Tom Goddard has said that striking the right balance between traditional and digital out-of-home advertising will be a key factor to sector growth.

Addressing 400 delegates at the WOO Global Congress in Toronto Goddard explained that during the pandemic, sales “sank like a stone” however OOH has since recovered strongly. Despite this, he warns that traditional OOH is “losing ground to the digital tidal wave”.

Sean Reilly, chief executive officer of US-based Lamar Advertising also spoke at the event. Reilly said striking a balance between traditional and digital OOH would see the creation of another “Golden Age of Out of Home”.

Founded in 1902, Lamar has witnessed the evolution of advertising from messages glued to buildings to the rise of DOOH. To this day, the business is still primarily a traditional OOH company and gains only 27% of its revenue from DOOH (2.5% of its 356,000 displays).

Describing the ‘perfect balance’, Goddard said: “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 DOOH than we do for Classic OOH, which, after all, still accounts for two thirds of our global revenues.”

Goddard continues: “For example, we don’t even have a standard definition for classic. We call it by five or more different names: Classic, Traditional, Analog, Paper, and Static.”

For Goddard, the name Static doesn’t do the traditional OOH industry justice. “If you Google it, you’ll find this definition: ‘Lacking in movement, action, or change, especially in a way viewed as undesirable or uninteresting’”.

This is a definition Goddard argues is unflattering for what he describes as a “hugely powerful and creative channel”.

With that being said, the CEO asks for industry members to “show some love” to this historic and longstanding corner of the advertising sector as WOO seeks to see traditional OOH go from its current share of 6% to “the level its performance for advertisers deserves.”

WOO board members include JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Pikasso, Global Outdoor, blowUP media, OUTFRONT Media, oOh!Media as well as OOH associations such as the OAAA and Alooh.

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