PQ Media forecasting serious rev growth for DOOH in 2011

November 13, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Patrick Quinn, the head of PQ Media, did an update of DOOH revenues and a preliminary forecast for 2011 of growth in this sector this week at the CET World show in New York.

Briefly, things are looking good.

Quinn calls the overall category DOOH and then breaks it down two ways, as Place-Based Networks and Digital Billboards and Posters (the stuff from the likes of CEMUSA, Lamar, Decaux and so on. For place-based, he estimates 15% to 16% growth in 2011. For digital billboards and signs, he sees growth at 18% – 19%.

Overall, that averages out to DOOH sector growth of 16% to 17% next year.

That growth is attributable to things like improvements in audience metrics and the adoption of guidelines, better sales and marketing work, both new and more venues, and integration with emerging technologies like social and mobile.

Given how fast things chand and the wild west state of affairs, I don’t how PQ Media gets an accurate handle on numbers, but they say there are 267 digital place-based operators and network aggregators (ie Adcentricity, SeeSaw) out there in the US. There are now more than one million screens operating.

There are 117 digital billboard and poster companies and about 4,000 units.

OOH represent about four per cent of overall ad spend, and digital is 25 per cent of that.

What I found really interesting, but I suppose not suprising, is that about 75 per cent of the DOOH sector ad spend is dominated by 10 companies. He says the sector is in a shakeout phase that will continue into 2011, so expect at least a third of the networks out there to consolidate.

Quinn roared through his presentation – a function of material versus time – so my notes were less than perfect. I’ve asked to get the deck and if I do, will flesh this out a bit more.