After a rough few years, out-of-home advertising is back
As summer roadtrippers likely know, out-of-home advertising is alive and well—or at least alive. The “well” part is up for debate.
Though OOH advertising is one of the oldest forms of marketing, it’s kept up with the times and has recovered from the massive downturn it experienced at the onset of Covid. Market research firm Magna called OOH “the success story of 2021 and 2022,” noting that in some countries—including the US—the sector reached pre-pandemic levels by the end of last year, and is on track to “complete a full global recovery” this year.
Other recent reports and OOH company earnings indicate brands will continue campaigning alongside highways, at transit hubs, on vehicles, in the sky, and anywhere else in the world they can find real estate, especially given digital advancements.
“Out-of-home really is a pretty durable, relevant portion of the entertainment and media ecosystem globally,” CJ Bangah, a principal in PwC’s customer transformation practice, told Marketing Brew.
Get out (of home)
In 2021, as Americans ventured back outside, marketers showed renewed interest in OOH campaigns.
As recently as this year, major OOH companies reported increases in Q1 revenue:
- Outfront Media brought in $376 million in revenue in the US, up 6.3% year over year.
- Net revenue at Lamar Advertising, a company that operates in the US and Canada, was $471 million, an increase of 4.4%.
- Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, which operates internationally, reported a 3.8% increase in revenue to $545 million, excluding the impacts of foreign exchange rates.
Those three companies combined hold a 63% share of the US OOH market, which saw $10.1 billion in revenue last year, according to PwC, making it the biggest OOH market in the world.
That being said, OOH is a small channel compared to TV and online advertising. Global spend