World Out of Home Organisation president Tom Goddard is calling for a better balance between ‘classic’ (traditional) out-of-home and digital.
He asked the 400 delegates at WOO's recent Global Congress in Toronto to "show some love," and said: "Digital is an area where OOH continues to perform strongly and is the focus of billions in investment. But we shouldn't forget the other key strand of out-of-home - classic.
"We can rightly sing about the growth of digital OOH and programmatic trading but when we factor in the fortunes of classic OOH I am reminded of my school report which all too often said: 'Doing Fine But Could Do Better.'
"For sure, some of this is due to digital conversion but it still seems to me that classic doesn’t get the love it deserves. You can’t deny that we have a much clearer vision for digital OOH than we do for classic OOH, which, after all, still accounts for two thirds of our global revenues.
"For example, we don’t even have a standard definition for classic. We call it by five or more different names: classic, traditional, analogue, paper and static. And the last name on this list - static - is for me the absolute worst. If you Google it, you’ll find this definition: 'lacking in movement, action, or change, especially in a way viewed as undesirable or uninteresting.'
"Hardly a flattering description for what remains a hugely powerful and creative channel. And one which has a key role to play as we set our sights on a global sector media share taking OOH through 6% (its current share) to the level its performance for advertisers deserves."
Striking a better balance between classic and digital OOH would create another "golden age of out-of-home" said one of the keynote speakers, Sean Reilly, CEO of the US's Lamar Advertising, the biggest OOH company in the world by value ($13bn.) Founded in 1902, Lamar is still primarily a classic or traditional OOH company and gets 27% of its revenue from the digital element of its estate, just 2.5% of its 356.000 displays.