In his New Year statement, Tom Goddard, president of the global association World Out of Home Organisation, outlined the challenges facing the media landscape in 2024, stressing the need for out of home (OOH) media to focus on both impact and measurement.
Looking at the year ahead, Goddard identified, “2024 brings a number of challenges for all media, chiefly the ever-increasing pace of technology and the demands on media to show its effectiveness in a global market where competition has never been keener and measurement is all.”
Despite these challenges, Goddard commended the OOH industry’s response, maintaining its share of the global market. He pointed to the ongoing shift towards consistent measurement being widely accepted, and the integration of digital platforms creating new opportunities for the medium on a global scale.
Goddard also mentioned the advent of increasingly three-dimensional screens that have further expanded creative possibilities within the OOH sector.
“A growing amount of evidence shows that consumers, our key focus, enjoy OOH and welcome its contribution to safer, more user-friendly urban environments,” Goddard stated, claiming, “We are the only medium that puts money back to benefit the customers we reach on behalf of advertisers.”
He continued, “All these good things mean little if we don’t do our main job, which is to build brands and increase sales for our advertisers.”
Goddard acknowledged that 2023 witnessed successful OOH campaigns, both classic and digital, that achieved these objectives triumphantly. He asserted, “As linear TV continues its decline, OOH is becoming the broadcast medium of choice for many advertisers and agencies.”
Citing specific OOH campaigns, including Uncommon Creative Studio’s Cannes Grand Prix winner for British Airways and New Commercial Arts’ relaunch of Nationwide Building Society in the UK, Goddard highlighted the impact of these initiatives on brand recognition and sales growth.
Conclusively, Goddard finalised “a key task” for the OOH industry: “To get more advertisers and agencies as excited about the performance and potential of the medium as we are.”
See also: Mediaweek’s A to Z of 2023: O is for Outdoor
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Top Image: Tom Goddard