Apple, Capital One and McDonald’s spearhead 40.5% surge in outdoor ad spending

A total of $1.8bn was spent on out-of-home (OOH) advertising, according to new data from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).

“Year-on-year, OOH is on a strong upward trajectory,” said Anna Bager, president and chief executive at OAAA. “The overwhelming majority of top OOH advertisers increased their spend in Q1 2022 from the same timeframe last year – with nearly half of those marketers spending more than double. Couple this uptick in Q1 OOH investment with consumers returning to pre-pandemic behaviors and their increased appreciation for out-of-home, and we can expect to see the channel claim an even greater share of budgets.”

The recent spike in OOH ad growth was led by digital OOH, which increased by 57% in Q1 compared to the same time period last year. Other OOH categories – including billboards, transit, place-based categories and street furniture – also experienced significant growth.

The growth in Q1 of 2022 follows a year of significant growth for the OOH ad sector. OOH revenue increased by roughly 16.7% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to data from the OAAA.

The growth in the first quarter of 2022 has stemmed largely from the financial and media and advertising categories, according to the OAAA. The public transport, hotels and resorts category also shot up substantially. A number of up-and-coming categories – including cannabis, political and sports betting – were credited with helping to push the recent growth of the OOH sector as a whole. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands were also top spenders, making up 31% of the top 100 brands.

Here are the top 10 spenders ranked by dollars spent:

1. Apple

2. Capital One

3. McDonald’s

4. Netflix

5. HBO

6. American Express

7. Amazon

8. AT&T

9. Verizon

10. Universal Pictures

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