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The release of greenfield billboard sites along the M12 Motorway and Sydney Gateway could redefine the competitive landscape of outdoor advertising in New South Wales.
Transport for NSW is opening up rare advertising rights across two of Sydney’s most strategically important infrastructure corridors, targeting the high-traffic routes connecting to the upcoming Western Sydney International Airport.
Lee Stephens, executive chair at Meerkat Media, said the opportunity was unparalleled.
“Winning this contract would be enormous and will change the competitive dynamic for the entire OOH and DOOH industry in Australia,” he said.
“The winner will gain scale and innovation opportunities that come by once in a decade.”
The scale of the opportunity is backed by more than $43 billion in investment over the last decade into Sydney’s road and transport infrastructure.
Stephens said this investment has reshaped mobility across Greater Sydney and laid the groundwork for large-format digital advertising to thrive.
“These corridors have revolutionised access to all parts of greater Sydney for motorists and road distribution,” he said.
“High quality infrastructure is able to support the large format digital screens that are driving the rapid growth of outdoor media.”
“These projects were built with connectivity as a central priority, giving the outdoor industry the options to deliver high quality messaging to an ever larger city footprint.”
Stephens also emphasised that the release of this many greenfield sites is extremely rare.
“If we include the Western Sydney Airport precinct, there has not been a greenfield site released of this size for over 50 years when Tullamarine was rebuilt in 1970,” Stephens said.
“The M12 and Sydney Gateway greenfield release promises to be the big daddy of them all.”
Only a few major players are expected to be in the running.
“For Ooh!, JCDecaux and QMS, the tender is a ‘must win’ opportunity. Smaller OMA members will struggle,” Stephens said.
“The scope of the tender requires the winner to supply and install all advertising infrastructure at their cost.
“This requires access to large amount of CAPEX, experience in large format advertising installation and negotiating with regulatory bodies.”
The tender is further complicated by the pending contract for advertising within the airport terminal itself.
“Making the situation more complex is the outstanding tender of the internal and gate advertising for the airport itself and its initial 10 million travellers,” Stephens said.
“QMS will want to win this tender to offer integrated airport packages with its existing rights.”
The potential for strategic partnerships could reshape the national media landscape.
“If QMS win the airport tender they could potentially partner with large format specialist JCDecaux, to own Australia’s busiest airports and the arterial roads to them,” Stephens said.
“A partnership like this would create one of Australia’s most valuable outdoor propositions.”
The tender comes amid calls for reform to planning legislation that governs out-of-home (OOH) advertising in NSW.
The Outdoor Media Association (OMA), which represents major operators, is lobbying for a clearer regulatory environment to support continued growth and investment.
Elizabeth McIntyre, CEO of the OMA and its audience measurement arm MOVE, said the industry is a key part of the state's infrastructure ecosystem.
“Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is recognised globally as valuable infrastructure and plays a significant role in placemaking, city activation, and creates connections with the community, at no cost to the taxpayer,” McIntyre said.
“Western Sydney is one of the fastest-growing regions in NSW, and these new billboard opportunities represent continued growth for the OOH industry.”
OOH now reaches 97% of Australians each week, with digital formats making up 76.1% of total net media revenue, up from 74.4% in the previous year.
McIntyre pointed to the sector’s contributions beyond advertising.
“In 2023, Outdoor Media Association (OMA) members contributed $625 million to the NSW economy and revenue from third party advertising signs has been consistently re-invested back into the public road and transport network,” she said.
“In 2023, 6,386 individual public infrastructure items to the value of $230m were provided, developed, maintained and managed by our members, again without using any taxpayer funds.”
OOH media is also proving one of the most sustainable advertising platforms, with low carbon emissions per impression and increasing pressure on operators to report ESG performance.
“OOH also provides significant public benefits through donated media value and promotion of government and community messaging,” said McIntyre.
“For the community to continue accessing these benefits, we need planning legislation that’s flexible, future-facing and future-proofed.”
The last comprehensive review of NSW advertising regulations took place nearly 25 years ago, resulting in a patchwork of planning interpretations that limit growth and investment.
“The OMA is actively working with the NSW Government to advise on reforms that are clearer and more cohesive so that our members have more confidence to invest back into the state, which in turn means more revenue is available for the public,” McIntyre said.
“We want to help build a balanced regulatory environment that embraces creativity, technology and innovation.”
Stephens agrees that the sector has undergone significant change in the past decade, becoming a digital-first medium in its own right.
“Today the industry, particularly in greater Sydney is thriving. 75% of OOH revenues are digital, with QMS stating that 95% of their revenues are digital,” he said.
“From being at the losing end of the digital transformation with print and magazines, outdoor media is now a digital medium in itself and bought in line with other digital media.”
Location targeting, programmatic buying and creative synchronisation are increasingly part of the OOH mix.
“All of the above,” Stephens said.
“QMS use of consecutive billboards in Martin Place and Wynyard are stunning and one of the most powerful activation and brand impact media strategies in Australia.”
On the question of sustainability, Stephens said local operators are already reporting under national legislation.
“Australia’s largest outdoor media operators are either already or imminently legislated to reporting obligations that require companies to lodge an annual sustainability report with ASIC,” he said.
“The good news is that Australia’s OOH industry is ahead of the curve thanks to handsome power prices and CO2 output legislation.”
Looking ahead, Stephens warned that programmatic ad trading could dilute returns for operators, but said greenfield corridors such as the M12 offer rare long-term growth opportunities.
“If this trend were to follow the path of less than 50% reaching standard display publisher there is a risk of eventual returns to outdoor media businesses that are too low to justify the cost of building a high quality, large format DOOH network,” he said.
“The result would be very little spend outside capital cities and slowing growth over time.”
“The outstanding opportunity for outdoor media is that growing cities, like Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor, require investment in roads and city planning.
“With clever integration of the same opportunities provided for in the M12 and Sydney Gateway tender, large greenfield opportunities will continue for many years to come.”
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