William The OOH —Predicts for ’26

🔮 William The OOH —The OOH Psychic Predictions for 2026

By William the OOH, Resident Psychic, Soothsayer, Billboard Correspondent for OOH Today 

This post’s intention, like many op-eds I pen, is to unite the OOH industry in thinking, discussing, and taking pride in our shared challenges and opportunities.

Visions, sarcasm, and a few uncomfortable truths about the year ahead

Gather ‘round, media buyers, sellers, vendors, agencies, and those still pretending QR codes on bulletins are a good idea.
It is your Out-of-Home Resident Psychic, Soothsayer, Billboard Correspondent. And I have gazed into the radiant, shimmering vinyl of the future. What I saw was… well… 2026.

A year where OOH gets more innovative, weirder, and somehow both more advanced and stuck in the same seven bad habits.

Let’s begin.

🔮 Vision #1: Programmatic OOH Finally Arrives… Again

Yes, yes, I know — 2024 and 2025 already promised us the “year of programmatic.”
But behold! In 2026, programmatic OOH will officially become the new gluten-free diet:
Everyone claims they’re doing it, few truly understand it, and a shocking number still prefer analog.

Prepare yourself for endless press releases announcing “First-Ever Programmatic Something” that has absolutely already been done.

🔮 Vision #2: Agencies Will Pretend Kickbacks Never Happened

In my crystal ball, I see agencies promoting themselves as transparent, ethical, and client-first…
Meanwhile, vendors quietly whisper,
“Didn’t they just try to negotiate a ‘volume-based partnership with ?’”

But in 2026, the industry will invent a new phrase to replace the word “rebate”:
Client Value Optimization Reinvestment Alignment Initiative™

Spoiler alert:
It still means “kickback,” sweeties.

🔮 Vision #3: Autonomous Vehicles Will Start Making OOH Nervous

AV testing expands. Passengers stare at screens instead of scenery.
Media owners begin to shift in their seats. Sphincters tighten uncontrollably
Digital boards start blinking a little faster, like they can feel the anxiety.

Don’t worry — AVs won’t kill OOH in 2026.
But they will demand the industry stop pretending they don’t exist.

This is the year innovative companies start future-proofing.
And the rest keep saying, “We’ll deal with it when it’s closer.”

I wish you good luck with that.

🔮 Vision #4: Everyone Will Claim to Be Sustainable

Brands will ask for “green OOH” with the same sincerity as people who buy organic kale and then eat fast food at midnight.

Expect significant sustainability commitments, louder recycling messaging, and at least one media owner unveiling a “carbon-neutral bulletin” powered by a single sad solar panel.

But the cities offering zero recycling in public spaces?
They’ll still pretend the planet is someone else’s problem.

🔮 Vision #5: Transit OOH Explodes — If Cities Finally Get the Basics Right

Ridership keeps climbing. Cities keep investing.
And transit OOH becomes the sexy, rising category everyone wants in on.

But here’s where my psychic vision gets spicy:

Agencies will spend millions on bus ads while cities still won’t put benches at bus stops.

2026 could be Transit OOH’s big moment —
If cities remember, humans occasionally like to sit down, stay out of the sun and rain.

🔮 Vision #6: Measurement Becomes a Holy War

The industry will chase “unified measurement,” which is adorable.
Vendors will swear their data is the most accurate. The Big 3 still control Geopath. And OAAA. And the band plays on…
Buyers will roll their eyes.
Brands will still want “guaranteed impressions” on a medium that lives outdoors where birds, storms, and construction crews exist.

The only people winning in 2026?
The measurement companies are selling subscriptions.

🔮 Vision #7: Digital OOH Grows Even Faster — Because Humans Can’t Stop Looking at Shiny Things

Digital screens take over more corners, more airports, more transit shelters, and more awkward spaces where they absolutely do not belong. To a great extent, because most of the static units can not legally be converted, i.e., legally permitted. Don’t share this point with investment types.

And yet… Digital screens…they’ll work.
Because they move.
And humans love movement.

🔮 Vision #8: OOH Remains the Last Medium People Can’t Skip

Despite all the chaos, OOH remains beautifully stubborn.
Unmuteable.
Unskippable.
Unavoidable.

2026 will bring headaches, breakthroughs, and ridiculous trends —
But OOH will keep winning because you can’t scroll past a billboard on the highway (yet).

🔮 Final Vision: 2026 Will Be the Year OOH Grows Up… or Grows Loud

The industry will either:
A) Start acting like a modern media channel with transparency, tech, and strategy, or
B) Continue duct-taping old practices to new buzzwords and hoping no one notices.

My prediction?
A little of both.
Because this is OOH — scrappy, brilliant, chaotic, and absolutely alive.

How we like it.

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