The most important things to happen in OOH over the past decade

Piccadilly Circus – over a 100 year old advertising venue, goes digital. Owned by Landsec, the site has been through many changes in its history, making it much more than an advertising icon. It will forever be a landmark to be associated with the latest technological advances.

2. Payphone advertising disappears. As an unsurprising consequence in the increase in cellphone use, payphones have declined, and alongside this space to advertise on them.

3. Google, Netflix and American Tower entered the business.

4. Hand-painted walls become a “thing” again, and a popular one at that! This traditional style in which advertising and art become interchangeable commodities is becoming more and more commonplace.

5. Times Square goes almost completely digital. The iconic bright screens continue to multiply.

6. Outdoor execs and buyers start slinging around terms like DSP, SSP, CM, top of the stack, bottom of the funnel, API, KPI, neural network, NOC, feedback loop, deep data analytics and programmatic, proving that we have truly entered a brave new world. The field-specific lexis developing gives OOH its own language, with experts emerging and data and research increasing.

7. One 350 foot tall digital screen goes up in Times Square. Times Square can be touted as the most expensive and lucrative place on the planet to advertise.

8. Outfront Media, one of the largest outdoor media companies, whose DNA consists of Combined Communications, Outdoor Systems, 3M National, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Media finally spins out of CBS and becomes a public stand-alone REIT.

9. Lamar Advertising’s revenue grows by over 70%.

10. The TAB (Traffic Audit Bureau) becomes Geopath. The change reflects the organisation’s shift from measuring outdoor ad inventory to measuring audience location and engagement with outdoor. It is now headed by a woman for the first time in its history.

11. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America says industry grew 7.7% in the second quarter of 2019. DOOH global share of OOH revenue is predicted to grow to 24% by 2021. OOH shows no sign of stopping!