lockdown restrictions were lifted on non-essential retail in England. The latest figures show a significant week on week impact on footfall across Shopping Malls, Department stores and Supermarkets with a boost to overall population movement and travel as roadside traffic returns to normal levels in some areas.
With non-essential shops opening across England as of the week commencing 15th of June, large numbers of people have been enticed Out of Home to Shopping Malls and Department Stores. Department Stores are outperforming Malls overall, with footfall levels now just -33% below the baseline average, compared to -47% below for Malls, suggesting a consumer preference for open-air high street shopping over enclosed Mall environments. Other notable uplifts were seen in Supermarkets where footfall was up week on week by 7% and is now only 23% below the baseline.
Emily Alcorn, Head of Insight at Talon told us “It’s really promising to see roadside OOH viewing almost return to pre-Covid19 levels across many regions of Britain. The reopening of non-essential retail has been another welcome boost to OOH audiences with exposure to small formats and street furniture rising fast – great news for advertisers looking to reconnect with audiences as they go about their day. We expect to see these figures rise again in line with the reopening of restaurants, bars, and cinemas, as the UK begins its phased recovery.”
More broadly, population movement continues to rise as do roadside traffic levels which saw a WoW increase of 8% and is now only 15% below the standard baseline for the period. Many regions such as Border, the North East, and the South and South East of England are close to pre-Covid traffic levels. The South West of England is exceeding baseline traffic levels by +19% thanks to exceptional weather which saw many Brits take advantage of the coastline and the re-opened National Parks following long stretches spent indoors.
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