Outdoor has had a slow start to 2024 but Cathy O’Connor, CEO of the biggest local player oOh!media, is upbeat on the year ahead.
Outdoor is racing, clocking 12% growth in 2024, according to data from industry body OMA. And that against an overall fall of 3% in the media sector.
And out-of-home is steadily increasing its share of the advertising spend pie. Standard Media Index (SMI) data shows outdoor pushing past a 14% share, up from 12.4% in 2019.
“It’s been another year of growth for the out-of-home sector,” O’Connor told AdNews.
oOh!media lifted revenue 7% to $633.9 million in the year to December, buoyed by a vigorous outdoor media market in Australia. Profit was up almost 10% to $34.6 million.
“Yes, it’s been a slight slow start in January but we've seen momentum into February, and build into March,” says O’Connor. .
“And we're very upbeat about the new assets that are coming online with Woollahra council and the Sydney Metro rail lines, which are in the next two quarters.”
Woollahra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is part of the money belt of Australia’s largest city. oOh!’s outdoor assets come online in April.
The Sydney Metro rail line, a premium offering, launches in the second half of the year.
“Digital media continues to be what is attracting more of the advertising dollars, so the increased digitisation in the sector is one of the things that is driving growth,” says O’Connor.
“And from a cost per 1000 point of view, out-of-home is an increasingly more cost effective medium, particularly as we see fragmentation and audience decline across other forms of media.
“I also think agencies and clients are starting to be more sophisticated in how they're using their data to be more strategic in how they use out-of-home.
“And then you've got all the creative executions, 3d anamorphic, dynamic creative scheduling.
“There's a number of opportunities both on the planning and buying end, and the creative end, that is increasingly getting out of home a higher share of wallet.”
O'Connor's strategy for oOh!: “To capitalise on this momentum is clear to lead out-of -ome to a digital first future to capture audience attention in public spaces at scale and to make it easy for our customers to achieve better outcomes.”
A slide from O'Connor's results presentation:
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