Billboards are bigger than ever

Every year, digital ads eat up a bigger portion of global ad spending.

This year, as ad spending tops $1 trillion, according to recent data from GroupM, digital ads will take up 71.4% of that total, up from 53% just five years ago. Its gains are coming from traditional platforms like TV, radio, and newspapers as brands continue to move their marketing money online — with one major exception: outdoor or out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

The money earmarked to plaster ads on billboards, benches, and bus shelters has kept going up and its share of the ad-spending market has remained notably steady, even as the relentless drumbeat of digital has siphoned off funds from other formats. Boosters think OOH market share could even do something insane: grow.

“I believe that we’re going to continue to grow even more in the coming two years,” Anna Bager, president and CEO of Out of Home Advertising Association of America, said. “And I think our share of the ad pie will probably increase.”

Big names like McDonald’s, Apple, and Verizon as well as smaller direct-to-consumer and consumer-packaged-goods brands are also pouring more money into the format.

That’s good news for both outdoor-ad agencies and the companies that sell such real estate, like Outfront and Clear Channel.

Perhaps ironically, OOH advertising is doing so well because of digital. In a world where much of people’s day-to-day is transacted over screens, where space is limited, audiences are fragmented, and ads are saturated, the fact that these ads are not on a screen is precisely what makes them special. It’s something different.

While ads on screens tend to pop up while you’re trying to do something else — watch TV, read an article, scroll social — ads in the real world can feel less distracting. They’re delivered to people of all walks of life when in transit, walking, driving, and in places where they aren’t as busy and are potentially more receptive.

“What makes it so powerful is that it’s happening in a public space,” Rick Robinson, CEO of buy-side firm PJX Media, said. “When we’re out there, we’re in a different headspace than when we’re at home: you’re elevated, you’re alert, all your senses are functioning.”

The public spaces are more inherently social, which he said appeals to human nature.

“Sitting in a room all day working on a laptop in your chonies and then spending the evening eating food delivered by some anonymous person on your phone and watching videos is so antihuman,” Robinson said.

In other words, OOH advertising can be welcome and even memorable. In the most successful cases, people share it not only with those around them IRL but also on social media.

Even the Digital Prophet himself, David Shing — known as Shingy — is bullish on outdoor ads at the expense of his digital bona fides.

“The ad becomes a participant in a sensation,” Shingy told Sherwood News. “You just can’t do that with a mobile ad. You just can’t do that with a leaderboard or a mid-page unit. You just can’t.”

He added, “There’s something about them being in the wild.”

Take, for example, Charlie XCX putting up a hand-painted neon green “brat” wall billboard in Brooklyn for her titular album. Concurrently, the artist announced on social media she’d be performing a concert in front of the mural, which later became a hot spot for fans to show up to in real life and share pictures of it on social media.

“If younger audiences do like community and they’re trying to create connection and you’re a brand trying to do that in the cracks of user-generated content that may or may not be brand sponsored, then outdoor is one of the very rare moments where you can be more considered, more thoughtful, and potentially more provoking, which ultimately gives you longevity,” Shingy said.

Of course, outdoor ads themselves are also increasingly digital, so they’re more dynamic and easily changed than they used to be. More than a third of OOH sales are digital, and it’s been steadily growing, according to GroupM. Though, some of the most successful ones lately have been old-fashioned.

Digital tools have also been a godsend for outdoor ads because companies can more directly see their impact, often using cell data to see the volume of people who walked by it or purchased something from it afterward. And brands can more easily buy such ads, thanks to programmatic ad buying, where they can specify a demographic they’d like to reach and automatically buy corresponding OOH marketing.

“Up until a few years ago, out of home was measured in isolation. It was measured by, ‘We put the billboard up. What was the percentage lift in same-store sales?’” Chris Gadek, CEO of out-of-home advertising platform AdQuick, said. “Now we have the ability to demonstrate that out of home performs better or worse than — in most cases we’re finding better than — TV, radio, paid social, you name it.”

Out-of-home budgets, Gadek says, are going to increase because customers can finally quantify its value.

OOH ads have been doing particularly well on so-called “iconic” or “spectacular” billboards, which include things like The Sphere in Las Vegas, a giant earth-like orb covered in LED displays, or 3D anamorphic signage in Times Square. Outdoor advertisements in places of transit, including airports and subways, have also been very successful.

But OOH can also be small and more targeted. If you know where your customers are going to be, “moving media” — wrapping delivery trucks, Ubers, and buses in advertising — is a way to get that advertising in front of them in the real world.

Moving media, Gadek says, has been taking off. Companies want to place their advertising where other ads aren’t or where they’re too unaffordable, like in places where there are no billboards, in expensive urban areas, or out front of a popular tech conference.

While the technology behind outdoor ads has evolved, the experts we spoke to couldn’t point to much about the nature of ads themselves that has changed. In order to be effective, they still have to be good: they have to take into consideration the location and the context they exist in. They have to make people stop in their tracks and tell their friends.