Running an OOH Company in 2026

Running an OOH Company in 2026

Where steel, screens, and sidewalks all still matter

By Brent Baer, Publisher, OOH Today

Running an OOH company, whether it’s 2026 or 1983, is a challenging career. But it is the most fun and rewarding ‘job’ I have had in my entire 46-year OOH career. I’ve been managing a ‘billboard store’ since my first opportunity working for Steve Adams, oh, that’s Adams Outdoor to you, in 1983. In Steve’s OOH purchase in Michigan, the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek market was under my management—over 1600 faces. I was 28 years old. It was challenging for sure. But fun? 100%! Rewarding? Yes! The pay was good, not great. The limited partnership shares were a strong incentive and offset the lower annual income. Fast forward today to my little billboard plant in Charlottesville in 2026, it’s still very rewarding, though not as fun; been there, done that, syndrome has set in. But in fairness, OOH Today has replaced much of the fun I enjoyed with my billboards, creating new ‘fun’ and challenges. Let me stay on track for managing an OOH business in 2026.

Running an OOH company in 2026 means waking up every morning and managing multiple media eras simultaneously.

You’re not just a billboard company.
You’re not just a digital network.
And despite what some tech decks suggest, you’re definitely not “fully automated.”

You’re operating static posters, bus benches, bus shelters, classic bulletins, and digital billboards—often in the same market, sometimes on the same block—and every one of them plays by slightly different rules.

Static OOH Isn’t Dead. It’s Doing the Quiet Work.

Let’s start with the formats everyone keeps trying to bury.

Static posters, bus benches, and bus shelters are still doing exactly what they’ve always done:

• Delivering a consistent, unavoidable presence
• Anchoring local and regional campaigns
• Winning on cost-efficiency and simplicity

They don’t need electricity.
They don’t buffer.
They don’t need an API handshake to work.

In 2026, static inventory remains the backbone of local OOH. Municipalities still permit it. Local advertisers still understand it. And in many markets, it’s the only format that truly scales neighborhood by neighborhood.

If you run an OOH company, static isn’t a legacy problem—it’s a reliability asset.

Street Furniture: Operationally Complex, Strategically Underrated

Bus shelters and bus benches may look simple to buyers, but operators know better.

They come with:

• Municipal contracts
• Maintenance standards
• Cleaning schedules
• Accessibility requirements
• Political visibility

In 2026, street furniture is less about flash and more about defensibility. These assets are hard to replace, hard to permit, and deeply embedded in cities’ daily rhythms.

Buyers love them because they’re contextual.
Cities tolerate them because they provide public value.
Operators value them because they’re sticky.

And yes—selling them still requires human explanation. No algorithm understands local foot traffic like the people who service these units every week.

Billboards: Still the Flagships

Classic billboards—bulletins, vinyls, painted walls—remain the emotional core of OOH.

They:

• Signal scale
• Confer legitimacy
• Deliver instant brand authority

In 2026, billboards still anchor national buys, even when the rest of the plan is sliced into digital impressions. Clients may optimize around them, but they still start with them.

Running an OOH company means protecting these assets:

• From over-discounting
• From bad creative
• From being treated like interchangeable screens

A great billboard still does something no dashboard can measure: it changes how a city feels.

Digital and Programmatic: Powerful, But Not Universal

Yes, digital and programmatic OOH are growing.
Yes, they’re important.
Yes, they belong in your strategy.

But in 2026, they’re still layered on top of a physical business, not replacing it.

Digital brings:

• Flexibility
• Speed
• New categories of spend

It also brings:

• Price pressure
• Buyer expectations shaped by online media
• Operational dependencies on tech that doesn’t fix broken lights or vandalism

The smartest operators treat digital as an accelerant, not a shortcut.

The Reality of Running It All

Here’s the truth most people don’t say out loud:

Running an OOH company in 2026 means managing:

• Analog assets in a digital buying world
• Local realities in global buying systems
• Clients who want simplicity and cities that guarantee complexity

Your sales team is explaining static value to data-driven buyers.
Your operations team is supporting digital while keeping benches clean.
Your leadership team is balancing yield, relationships, and long-term asset value.

What Still Wins in 2026

Across posters, benches, shelters, and billboards, the winners share a few traits:

• They respect the physical reality of the medium —IRL —’in real life’ is the new buzz phrase
• They price with discipline
• They educate buyers instead of chasing them
• They don’t apologize for formats that work

OOH has always been about presence—being there, consistently, in the real world. That was the case in 1983 and is still in 2026.

That hasn’t changed.

What’s changed is the complexity of running it all at once.

And that’s the job now. —No matter the pain your boss is, it wouldn’t hurt to give her or him a round of recognition every now and then.