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And it is a good match. Whether it's through mobile-enabled billboard posters, plasma screens in clubs, broadband games machines in pubs, ATMs or kiosks, advertisers are able to target new audiences on the move, while outdoor advertising itself becomes more measurable and targeted.

Both online and outdoor are growing markets. Alan James, chief executive of the Outdoor Advertising Association, comments on 2004's third-quarter budget of £213.5m for outdoor advertising: "It marks the continuing success of the medium in attracting new business. In an ongoing volatile market, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 per cent is very heartening."

And figures published this summer by both PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau show that, in 2003, outdoor adspend was up by 12.3 per cent on the previous year, while online was up by 79.8 per cent.

Add to this the fact that online ad spend is predicted to overtake outdoor by the end of the decade, according to media agency Zenith Optimedia.

When the agency unveiled its global ad spend forecast in the first week of December, it estimated that online's share of the ad market would increase to 4.4 per cent by 2007.

And, given the rise of new technologies that are bringing interactivity to outdoor media, it makes sense for brands to marry the two.

For example, mobile marketing company Hypertag has just launched a Bluetooth version of its interactive poster advertising technology, which enables large amounts of data, such as video from poster advertising, to be sent quickly to a mobile. By activating the infrared or Bluetooth facility on their handset and holding it up to the Hypertag, consumers can receive content such as vouchers, business cards, ringtones or games.

In December, Transport for London launched interactive posters at 25 major London Underground stations as part of its Safer Travel at Night campaign. The posters enabled travellers to obtain the phone number for safe travel information on their mobile via infra-red.

Nigel Marson, head of group marketing at TfL, comments: "We are using a whole range of advertising and marketing techniques across the Safer Travel at Night campaign, but Hypertag is the major interactive element of the activity."

He points out: "A key feature of Hypertags, which makes them work for this campaign, is the fact that they do not rely on mobile phone networks. This means they can work in previously inaccessible areas, such as Underground stations, which is obviously a huge advantage in a campaign of this sort."

Rachel Harker, sales and marketing director at Hypertag, believes there are two key ways in which interactivity could change the face of poster advertising.

First, there is added value for customers through more exciting formats and access to more information. "This means advertising becomes more impactful, which leads to better brand recall and stimulates follow-up sales action for the advertisers," says Harker.

"And there is the additional benefit of measurability, which is important for advertisers. This is the first time that it has been possible to measure sources on a site-by-site basis," she adds.

Advertisers can also discover the full interactivity of each web site during a campaign, adds Harker. "They can understand how a campaign is working. This will affect their advertising designs, and improve ROI and forward planning."

The timing is now right for this sort of advertising, with multimedia mobiles, but it is still early days as yet. The future will see more possibilities to use rich media through both video and email, with the possibility for outdoor to involve more fully interactive campaigns.

"Soon we will be able to take people to the internet through mobile in a fully branded environment. Interactivity through outdoor will become a two-way process," Harker adds.

She goes as far as to say that this could become the primary advertising channel for brands. "Mobile is a medium that people can carry around with them. This is a way we see the future for outdoor poster campaigns and people will soon use online through mobile as well."

Bango is one other company that is making mobile interact with outdoor posters over camera phones. It has designed 2D barcodes, which will take users to a WAP site when they point a camera-phone at the image (see Revolution, October 2004, p71). This achieves the same result as typing in a shortcode to receive a link.

The spot codes are designed to sit on outdoor advertising and other media, enabling consumers to access offers and information via WAP. The company plans to have technology embedded into handsets for early 2005 that will translate the barcode information automatically.

Carling Live, the music events arm of the Coors-owned beer brand, is another name that is combining wireless technology with outdoor advertising to promote its music events and distribute tickets. Carling also worked with mobile marketing agency Wireless Brand Channel to run a promotion at the University of London on the student TV channel, SubTV, from the end of November 2004.

Screens showed creative by Carling's design agency, Dowcarter, and students could text in a shortcode for gig tickets to be redeemed by scanning mobile vouchers on its 'Redeemit' unit. The SMS message sent to users contained a unique code and details of the relevant event and a matrix. Each matrix was unique to a specific individual and each code could only be redeemed once, ensuring the system was trackable.

In Bristol, Carling is planning to deliver information and promotions from kiosks to users via Bluetooth (see Revolution, December 2004, p4).

Patrick Crosbie, director of Wireless Brand Channel, points out: "This gives brands an exact measurement of success. If you are running a relationship management programme and people have opted to give you their mobile number, you can capture exactly who redeemed tickets and at what time of day."

Nicola Young, head of relationship marketing at Carling Live, says the text element of promotions and ticketing provides a key way to engage with an audience. "As well as offering a practical and cost-effective ticketing solution, we can precisely track our engagements with consumers all the way through the redemption cycle," she adds.

Digital outdoor advertising is also sneaking on to less likely platforms.

ATMs and broadband-enabled devices, such as kiosks or pub games, are new ways of targeting users without a mobile device.

For example, Barclays ran a 'print to win' game for its first promotion using its ATM network. Digital agency Dare designed both the ATM screens and tickets for the game, which tied in with the bank's sponsorship of the Premiership.

The campaign, which was backed by a £1.5 million mixed-media promotion ran on 3,000 screens and was based on the golden ticket concept in Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The scheme targeted 4.6 million consumers per week (see Revolution, November 2004, p9).

British Airways was the first advertiser to work with ATM:ad; an advertising method developed by i-design, which enables third-parties to run campaigns across bank and building society ATM machines.

Last November, the airline ran its third campaign, The push, which featured the strapline 'Big on places, Small on prices', which promoted its European network. The ads appeared at 54 Nationwide Building Society ATMs, situated at London Underground stations, and near BA's head office.

Research on prior campaigns showed 39 per cent of users instantly remembered the onscreen campaign and 70 per cent recalled it when prompted. The ad format enabled the airline to measure the number of interactions with the message.

Mark Hatwell of ZenithOptimedia, client planning manager for BA, said: "ATM:ad has shown itself to be an effective method for delivering a targeted message to a national audience. The return on investment was demonstrated with up to 44 per cent of those advertising-aware, indicating a higher intention to purchase as a direct result."

Elsewhere, Inspired Broadcast Networks provides 12,000 network terminals inside pubs, clubs and licensed betting offices with a direct internet connection. Neale Deeley, sales director of Inspired Broadcast Media, explains that there are branding and data-capture opportunities for advertisers.

Brands can sponsor games, for example, or advertise by enabling users to print off vouchers for redemption at the bar, in return for typing in their personal data. "We can do a fast turnaround and have an advert related to a specific football match in a certain geography," he explains. "We can then feed back exactly who was where and at what time."

But, this is just the humble beginnings of a growing concept. Bill Wilson, operations director of the Outdoor Advertising Association, believes that advertisers have not grasped the full potential as yet. "There was a budget of about £15 million spent on digital outdoor this year," he says, which incorporates schemes such as Tesco.tv - in-store product advertising on TV screens.

"This is a huge opportunity that hasn't been fully grasped. It will grow. It's ready to really take off," Wilson continues. However, he adds: "It won't change outdoor. Interactivity will not be possible on the roadside, for example, but there will be more of an impact on other media when people realise the specific targeting opportunities.

"People don't know anything about it and they want to know more," he believes. "Brands and agencies are still learning how to best use the media."

Wilson points to the digital outdoor database on OAA.org. uk, which has case studies of outdoor, interactive advertising from various brands.

"If you could interact with an audience in a club through a screen - through text-flirting or photo-texting - there is a huge potential for what this allows brands to do," continues Wilson. "It allows you to be able to target a huge, targeted captive audience - they have a huge, disposable income and they are in clubs, so they cannot be targeted through TV."

WHAT BRANDS ARE DOING OUTDOORS AT A GLANCE

Transport for London unveiled interactive Hypertag posters at 25 major London Underground stations as part of its Safer Travel at Night (STAN) campaign in December 2004.

Carling linked up with mobile-marketing agency Wireless Brand Channel to run a promotion at the University of London, on the student TV channel SubTV, from the end of November 2004. It used mobile ticketing.

Last November, British Airways rolled out its third ATM campaign and ran ads on ATMs at London Underground stations, using i-design's third-part advertising technology, ATM:ad.