Where does ad spend actually go? OOH’s public infrastructure argument
Week in focus: The Future of OOH
OOH is unique among advertising channels in how directly it funds public infrastructure. In contrast, every pound spent on social media advertising goes to private platforms.
As part of The Media Leader‘s OOH Week in Focus, the team asked industry experts about the true value and social responsibility of different channels.
Contributors include:
- Nick Slaymaker, chief growth officer at i-media
- Julie MacManus, head of transformation at Adwanted UK
- Tim Lumb, director of Outsmart
- Nick Shaw, CEO of Ocean Outdoor UK
- Kate Tovey, director of customer engagement at JCDecaux UK
- Mark Smith, UK sales director at Bauer Media Outdoor
OOH advertising revenue directly funds public infrastructure such as bus shelters and street furniture, including defibrillators. By contrast, social media ad spend goes entirely to private companies. How important is this distinction when brands think about where to allocate ad budgets?
When you spend on OOH, your ad spend is more than just media; it’s giving back
Julie MacManus, Adwanted UK: “Of course, the main job of any campaign is to be effective. But when you can deliver against your objectives and know that the sector puts around 40% of its revenue back into the UK economy, that should help tip the balance in OOH’s favour, particularly compared with where much of the value from social media advertising ultimately ends up.
“There’s also an opportunity for brands to lean into that story where appropriate. If we, as an industry, can do more to make people aware of the positive role OOH plays in their communities, that has the potential to create a warmer perception of the medium, and, by extension, the message it carries.”
Tim Lumb, Outsmart: “OOH provides the public with valued social infrastructure such as bus shelters (a great improvement on the bus stop!), defibrillators and public comms hubs. 46p of every £1 spent in OOH goes back into the UK economy, including funding for our cash-strapped councils. Contrast that with the ever-growing body of evidence that so-called ‘social’ media actually produces feelings of isolation – as well as many other harmful associations, so this becomes something of an ethical question for brands and their channel choices.”
Kate Tovey, JCDecaux UK: “We carried out a ‘Time to Give Back’ study a couple of years ago, and it showed that at the time most brands hadn’t made the connection between their own sustainability goals and their choice of media channels. It’s important for people to recognise that OOH not only benefits the brands advertising on the ad space, it also works for the good of entire communities. On average, OOH gives back 50% of revenues to the community, funding valuable public infrastructure, giving back to landlords and transport partners (helping to keep fares down, funding free public Wi-Fi in city centres, and providing life-saving on-street defibrillators). So when you spend on OOH, your ad spend is more than just media; it’s giving back.”
Mark Smith, Bauer Media Outdoor: “It’s an important distinction, particularly as brands increasingly scrutinise the wider impact of their media investment. OOH is one of the few channels where advertising spend creates a visible public benefit, with 46p in every £1 of ad spend reinvested into the UK economy and local communities. The revenue generated helps fund and maintain infrastructure that communities use every day, from bus shelters and transport networks to public amenities and safety initiatives.
“That doesn’t mean brands should choose media channels solely on this basis, but understanding where advertising investment ultimately ends up is becoming more important. Increasingly, marketers are looking beyond audience delivery and efficiency metrics to consider the broader value their spend creates. OOH enables building brands at scale while also contributing to the environments in which those brands operate.”
Unlike digital channels where you can scroll past or use ad blockers, people can’t opt out of OOH advertising in public spaces. What responsibility does that create for media owners, agencies, and brands regarding what content is displayed and how it’s targeted?
The channel’s reach is a privilege. The industry should treat it that way
Chris Slaymaker, i-media: “It raises the bar for everyone in the supply chain. You can’t scroll past a roadside screen or install an ad blocker on a motorway service area. That’s precisely what makes OOH powerful, but it comes with accountability. At i-media, we know our audiences: families on staycations, tradespeople on their commute, sports fans travelling to away fixtures. That isn’t an excuse to broadcast indiscriminately; it’s an argument for targeting with intelligence and responsibility. The channel’s reach is a privilege. The industry should treat it that way.”
Julie MacManus, Adwanted UK: “Due to its nature, OOH does carry a real responsibility around both content and context, and it’s something the medium has already got quite a lot in place to support.
“For example, within SPACE, the shared OOH inventory system we operate on behalf of Outsmart and the IPAO, we’ve built in tools to show frames’ proximities to schools so advertising categories like HFSS can be managed more responsibly and kept away from environments where a significant proportion of the audience may be children.
“But it’s not something that’s ever “done”. It’s an ongoing process, and one of the strengths of OOH is that it’s a genuinely collaborative medium. Media owners, agencies and industry bodies are all involved in setting and refining those standards.
“That collective approach is important, because it means the industry can respond to changing expectations while maintaining trust in a channel that people experience as part of their everyday environment.”
Nick Shaw, Ocean Outdoor UK: “Outdoor ads not only adhere to Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) standards, which are some of the strictest in the world, but DOOH operators self-regulate on top. We have rules in place around taste and decency. This means not serving specific content, such as ads for gambling or foods high in fat, sugar, salt, or alcohol, near schools.
“Many DOOH screens are owned by local authorities or transit networks which operate their own stringent guidelines and vet campaigns before they reach the screen or billboard. We had an example recently where an ad with fairly explicit sexualised copy was refused on these grounds. It was one ad on one site for one day. Nevertheless, it failed the necessary tests.
“Brands and agencies are also pretty astute at not placing certain messaging which would be out of kilter with the local vicinity or population. Targeting via technology such as audience or vehicle recognition must also rely on totally anonymised data. The latter is Ocean’s proprietary tech, and it’s been developed to ensure that personal or vehicular information is never captured and stored.”
Tim Lumb, Outsmart: “OOH is where brands and people meet in public space. This relationship has been refined over many, many decades. 97% of the UK public see an OOH ad every week, yet we account for just 2% of ASA complaints. We understand that vital relationship.
“Also, OOH has a cultural role, reflecting the brands that are relevant to the times, and adapting as the urban landscape evolves. OOH puts us at ease and places feel more real, authentic and anchored with advertising.”
Looking ahead, should the industry make a stronger case to brands about OOH’s public-benefit model, and could this become a more significant factor in media planning decisions over the next few years?
As marketers look for ways to align commercial objectives with broader corporate responsibility goals, I expect OOH’s public benefit model to become a more meaningful consideration
Mark Smith, Bauer Media Outdoor: “Yes. While effectiveness will always be the primary driver of media investment, the conversation around impact is evolving. Brands are increasingly interested in sustainability, social value and the role they play within communities, and media choices form part of that discussion.
“OOH has a compelling story to tell because its contribution is tangible. People can see and use the infrastructure that advertising helps fund, as well as the broader social benefits OOH delivers and the jobs it creates in local communities. As marketers look for ways to align commercial objectives with broader corporate responsibility goals, I expect OOH’s public benefit model to become a more meaningful consideration. It’s not a replacement for reach, creativity or effectiveness, but it is an additional advantage that few other media channels can genuinely claim.”
Nick Shaw, Ocean Outdoor UK: “Yes, we should, because OOH is the right choice (for long-term brand building) – and the responsible choice (in many different ways). Look at the amount of space OOH media owners voluntarily gift annually to charitable and environmental causes.
“In the past month alone, we’ve given premium screen time to The Big Do, a big national weekend coming up on 5th June to celebrate food, friendship and community action. This month, our annual World Ocean Day celebration combines charity screen value with staff volunteering, followed by a workshop with our partners at Pinwheel and Ad Net Zero as part of London Climate Action Week. I can’t think of any other channel that’s doing this sort of work, except perhaps radio.
“More broadly, OOH’s UK trade body Outsmart is doing a lot of the heavy lifting around the clear and obvious public benefits, and our client, agency and landlord partners are often the first to ask about our ESG credentials.”
Kate Tovey, JCDecaux UK: “While metrics such as audience targeting and effectiveness are always the priority, I’d like to see more conversations around media channels that can deliver against marketing and sustainability metrics. In an omnichannel world, OOH is ideally placed as a sustainable real-world channel that connects with consumers, builds brands and supercharges the effectiveness of other channels too – all while giving back 50p in every pound spent of investment, and with less than 3.5% of the advertising industry’s carbon footprint.
“In our ‘Time to Give Back Study’, 64% of marketers told us they have changed marketing plans to meet sustainability goals, so I believe it will become an increasingly important factor in the media planning decision, and this can only accelerate as new reporting standards and disclosure requirements are introduced.”
Chris Slaymaker, i-media: “Yes — and it’s been too slow to do so. OOH has historically undersold itself, competing on price and proximity rather than making the broader value argument. The public infrastructure contribution is part of that case, but so is the unduplicated reach, the verified audience data, and the fact that you cannot disintermediate human movement. People are still going places. They always will be. In a media landscape drowning in algorithmic homogeneity and black-box measurement, OOH offers something genuinely different. The industry just needs to say so — loudly, and to the right people.”
Julie MacManus, Adwanted UK: “There’s always more the industry can do to make that case, but it needs to be done in a way that feels credible rather than overly preachy.
“Brands aren’t going to prioritise OOH purely because of its public benefit model, but where OOH can deliver on those objectives, it can become a more meaningful part of the conversation and a genuine point of differentiation.
“What stood out to me at WOO last year was how many real examples there already are of OOH doing more than just delivering advertising, from infrastructure and sustainability through to genuinely useful, service-led formats. For example, campaigns where sites double up as public safety infrastructure, whether that’s enhanced bus stops or roadside installations designed to improve safety in high-risk areas, show how the medium can deliver value beyond the ad itself.
“With WOO back in London this week, I’m looking forward to seeing more of that in practice. The direction of travel suggests this will become increasingly relevant and should become recognised as part of how OOH is evaluated in the broader media mix.”