Advertisers took advantage of the outdoor season in Q2 and increased their out-​of-​home media buying in a big way. The OAAA pegs the marketer spending at $2.49 billion.  The growth rate of 4.7%, compared to last year, is the highest since Q4 2015.

OAAA President & CEO Nancy Fletcher reports that growth was strong in all major categories: “billboards, street furniture, transit, and place-​based.” The top categories for Q2 OOH ad buying broke out as follows. (The percent of the total for each category appears in parentheses.)

• Services and amusements $568 million (22.8%)
• Retail $249 million (10%)
• Media and advertising $201 million (8.1%)
• Restaurants $190 million (7.6%)
• Transportation, hotels, resorts $175 million (7.0%)
• Government, politics, organizations $157 million (6.3%)
• Financial $152 million (6.1%)
• Insurance and real estate $137 million (5.5%)
• Schools, camps, seminars $92 million (3.7%)
• Automotive dealers and services $92 million (3.7%)

Fastest-​Growing Categories

The category with one of the biggest jumps in spending between last year and this year is government and politics. Not surprisingly, candidates, parties and PACs boosted their ad spending by 15.7% in Q2. On a year-​to-​date basis, the category has recorded a 13.2% ad spending increase. We can expect continued ad spending from this sector through early November.

Schools, camps and seminars bought 17.4% more outdoor ad spending in Q2 this year, when compared to 2017. The increased spending in this category may have been driven by marketers’ attempt to reach key decision makers in advance of peak enrollment periods.

Auto dealers and media and advertising were the categories with the biggest drops in Q2. Both categories experienced a 7.8% drop from 2017 levels. In addition, the year-​to-​date drop of 10.4% for media and advertising is notably larger than for all other categories.

OAAA execs also report that a few new companies entered the Top 100 in Q2. For example, Twizzlers made an appearance on the list. The brand has been promoting enhancements to its products recently. And,  LogMeIn has been busy touting its brands in several media formats, including OOH. LogMeIn is now the parent company of Citrix which previously owned the GoTo family of products.

To learn more about which consumers are swayed by OOH advertising, check out the AudienceSCAN profiles available at AdMall from SalesFuel​.com.