Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is weathering the digital storm better than several other legacy ad mediums.

Research firms have differing views on how quickly OOH is growing. According to Zenith, between 2018 and 2021, TV will contribute more to the overall growth in global ad spend than OOH

According to Magna, global OOH spend grew 4.6% in 2018. Magna states that OOH was the only traditional ad medium to show growth last year.

eMarketer expects OOH advertising spend will grow faster than most other traditional ad mediums this year. We forecast that the UK OOH market will grow 1.2% in 2019.

Although the phrase “outdoor advertising” brings to mind images of static billboards, OOH is evolving. Outdoor advertising firms like Outfront Media are eager to embrace 5G technology so they can deliver billboard ads more dynamically. And advertisers are starting to embrace programmatic for OOH advertising.

"It comes down to measurability and accountability, because OOH is not necessarily traditional billboards anymore," said Tim Ringel, global CEO of ad agency Reprise Digital, who spoke to eMarketer for our upcoming “UK Digital Out of Home Advertising” report. "OOH [data] drills down to zip codes, even to blocks. That's the kind of targeting and measurability clients really like, especially in proximity to stores."

According to Warc, digital OOH is expected to grow 10% per year between 2018 and 2021. And the digital share of total OOH spend reached 37% in 2018.

Another advertising advantage that OOH has is that well-placed outdoor ads can be hard for people to ignore, according to Ringel.

"Sadly, some of the mainstream traditional media has become very secondary in terms of how we consume it," he said. "We don't consume it consciously anymore because the moment a TV ad comes on, we are on our phone. It's different with many OOH formats where, if you're really creative, you can't really escape that bus stop. You can't really escape that subway station. You know what I mean?"

eMarketer PRO subscribers can read the full UK Digital Out of Home Advertising 2019 report when it comes out later this month.

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