Out of Home is back on track says WOO President Tom Goddard at Africa Forum - here are six ways to take on the online challenge.

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Global Out of Home revenue looks set to exceed 2022's $36.8bn, a full recovery from the pandemic, with six factors set to drive further growth in 2024 and beyond, World Out of Home Organization President Tom Goddard said, opening WOO's first in-person Africa Forum in Cape Town this week.

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These are:

• Digital Transformation - improving presentation standards, delivering 100% illumination and reducing lead times to hours instead of weeks.
• Media Ownership Consolidation - Statistics clearly show how consolidated markets win a larger share of ad expenditure.
• Better measurement - which builds trust, improves buyer confidence, compares well to other media and enables a common trading currency.
• Automation - which improves efficiency and enables Programmatic trading.
• Value for money - OOH compares favourably with all other media in its reach and impact. Better-funded, more unified trade bodies are key to getting this particular message across
• Winning the contest with online - online, now 60% of the global ad market, is bedevilled by fears over brand safety, fraud, and fake news, the latter magnified in an election year across the world. This creates an enormous opportunity for a trusted medium like OOH

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On Africa specifically, Goddard said OOH's share was ahead of most other continental markets although digital penetration was still far below the 30-40% norm in other regions. This indicated a great future for the medium although such a massive continent - 54 countries with around 2000 languages - posed challenges.

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Goddard also announced that WOO board member Dave Roberts of Primedia is standing down. and thanked him for contribution and support. His place will be taken by Jacques du Preez of Provantage. The board has also agreed to recruit another member representing Sub-Saharan Africa and the process is underway.

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Globally, said Goddard, a big challenge for OOH, aside from the seemingly remorseless rise of digital, remains sustainability. Major brands and media agencies have set fixed goals to reach carbon net zero by 2030 and not only do they expect media suppliers to follow suit, but many have also stated they will only buy media from Ad Net Zero-rated suppliers. That’s why WOO has set up a special task force and a dedicated website to help members achieve this goal.

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But there is still much to celebrate, not least the massive creative impact of recent campaigns from the likes of McDonald's, Gucci, Chanel and British Airways, using both classic (static) OOH and digital to their fullest extent, among many others.

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Out of Home, he concluded, demonstrably works.

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Award-winning Havas Middle East creative director, writer and film director Serena Abi Aad will lead a discussion on creativity’s key role in driving Out of Home success at the World Out of Home Organization MENA Forum in Dubai from February 15-17. Havas won a stream of international creative awards for its Adidas ‘liquid billboard’ on the beach at Dubai that invited Arab women to dive “beyond the surface, part of its ‘I’m Possible’ campaign.
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Data is playing a growing role in creative development in all media and she will be joined in Dubai by BackLite Media chief operating officer James Harrison who will outline the context for creativity in OOH and the data-rich world it has to navigate. BackLite is the biggest OOH media owner in Dubai.
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The pair will look at:

- A creative’s viewpoint on harnessing creativity in an evolving OOH mediumWhat new options does OOH offer a creative?What are OOH’s strengths compared to other media
- Does OOH pose any particular creative challenges compared to other media?
- The growing importance of data in creative development
- How to harness ever-mushrooming technological wizardry for game-changing creativity

WOO chief marketing officer Richard Saturley says: “We’re very fortunate to have secured an outstanding all-round creative partitioner and executive in Serena Abi Aad to speak at the MENA Forum. She is a world class talent and there is no-one better to explore the role and possibilities of OOH in MENA and the wider media world.

“James Harrison is a business driver who completely understands the vital role that creativity needs to play in the development and growth of OOH and also the questions it needs to answer in a data-conscious world. I’m certain the two of them will deliver a session that is not just informative but truly inspiring.”

Click here for a Forum overview including the provisional speaker programme.

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OMEGA was the first-ever Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games. As they fulfilled this role for the 29th time in history at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, they were the first to advertise on our brand-new portrait billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road. The Swiss watchmaker also made use of our Las Vegas Pole and curved screens at City Walk Dubai in order to maximise their campaign reach.

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OMEGA’s massive out of home advertising campaign in Dubai during the recent Olympic Games showcased the Seamaster: their steel and blue ceramic Swiss-made watch. The campaign highlights their collaboration with the Olympics and the fact that they have been the official timekeeper since 1932, while also revealing their new timepiece.

Two weeks have passed since we sat together at Pier 60 in New York, listening to some great panels and speakers in a packed schedule and a packed venue. From the Meta Verse with adidas to understanding Programmatic Out of Home with Adomni. The message was clear; the future is dynamic, flexible, and digital.

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The icing on the cake for our trip to the US was collecting the award for Most Creative Campaign for the adidas “I’m Possible” where adidas took over The Triple Crown with its “I’m Possible” user-generated content (UGC) campaign.

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Through social media, adidas invited women to share photos of what sports means to them, along with their stories of turning the impossible into possible every day.

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Every post shared, irrespective of the sport, was turned into billboards across the city in real-time, with the centrepiece being The Triple Crown on Sheikh Zayed Road. The billboards, in return, became countless pieces of social content, starting conversations about making sports more inclusive.

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For a campaign activated in only one city, it was seen and talked about in over 25 countries, obtaining a reach of over 250 million.

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Having collected DOOH-E, it was time to head back to Dubai and celebrate.

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Earlier this year, Backlite attended the World Out of Home Organization’s Toronto Global Congress. The Congress, which was their first in-person event since Dubai 2019, brought together 400 attendees from across the world. Among the topics discussed in depth were programmatic, what clients want from OOH, the changing macro-media landscape where e-commerce increasingly rules, sustainability, diversity, and the way digital OOH amplifies social media in real-time to significant effect.

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In 2023, the World Out of Home Organization will once again host its MENA Forum. The in-person MENA forum will be their first in the region since 2019 and will take place here in Dubai from 15-17 February 2023. This forum follows the WOO’s first post-pandemic in-person Global Congress in Toronto and their first in-person APAC Forum in Kuala Lumpur in October.

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We look forward to attending and experiencing the complete programme of presentations and speakers from the region and the wider global Out of Home industry. Topics to be covered include Maintaining OOH’s Advantage in a Digital World, Driving Growth in OOH through Audience Measurement and making the most of OOH’s Programmatic Opportunity.

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Find out more and register for the event here.

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