CCO sells assets, DOOH better than Super Bowl, Cordova joins Heritage, and DirecTV launches its own OOH. A weekly recap of the top OOH stories you may have missed and colorful commentary from BB for the week ending January 11, 2025.
1. CCO Euro North Sells to Bauer for $625M
This sale is part of CCO’s overall strategic plan to optimize its portfolio by focusing on its America and Airports segments. The goal is to enhance cash flow and reduce balance sheet leverage. Upon completion, CCO will have divested the majority of its European operations.
B.B.’s Take: 6.5 times multiple. You can’t be serious! This is a very low multiple. CCO has a boatload of debt, reportedly in excess of $5.45 BILLION! $625 Million from this sale to pay down debt is not even a dent. The transaction will make the debt situation seem better, but the reality of the sale in the big picture is that it reinforces the thoughts that the company has problems. And Bauer Radio; another radio OOH combo? That doesn’t work.
2. A Super Bowl Ad Is Limited To a Transient, 30-Seconds
In this piece by Steve Nicklin, SVP, Marketing & Analytics, OAAA, he gets into all of the points and details that can help OOH companies convince brands to invest more in OOH. Investing $7 million in a 30-second Super Bowl ad offers brands exposure to approximately 123 million viewers, but this visibility is limited to a single, fleeting moment. In contrast, allocating the same budget to a month-long Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) campaign can yield nearly 1 billion impressions across the top 25 U.S. markets. This approach achieves over 80% average reach with a frequency of more than seven exposures per consumer, resulting in a cost-effective $7.49 CPM.
B.B.’s Take: Every year after watching the Super Bowl and its commercials, me and every self righteous billboard sales person clamors the bell for the terrible seemingly injustice of ‘all that money’ spent in TV for 30 seconds and just think what the similar dollars could have done in OOH. And as an OOH person if you don’t feel that emotional disgust you should leave the business. But hold on for a second. Forget the fact that the Super Bowl has been sold out since summer. Let’s step back and look at some hard comparisons. Hard because I don’t want to acknowledge them. Considering the average dwell time in front of the OOH face for a DOOH spot runs right around a second Super Bowl ad costs more like $233K per second not $7 million. I say in front of the screen because don’t the perview numbers ‘count’ people behind the screens? Keep up the yearly articles OAAA on the Super Bowl and OOH comparisons, perhaps a more realistic approach which would demand a brand take us a bit more seriously.
3. DIRECTV Advertising Announces OOH Network
DIRECTV Advertising has launched DIRECTV Remote, a dedicated out-of-home (OOH) network designed to deliver premium video advertisements to audiences in various commercial settings, including hotels, airplanes, and small businesses. This initiative positions DIRECTV as the first multichannel video programming distributor to offer dynamic ad insertion into in-flight TV programming, expanding its advertising reach beyond traditional households.
DIRECTV Advertising has partnered with Starcom and Best Buy as initial collaborators for this service, aiming to integrate OOH into comprehensive media strategies that drive consumer engagement and business results.
B.B.’s Take: This may have some legs. Limited audience and therefore short legs. but legs nonetheless. DIRECTTV keep your day job, errr primary revenue stream.