Every month, OAAA’s marketing team sits down with an industry leader to discuss the latest insights, trends, and best practices for the OOH industry
Read Scott’s Q&A in The Drum.
What excites you about OOH right now?
I’m excited that OOH is continuing to evolve as a primary media with record setting growth across the industry. OOH continues to become more relevant at a time when other media continues to become more fragmented. More major brands and verticals are moving into the space, and the industry continues to outpace the growth of most alternative media. There are solid reasons justifying the migration into OOH – chief among those are results. The recent Kochava + OAAA study showed that OOH delivers proven, measurable performance including 2X the lift of broadcast TV, outpacing yet amplifying other media and delivering consistent results across numerous verticals. We’re getting much better at understanding audiences, implementing technologies, using data, improving creative and demonstrating what OOH contributes to a campaign. We’re combining something OOH has always done extremely well – building awareness and familiarity – with capabilities advertisers increasingly expect from modern media, including better measurement and the way it is bought and sold. OOH is delivering on those expectations, and advertisers are seeing our value and rewarding us with their business.
What message do you have for brands that haven’t bought OOH before?
My message would be “Where have you been all our life?” OOH has always been here. Other media come and go in terms of effectiveness and relevance. OOH has never been stronger. OOH is on a rocket ride that can take your brand to new heights. For advertisers who have never bought OOH, the data shows it is a proven way to generate growth, reach audiences in the real world in real time, and maximize the impact of their overall cross-media investment. This results in solutions to advertisers’ needs through action taken by the audience. OOH is particularly powerful at making a brand or a business familiar. People repeatedly see your name, understand what you do and begin to recognize you. Then when they need your product or service, you’re already familiar to them. Studies show that the top-of-mind recognition OOH is famous for is converting to action at a much faster pace than other media.
What’s the next big thing for OOH?
Measurement – pure and simple. Important work is being done to refine some older processes into real time data that puts OOH on equal footing with other major media in terms of measurement, attribution and performance. Some think the next big thing is new brands and verticals, which I’ve already acknowledged, but a better and more advanced measurement system is what will add confidence, credibility and proof to the inherent attraction and intrinsic value of the medium, giving those new brands and verticals confidence to migrate to OOH. Another big thing is technology – not one technology – but the combination of better data, better measurement, AI, digital advancement and better selling. These technologies can help us sell better by moving from simply pitching locations and rates to understanding needs and delivering solutions, anticipating who the client is trying to reach, proving what geographies are important and why, designing an effective message and explaining how we’re going to measure the campaign.
How is local OOH evolving, and where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth in the years ahead?
The best way for me to answer questions about local OOH opportunities is through the voices of Link’s GM’s and leaders in our local markets. Their responses are actually quite consistent. They see local OOH evolving through digital expansion, better technology and new business categories, while the underlying strength of the medium – visibility to growing road traffic – remains intact. Local OOH is evolving in several important ways, but its fundamental strength remains the same: people are out of home on the road, and OOH reaches them where they live, work, shop and travel. Advertisers can count on results and solutions from this exposure.
We will see continued change through more expansion of digital OOH. Converting the right high-traffic locations to digital allows multiple advertisers to use premium inventory, gives the advertisers greater flexibility with their messages and makes it possible to rotate campaigns across multiple locations. Digital also opens more opportunities for programmatic buying and increasingly targeted campaigns.
Better audience data and measurement are making OOH more accountable. Advertisers increasingly want to understand not only how many people could see their message, but who they are reaching and what impact the advertising is having on their business.
Like the industry at large, we’re also seeing OOH work for an increasingly broad range of local business categories. In addition to traditional strong categories such as attorneys, healthcare and HVAC, there are significant opportunities with home builders, remodeling companies, lumber yards, gutter companies, real estate agents, specialty retailers and other distinctive local businesses. OOH can be particularly effective for businesses that have something unique to sell and need to become better known in their market.
Great creative will become even more important. Better technology and great locations can’t compensate for a message that doesn’t get noticed or can’t be understood quickly. Strong creative attracts attention, communicates the advertiser’s value proposition quickly and ultimately helps OOH perform better. A strong commitment to raising the creative bar has resulted in more effective outcomes and results.
The opportunity ahead is the combination of strong locations, expanded digital capabilities, great creative, better audience information and measurement, new advertiser categories and continued investment in quality inventory.
Published: September 28, 2026