Jacqueline Ingram.
Jacqueline Ingram, WPP Media National Head of Client Development, Advanced DOOH
The OMA recently unveiled the next evolution of MOVE, Australia’s Out-Of-Home (OOH) measurement system. As the industry’s core planning and measurement currency, MOVE has long been fundamental to how agencies and advertisers understand audiences and assess the effectiveness of OOH. Its latest evolution is another sign of the channel’s progress… but it also raises a broader question: what does the next phase of OOH’s evolution look like?
Digitisation defined the last major phase of OOH’s growth, transforming the channel’s scale, flexibility and creative potential. Measurement has been the industry’s more recent focus, with MOVE playing a critical role in helping advertisers better understand audiences and evaluate impact. Now the market is signalling its next shift: greater flexibility and agility in how digital OOH inventory is bought.
OOH is often described as a traditional channel, but as it has continued to evolve, that label increasingly reflects the way the channel is traded more than how it actually operates.
Leading advertisers are already pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, highlighting that how brands access OOH is starting to matter just as much as whether they are in the channel at all.
The Strength of OOH Today
OOH in Australia has done a remarkable job of staying agile and relevant in a digital-first world. Few channels absorbed the disruption of COVID and emerged stronger on the other side. OOH has not only recovered but grown meaningfully beyond pre-pandemic levels, with industry revenue up around 39 percent since 2019. That resilience hasn’t gone unnoticed. Moves like Nine Entertainment’s recent entry into outdoor advertising through the acquisition of QMS reflect growing confidence in the channel’s long-term strength.
In an increasingly competitive media environment, OOH’s scale and real-world presence are becoming more valuable than ever. Its unavoidable presence in physical environments gives it a level of permanence and trust that is increasingly difficult to replicate in digital-only ecosystems. The result is a channel that is holding steady in a challenging market, with 2025 revenue up 11.43 percent on the same period year prior.
A Gap Between Capability and Adoption
Despite OOH’s progress, much of the channel is still traded through legacy buying models. These approaches were fit for purpose when digital screens were first introduced, challenging the long-standing conventions of the lunar cycle and bringing greater flexibility to the medium. They are less fit for a market now demanding agility, accountability and integration.
Digital OOH now accounts for 76 percent of total outdoor spend, up from 55 percent in 2019. And yet, despite almost two-thirds of every dollar invested in OOH now going to digital screens, programmatic OOH (prOOH) still accounts for only around 8 percent of DOOH trading in Australia.
That gap doesn’t reflect capability, but rather an industry navigating the transition from long-standing trading conventions toward more modern approaches. While the supply landscape has evolved, some legacy perceptions of prOOH as remnant-led continue to influence adoption.
As those perceptions shift, uptake is accelerating. Within WPP portfolios, programmatic adoption is growing significantly faster - reflecting both advertiser demand for greater flexibility and scale, premium access and integrated data capabilities now available. Many leading advertisers are already using advanced buying to unlock new use cases for OOH, setting the pace for the wider market.
The Opportunity Ahead
At this point, it’s fair to ask why buying approaches matter when OOH continues to perform so strongly? Sustained success depends on continued adaptation - a familiar theme across all media. This isn’t a zero-sum shift where one side wins at the expense of the other. More advanced buying is expanding the value of the channel, creating upside for both advertisers and publishers alike.
For brands, the opportunity lies in new ways of using OOH. More flexible buying enables OOH to be used more dynamically and integrated more naturally into omnichannel planning as online and offline media continue to converge. Advanced buying is already opening the door to new capabilities, including the ability to re-engage audiences exposed to OOH through digital environments. This is just a taster of what becomes possible as buying becomes more agile and the role of OOH continues to expand.
For publishers, advanced buying adds strength to the commercial story. Access to clearer attribution gives publishers more tools to demonstrate effectiveness and value. Being able to show outcomes such as digital engagement from audiences exposed to OOH or footfall following exposure makes OOH easier to justify, integrate and grow.
On this trajectory, programmatic buying could reasonably account for 30–40 percent of DOOH trading by 2030, driven largely by overall market growth rather than a redistribution of existing spend.
Lessons for the road ahead
I spent almost a decade working in OOH before moving into the programmatic world. Looking back, there are a few lessons I wish I’d understood earlier.
1. Education: don’t fear it, learn it
As online and offline channels continue to converge, learning about how programmatic works only increases your value. While it can feel unfamiliar at first, it isn’t a radical change, it’s simply another way to transact that adds flexibility and opportunity.
- When and why: objectives first
One of the biggest misconceptions is that programmatic replaces direct buying. It doesn’t. Different buying approaches offer complementary strengths within the same plan. When objectives lead the decision, the right mix of buying methods becomes clear. - How: prove value, then scale
Change happens when results happen. Brands don’t need to shift overnight, but when advanced buying delivers measurable outcomes, confidence follows. That confidence is what unlocks scale, turning experimentation into sustained investment. In the past 12 months alone, we’ve seen it play out across more than 450 campaigns, including award-winning work including back to back wins of JCDecaux’s Programmatic Campaign of the year award, where consistent application has built confidence and turned experimentation into sustained investment at scale.
What Comes Next
OOH has already proven its strength and resilience in a changing media landscape. The opportunity now lies in ensuring the way the channel is traded continues to evolve alongside the way it operates. As the sophistication of the data grows - and the collaboration between OMA members continues to strengthen the industry’s measurement foundations - advertisers will have new opportunities to access and utilise OOH insights in ways that simply weren’t possible before. In that environment, more flexible buying approaches have the potential to unlock the next phase of growth for the channel.