The Manchester Screen expands with new outdoor advertising formats

The Manchester Screen, the largest combined banner and digital billboard in the UK, has expanded its creative capabilities in order to reflect the changing landscape of outdoor advertising.

The Manchester Screen has significantly evolved its offering over the past twelve months, expanding its physical activation space and developing a broader suite of creative formats that allow advertisers to combine digital content with large-scale physical installations.

The Manchester landmark now offers advertisers a comprehensive out-of-home (OOH) advertising canvas that combines a full-motion digital screen with more than 10,000sq m of activation space, wide-format banner wraps, rooftop activations, bespoke creative structures, and projection capabilities.

The additions are part of The Manchester Screen’s aim to position itself at the forefront of what it calls “a new era for outdoor advertising,” where brands are looking beyond traditional billboards to create campaigns that can better capture attention, spark conversation, and generate social engagement.

According to Katie Smith, managing director of The Manchester Screen, the expansion reflects a wider transformation in the outdoor advertising industry, with OOH campaigns increasingly conceived as creative experiences rather than standalone advertising placements.

Smith says: “The role of outdoor advertising has changed dramatically. This is reflected in the UK’s OOH revenue reaching a record £1.43bn in 2025, with further growth predicted this year.

“Significantly, its being driven by digital and by advertisers increasingly combining multiple outdoor formats and campaigns that dominate an entire location, in order to create social content and immersive experiences rather than a single billboard.”

Smith believes that, while reach will always matter, today’s brands are looking for campaigns that people actively engage with. She continues: “A large amount of research now shows us that the moments consumers remember and therefore create brand loyalty are the ones where they experience the brand, and where they create an occasion to remember.

"We've invested in creating a canvas that gives brands a far greater creative freedom. Instead of being confined to one advertising format, they can now transform an entire location to tell a much bigger story. That's exactly what sits behind our 'beyond the billboard' philosophy and our promise to create without limits – giving people the freedom to imagine campaigns that simply wouldn't have been possible before.”

The investment has also been supported by the appointment of Ben Poulter as The Manchester Screen’s business director, who has been tasked with helping to maximise the awareness, understanding, and creative potential of the site.

Poulter adds: "The conversations we're having with agencies today are very different to those we were having just a few years ago.

"Creative ambition has increased significantly. Brands are thinking much earlier about how outdoor media fits into wider campaigns, from PR and social media through to experiential activity. They're asking how they can own a space rather than simply advertise within it.”