Over the last years, the growth of Out-of-Home advertising has out-performed the ad market growth and especially since COVID, the market share of OOH is growing even faster; the latest public numbers of Ströer, as well as Nielsen statistics, demonstrate the acceleration of the OOH momentum in Germany.

Schmalzl says that besides the structural challenges of other classic broadcasting media of TV, print and radio, it's clearly the digitisation of the OOH infrastructure as well as the seamless integration into the broader digital marketing universe via tech, data and content which are driving this development. 

In Germany, OOH is getting very close to a Nielsen-measured market share of 10%. Nevertheless, it's still an early phase of that structural shift towards OOH. So, all digital – all good? It's always the time of success when you make most of the mistakes.

The OOH industry needs to keep an eye on a couple of aspects to further strengthen its relationship with all stakeholders and business partners.

Three strategies for making OOH work even better with advertisers, cities and other stakeholders comprise:

  • Converting classic sites to digital screens needs to go hand in hand with leveraging the new opportunities for creative and impactful solutions for advertisers: it's not about the hardware — it's about the outcome & ROI for clients.
  • OOH and even more Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) have the lowest carbon footprint amongst all relevant media channels — so it's a great opportunity to work with market partners to create more sustainable marketing plans by leveraging the strengths of DOOH.
  • Especially the digital infrastructure of media owners offers many opportunities to create extra benefits for municipalities and the public: it can play a role as an information tool for citizens, an element of traffic management in cities, a feature of public warning systems as well as a marketing platform for cultural life in smart cities.

And just as most of the current momentum is digital, it’s crucial to not overlook the importance and USPs of classic OOH. Both the impact of large visuals on the public as well as the narrow-casting opportunities for local targeting campaigns and local customers require more focus from sales teams and potentially extra investments to protect the industry's overall infrastructure long-term.

OOH is becoming more and more digital — but it's not all digital (yet). And both are good. 

For further information, visit www.worldooh.org or contact Richard Saturley at [email protected]. 

*Image courtesy of contributor