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Report: OOH ad revenue up over 40% in Q1

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June 7, 2022

Out of home advertising revenue increased 40.5% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year, accounting for $1.8 billion, based on figures released by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, according to a company press release.

The digital OOH format led total OOH growth with a 57% increase over first quarter 2021. The billboard category increased double digits, while the transit, street furniture and place-based categories all rose triple digits reflecting a strong pandemic recovery.

"Out of home advertising is poised to take a greater share of budgets as advertisers increasingly recognize its critical role in the marketing mix," Anna Bager, president and CEO, OAAA, said in the release. "These first quarter figures show that OOH is already outpacing the same period in 2019, and we are on track to reach or exceed pre-pandemic spend in 2022."

Eight of the top 10 product industry categories increased double digits led by financial, and media and advertising, which both nearly doubled. Reflecting a consumer return to pre-COVID behavior, the public transportation, hotels and resorts industry category jumped 58%.

Emerging product categories also helped drive OOH success, as noted below, when compared to Q1 2021:

Cannabis spend increased 31%.
Political spend jumped 113% and 90% over the last midterm election cycle in Q1 2018.
Sports betting spend rose 131%.
FinTech spend increased 22 times.

Ranked in order of OOH spending, the top 10 advertisers in the first quarter were Apple, Capital One, McDonald's, Netflix, HBO, American Express, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, and Universal Pictures.

Nearly 90 percent of the top 100 OOH advertisers increased their OOH spend from Q1 2021, and 47 of them more than doubled their spend. Advertisers on this list who did not spend in Q1 2021 included: Cirque Du Soleil, Credit Karma, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Molson, Monday.com, The New York Times, Not Milk, Peacock, Turner, UiPath, United Artists Pictures, VRBO, and William Hill.

More than 30% of the top 100 OOH spenders were technology or direct-to-consumer brands including these top ten finishers among the thirty-one, including Apple, Netflix, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, ClickUp, Expensify, William Hill, and BetMGM.