Digital outdoor market 'to be worth $55bn in 5 years'

The digital out of home advertising sector suffered more than most during the pandemic as consumers were forced to stay at home but it is set to shake off the doom and gloom and bounce back handsomely with a new study forecasting it could even be worth $55bn by 2026.

The research, carried out by AI enterprise SaaS platform Alfi among advertising professionals across the US, UK, France, Germany and Asia, reveals 95% of respondents expect the sector to grow over the next two years, with 51% anticipating dramatic expansion.

Of course, Alfi has a vested interest in this rebound as it provides data rich reporting functionality that informs the advertisers that someone viewed their ad, the number of views, and each viewer’s reaction to the ad.

At the end of 2020, despite the Covid wipeout, the DOOH market was estimated to be worth $41.06bn, but by 2026, nearly two out of three (65%) advertising executives predict this will rise to between $50bn and $55bn. A further 16% expect it to be worth between $55bn and $60bn, and 14% estimate it will be even bigger.

The main driver for this growth is that there will be a bigger general spend on digital advertising, according to 66% of those interviewed, while 62% said advances in technology mean that digital out of home will be able to provide even more analysis around campaigns run on them.

Other reasons given for the anticipated increased spend include the general growing focus on evaluating advertising campaigns and the strength of the DOOH market, and a rapid increase in the number of advertising digital screens being rolled out.

Alfi vice-president of UK operations Kevin Buchler said: “There is little doubt that the DOOH advertising market is enjoying strong growth. Society, as a whole, is becoming increasingly digitised, and the advertising sector is looking to make greater use of technology to deliver stronger more personalised and effective campaigns, and greater transparency around results.

“The unique qualities of DOOH advertising in meeting these trends helps to explain why the sector is enjoying such strong growth.”

At the last count, there were 11,024 digital screens in the UK market, but while digital screens account for just 3% of UK sites, they pull in 48% of all outdoor revenues. Brits now see 1.1 billion digital out-of-home ads over the course of a week.

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