Word on the Street: Revenue Is Up —

What If OOH Stopped Selling Billboards?

By Brent Baer, Publisher, OOH Today and OOH Owner, baerboards, llc

If yesterday’s playbook isn’t producing tomorrow’s results, perhaps it’s time to write a new one.

What If OOH Stopped Selling Billboards?

No, this isn’t a call to tear down every billboard in America. Or any billboard Anywhere.

No, I’m not suggesting digital displays go dark or that salespeople suddenly start looking for another line of work.

Billboards are Americana. The TreeHugger’s just don’t realize it.

But what if, philosophically, the Out of Home industry stopped selling billboards?

Stay with me.

Because I think OOH may be standing at one of its most important crossroads in years.

New leadership is arriving at some of our industry’s largest companies. Whether that changes the trajectory of OOH remains to be seen. New names on office doors don’t automatically produce new ideas. What they do create is opportunity—an opportunity to challenge old assumptions, ask questions that may have gone unasked for too long and, perhaps most importantly, reconnect with the people who ultimately define success: the brands.

For years, OOH has become exceptionally good at talking about locations, impressions, CPMs, availability, inventory, audience measurement and every other metric imaginable. Those tools matter. They make us smarter. They help validate our medium. But they’re still just tools.

they’re still just tools

Clients don’t wake up in the morning hoping someone sells them a 14′ x 48′ billboard along Interstate 95. They wake up wondering how to gain market share, launch a new product, create momentum and outperform the competition. Those are the outcomes they’re buying.

Somewhere along the way, perhaps we’ve become so proficient at selling media that we’ve occasionally forgotten to begin by solving the brand’s challenge. That’s not a criticism of agencies. Agencies remain an indispensable partner in our business, and always will. But perhaps the next evolution of OOH is reconnecting with the brands themselves—the people whose names are attached to the sales numbers.

Clients don’t wake up in the morning hoping someone sells them a 14′ x 48′ billboard along Interstate

They’re the people who live with market share reports, product launches, competitive pressure and the responsibility of building iconic brands. Those conversations sound very different from conversations about inventory because every billboard has an advertiser, every advertiser represents a brand and every brand has a challenge waiting to be solved. Too often, we stop one conversation too early.

Instead of asking, “How many locations are you looking for?” perhaps the better opening question is, “What does success look like six months from now?” And let’s be real, 6 months out is not long enough. What does success look like 24 months from now. That’s an entirely different discussion.

Perhaps OOH’s next competitive advantage isn’t another digital display, another measurement tool or another data point. Perhaps it’s rediscovering the art of listening by reconnecting with brands, understanding their objectives, solving their unique challenges and then recommending the right solution. If we do that well, recommending the right inventory becomes the easy part.

“What does success look like six months from now?”

Here’s another thought worth considering.

Recent industry reports celebrated revenue gains, and that’s encouraging. Every dollar matters. But if those gains merely keep pace with inflation—or worse, fall behind it—have we truly advanced? Or have we simply become comfortable celebrating numbers without asking what they really mean?

If yesterday’s playbook isn’t producing tomorrow’s results, perhaps it’s time to write a new one.

Maybe the answer isn’t selling more billboards. Maybe it’s helping brands sell more of what they’re building.

That starts by reconnecting with the brands themselves—understanding their objectives earlier, listening more intently to their challenges and becoming part of the conversation before the media plan is already on the table.

That’s why this moment feels different. Not simply because leadership is changing, but because new leadership brings an opportunity to challenge the status quo, reconnect with brands and ask whether there’s a better way for OOH to create value than simply selling another location.

For years, OOH has done an outstanding job earning its place in media plans. Perhaps Round Two is earning a place in business conversations—not after the strategy has been developed, but before it has. That’s when the questions are bigger, the stakes are higher and OOH has the opportunity to help shape outcomes instead of simply executing the plan.

Billboards aren’t the product. Outcomes are. Market share is. Momentum is.

Billboards aren’t the product

When OOH helps brands achieve their objectives, the conversation changes. We’re no longer selling space; we’re earning the opportunity to become part of a brand’s success. That’s a far more valuable place to be—for our clients, for our industry and for the future of OOH.

Maybe that’s what this next chapter of OOH is really about. Not stopping the sale of billboards, but stopping the practice of leading with them. Instead, let’s reconnect with brands, understand where they want to go and help them get there. The billboard will always matter—but perhaps it should be the answer to the conversation, not the opening question.

brands aren’t looking for another billboard. They’re looking for partners who understand

Because in the end, brands aren’t looking for another billboard. They’re looking for partners who understand their business, share their objectives and are invested in helping them succeed. Perhaps the biggest opportunity in front of OOH isn’t discovering something entirely new at all. It’s reconnecting with the people we’ve always been in business to serve.

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