Out-of-Home Advertising Bucks Media Decline
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is the only traditional media channel showing sustained growth, outperforming TV in ad recall. Despite the momentum, digital OOH (DOOH) is still less than 1% of total U.S. ad spend, signaling a massive growth opportunity for programmatic platforms like Vistar Media that are working to unify the fragmented market.
The U.S. out-of-home (OOH) advertising market surpassed a record $9.1 billion in 2024 and continued its momentum into 2025, with revenues hitting $1.98 billion in Q1 and $2.86 billion in Q2. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is the primary growth engine, increasing 9.2% in the second quarter of 2025 and accounting for 36% of total OOH sales. Programmatic buying is rapidly accelerating this shift, with programmatic DOOH ad spending projected to jump by 22.6% in 2025. The global programmatic DOOH market is forecast to expand from $9 billion in 2025 to approximately $45.8 billion by 2034. This automation allows for the use of real-time data to optimize campaigns, a significant leap from the direct, manual buys that still account for a majority of OOH transactions. This market evolution has spurred major acquisitions, notably T-Mobile's $600 million all-cash purchase of Vistar Media, announced in January 2025. The deal integrates Vistar's programmatic ecosystem, which includes a demand-side platform (DSP) and supply-side platform (SSP), into T-Mobile's growing advertising solutions business. Tech and direct-to-consumer brands are fueling the spending surge, with companies like Apple, Verizon, and Amazon consistently ranking among the top advertisers. In the second quarter of 2025, 27 of the top 100 OOH spenders were tech or DTC brands, leveraging the medium to connect with audiences at scale. The retail sector is also a key driver and is expected to account for 55.9% of all DOOH growth between 2025 and 2029. In sports, DOOH offers unique fan engagement opportunities through proximity targeting around stadiums and entertainment venues. Dynamic creative can be updated in real-time to reflect live game statistics or outcomes, which can lead to a 33% uplift in brand affinity. This tactic is effective, as 77% of fans report noticing brand advertising surrounding sports events. The underlying location technology enables these campaigns through geofencing, which triggers ads when a consumer enters a predefined area, like a retail corridor or a competitor's location. For Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), this means delivering timely mobile offers that reinforce broader ad campaigns and provide a direct call-to-action just blocks from a physical storefront.
