Perspective - OOH is just finding its groove

Ben Poole.

The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.

Ben Poole, Director, Client Development (ANZ), Billups

The massive disruption in media through 2024 has had many effects, one of the most important has been cementing out-of-home (OOH) as the last true mass broadcast channel for advertisers.

This year has been a standout for OOH, with brands using it for mass media moments and unlocking its potential for hyper-localised, data-driven, and highly creative campaigns. It’s a feel-good story, at a time when other channels were facing a decline and ad budgets were largely flat, OOH saw consistent and impressive growth.

This growth didn’t happen by chance. It has been fueled by technology, increased digitisation across all touchpoints, smarter measurement practices, and a renewed appreciation for OOH’s ability to cut through the noise in a fragmented media environment.

This year we saw OOH campaigns that didn’t just speak to audiences but genuinely connected with them.

Some of my favourites in Australia include Oatly’s hyper-local ‘Support Your Local Oat Dealer’ campaign, a reminder of how OOH can own an area and space. Binge’s launch of House of Dragon season 2 via a CGI dragon was also a standout. This was a mixed reality campaign that demonstrated how the offline and online worlds can work in unison.

Across the ditch, I also loved a campaign for NZ Fire & Emergency which reimagined the iconic fire danger signs and transformed them to update programmatically in real time, serving localised creative based on temperature and risk considerations during those classic Kiwi (and Aussie) activities such as BBQs.

I believe a primary reason why these campaigns worked is because they showcased OOH’s ability to demonstrate effectiveness in diverse ways. These campaigns showed us the power of static ownership of spaces, gave us head-turning moments, and used the power of data to improve the relevance and context of the message.

We’ve seen a continuation of digital transformation this year, with both programmatic and measurement seeing increased adoption. We’re now seeing greater buying flexibility, data inputs, and triggers being readily available across programmatic platforms, which are also being harnessed alongside greater measurement and attribution outputs.

The effect of these changes is a better understanding of how audiences move and the best times and places to engage with them in order to make an impression. The increased programmatic and measurement capacities have also enabled brands and agencies to think more deeply about how OOH can help achieve business outcomes further down the funnel.

This smarter, data-driven approach to OOH is a game changer. When used in unison with the traditional buying principles of OOH, it allows marketers to justify their investments while pushing the creative boundaries of what’s possible. While technology and data are critical, they’re not enough in isolation. The real magic happens when creativity enters the equation.

Consider the rise of faux OOH, a trend that saw many brands create AI-generated images of fantastical OOH campaigns; such as Maybelline’s Lash trains and

These campaigns help showcase the power of OOH in an online world and I believe they can help encourage broader and bigger creative thinking when it comes to this channel.

However, the true power of OOH is connection. It’s real life, it’s visceral, it provides utility, it provides conversation on a daily commute. You don’t want to miss that by just going for a fake fully digital campaign.

Instead, look for ways augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality can be used in outdoor campaigns, perhaps an OOH activation with some kind of AR layered over it. Mixing this technology with real-life OOH sites leverages the power of both platforms and allows brands to create storytelling across online and offline worlds.

Looking ahead, this trend will only grow. As OOH becomes more interactive, the possibilities for creative storytelling are endless.

In 2025, there are a few key areas that I believe will experience further development. Firstly, we have reached an abundance of players all offering different solutions for measuring OOH. A big focus for this year will be turning all this data into real-life case studies for brands that have found real value in these tools, so we can further prove the effectiveness of OOH in driving behavioural change.

Also, we will see more tech development in the OOH space this coming year. Specifically, programmatic will continue to grow which is undeniably a good thing - but we must use this tech in a way that helps grow OOH’s piece of the pie and allows us to justify investment in the channel.

AI and automation will also continue to integrate into everyday practices. As this continues, we should all be careful to never replace the human element of what makes our channel great - creativity, the nuances of a real-world channel, and the interaction at each location. Instead, we should use AI and automation to improve efficiencies and help us understand a world of data.

As we step into 2025, I’m optimistic that we will continue to see some great ideas continue to transform the OOH landscape. Let’s embrace the technology, push the creative boundaries, and, above all, create work that makes people stop and take notice.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

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