Out of Home is back on track says WOO President Tom Goddard

Out of Home is back on track says WOO President Tom Goddard at Africa Forum - here are six ways to take on the online challenge.

Global Out of Home revenue looks set to exceed 2022's $36.8bn, a full recovery from the pandemic, with six factors set to drive further growth in 2024 and beyond, World Out of Home Organization President Tom Goddard said, opening WOO's first in-person Africa Forum in Cape Town this week.

These are:

1. Digital Transformation - improving presentation standards, delivering 100% illumination and reducing lead times to hours instead of weeks.
2. Media Ownership Consolidation - Statistics clearly show how consolidated markets win a larger share of ad expenditure.
3. Better measurement - which builds trust, improves buyer confidence, compares well to other media and enables a common trading currency.
4. Automation - which improves efficiency and enables Programmatic trading.
5. Value for money - OOH compares favourably with all other media in its reach and impact. Better-funded, more unified trade bodies are key to getting this particular message across.
6. Winning the contest with online - online, now 60% of the global ad market, is bedevilled by fears over brand safety, fraud, and fake news, the latter magnified in an election year across the world. This creates an enormous opportunity for a trusted medium like OOH.

On Africa specifically, Goddard said OOH's share was ahead of most other continental markets although digital penetration was still far below the 30-40% norm in other regions. This indicated a great future for the medium although such a massive continent - 54 countries with around 2000 languages - posed challenges.

Goddard also announced that WOO board member Dave Roberts of Primedia is standing down. and thanked him for contribution and support. His place will be taken by Jacques du Preez of Provantage. The board has also agreed to recruit another member representing Sub-Saharan Africa and the process is underway.

Globally, said Goddard, a big challenge for OOH, aside from the seemingly remorseless rise of digital, remains sustainability. Major brands and media agencies have set fixed goals to reach carbon net zero by 2030 and not only do they expect media suppliers to follow suit, but many have also stated they will only buy media from Ad Net Zero-rated suppliers. That’s why WOO has set up a special task force and a dedicated website to help members achieve this goal.

But there is still much to celebrate, not least the massive creative impact of recent campaigns from the likes of McDonald's, Gucci, Chanel and British Airways, using both classic (static) OOH and digital to their fullest extent, among many others.

Out of Home, he concluded, demonstrably works.