More than Half of Advertisers Expect to Invest More in Out of Home in 2023, Finds New BWG Strategy and Talon America Survey

Data-Driven Targeting, Unmatched Scale/Reach and Unskippable Nature Are Among Advertisers’ Top OOH Considerations

More than half (51%) of advertisers expect to invest more in Out of Home (OOH) in 2023, according to a new survey of brand marketers and agencies released by BWG Strategy, a leading provider of market intelligence, data and other information, and Talon America, a leading independent OOH media specialist and technology services company.

Currently, advertisers are allocating just 4 to 5% of overall ad budgets to OOH. The survey reveals that industry optimism for OOH is growing with 93% of advertisers planning to allocate 5% or more of their overall marketing budgets to OOH in 2023; and 97% are planning to allocate 5% or more in 2025. The study finds that marketers are planning to shift budgets from other channels to OOH — with social media (31%) and linear TV (25%) representing the top channels that advertisers will shift budget from to allocate more investment in OOH.

OOH is increasingly being used as part of an advertiser’s cross-platform strategy — with 86% citing that they somewhat often or very often consider OOH as part of their omnichannel strategy consideration. Additionally, the increase in digital screens and programmatic capabilities offers advertisers greater opportunities to expand the use of OOH. Adoption of digital OOH (DOOH) formats is high with almost half (49%) of advertisers stating that their OOH spend was DOOH in nature today, and 100% stating that they are aware that DOOH is available programmatically today. Programmatic is gaining momentum with advertisers as a way to transact for DOOH buys — with programmatic OOH spending projected to double this year, according to Insider Intelligence.

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“Consumers have returned to the great outdoors in full force and marketers are embracing the full potential of the digitized and unmissable OOH medium that offers a limitless creative canvas and an unmatched ability to reach one-to-many at meaningful scale,” said Jim Wilson, CEO of Talon America. “Our BWG study validates that OOH is as an effective and valuable channel — transformed by data and technology to deliver more targeted and measurable campaigns and built for omnichannel success to allow advertisers to start a customer journey from in-home to out of home.”

Driving brand awareness is seen as a key advantage of OOH with advertisers saying that they’re primarily using OOH for top-of-funnel marketing efforts: 76% of respondents indicate that they use OOH for mass awareness and 73% indicate that they use OOH for brand building.

However, data-driven capabilities in OOH are fueling advertiser adoption to achieve full-funnel brand goals. The study finds that the three most important attributes for advertisers when considering OOH are data-driven audience targeting opportunities (49%), unmatched scale/reach (49%), and the unskippable nature of OOH (43%). Additionally, over 70% cite having better measurability and attribution solutions would contribute to greater investment in OOH.

“Our study shows that advertisers are shifting their dollars to follow their audiences that have largely resumed their pre-pandemic outdoor lifestyles,” said  Brad Lyons, Partner & Head of Primary Research of BWG Strategy. “We can expect advertisers to take advantage of newer audience-based targeting and attribution capabilities in OOH for both brand building and performance marketing to engage consumers with the right message at the right time and in the right place.” 

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Talon commissioned BWG to conduct an advertiser study on OOH usage, spending and priorities in the planning, buying, and measurement of OOH advertising. BWG executed an online survey via Qualtrics among 40 brand marketers and agencies involved in the decision-making for OOH advertising. The survey participants were qualified as senior decision makers at scaled advertising agencies that were allocating ad dollars into out of home. The study was conducted in September 2022.

Talon Outdoor is the leading global independent Out of Home (OOH) media specialist and technology services company focused on delivering smarter, creative, data-driven integrated OOH communications. Combining independence with a collaborative approach, Talon promotes open and transparent working relationships between many of the world’s leading agencies, clients, and media partners. Headquartered in London with additional offices in Manchester and its affiliate Talon America LLC headquartered in New York City, Talon delivers expertise at the global, national, regional, and local levels. Additionally, Plexus, Talon’s global OOH planning and buying network, connects over 20 Talon and partner offices around the world, enabling expert campaign planning in over 100 markets worldwide.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey, BWG has fundamentally changed the way investment managers and corporations access real-time information to enhance business performance through its unlimited subscription-based content and data architecture. BWG provides much needed transparency by creating access to real-time information and data on sector, company and technology trends. BWG serves more than 100,000 professionals across the world’s leading corporations and investment management firms, including mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and private credit funds, through its Research Forum, Corporate Intelligence Forum, Research Synopses, Insight Report and Due Diligence Report products. 

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