Clear Channel Outdoors' announcement last week of its new National Sales Group is a clear sign that digital signage networks are maturing as a serious medium.

Clear Channel Outdoors, one of the world's largest outdoor advertising firms with nearly one million displays in more than 50 countries, announced Sept. 15 it has setup a new business unit focused on helping advertisers and ad agencies plan, buy and implement "multiplatform and multimarket out-of-home campaigns."

According to a press release announcing the creation of the Clear Channel Outdoor National Sales Group, or NSG, one important reason for the move is the availability of new audience-measurement technologies that will assist advertisers and agencies in quantifying the size of the audience they can reach.

As I've pointed out in other columns over the past few years, for digital signage ad networks to take off, advertisers must achieve a new level of comfort with digital signage as a serious advertising medium, and that acceptance hinges on delivering quantifiable measurement of audience size and viewing duration.

For those with only a passing familiarity with the ad industry drawn from television, newspapers, magazines, the Internet and the radio, advertising might seem a bit quirky, somewhat glitzy and even whimsical. But nothing could be further from the truth. Those same ad agencies that develop campaigns featuring everything from a female plumber named Josephine (I'm showing my age with that one.) to little a little green reptile selling car insurance are quite down-to-earth, no-nonsense types when it comes to identifying target audiences and reaching them with rifle-like precision.

The formation of the new business unit at Clear Channel is significant because it indicates the pieces are falling into place for advertisers and agencies to quantify digital signage audiences.

"Outdoor advertising is now primed to gain a larger share of overall advertising spending with the advent of new measurement tools like Eyes On that puts out-of-home on par with other media categories, combined with new digital innovations that allow for more creative and flexible campaigns," the press release quotes Ron Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Outdoor Americas as saying.

Even more to the point, he is quoted as saying "for the first time, marketers can target key demographics on a national scale with one easy purchase and not have to assemble buys across numerous local markets."

My intent is not to promote Clear Channel Outdoors. Rather, it is to point out that the formation of NSG is another sign that digital signage is coming of age as a viable ad medium, rather than being an experimental advertising alternative given less-than-serious consideration. Clear Channel's move expresses confidence that the company can deliver to agencies and advertisers the same level of audience measurement and demographics they are accustomed to when using traditional media.

That's particularly important as the nation walks the tightrope toward economic recovery. The appeal of reaching customers at the point of purchase is strong for marketers, but without a means to measure the audience, advertisers and agencies were left in the uncomfortable position of committing limited advertising dollars on little more than hope. Audience measurement in the digital signage network space is replacing hope with facts - something that's almost certain to elevate the medium in the eyes of advertisers and agencies alike.