U.S. OoH Advertising Hits Record $1.98B in Q1

June 5, 2025 by guest author, Antonia Hamberger

The Out of Home industry in the U.S. has had its best start to a year ever. According to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), OoH network operators generated $1.98 billion in sales in the first quarter of the year.

This follows a strong performance last year, when the industry reported $1.96 billion in Q1 sales. Although the year-over-year growth was just 2%, it marks the 16th consecutive quarter of growth.

DooH Share: 34%

As in many other regions, DooH in the U.S. is growing faster than the overall market. In Q1, it grew by 9% and now makes up 34% of total OoH revenue – amounting to $673.2 million. This puts the U.S. roughly in line with the global average for digitization, though it still lags behind most European markets. For example, DooH holds a 43% share in Germany.

Among OoH formats, street furniture saw the highest year-on-year growth at 5.5%, followed by transit at 3.4%, and place-based media at 3.2%.

“This is a strong start to the year, reinforcing the strength, adaptability, and overall growth trajectory of OoH,” said Anna Bager, President and CEO of OAAA. “Marketers are increasingly turning to OoH for its creative impact, digital flexibility, and ability to drive real results.”

Negative OoH Growth in the UK

For the UK, Outsmart reported Q1 2025 revenues of £294.5 million—a 1% increase year-on-year. DooH rose by only 1.6%, while Static OoH even slightly declined by 0.2%. Digital accounted for all of 65% of total revenue, consistent with Q1 2024. Chair Justin Cochrane still registered this growth as reassuring amid wider economic challenges.

M&Ms Is the Largest OoH Advertiser

According to the OAAA, more than 60% of the top 100 Out of Home advertisers increased their spending compared to Q1 2024. Seventeen advertisers more than doubled their investment. Leading the list are Boost Mobile, Rocket Mortgage, Turo, and M&M’s, followed by Wingstop, Sprouts Farmers Market, TopDog Law, Nike, HelloFresh, Spectrum, Tiffany, Progressive, New York University, AT&T, Eli Lilly, Universal Hotels & Resorts, and Verizon.

The top 10 OoH advertisers in Q1 were:

M&Ms
Apple
Morgan & Morgan Attorneys
Verizon
McDonald’s
Samsung
Disney
Dunkin’
Universal Pictures
T-Mobile

Top Spending Categories in OoH Advertising

About 27% of the top 100 Out of Home advertisers come from the technology or direct-to-consumer sectors. Legal Services remains the product category with the highest overall spending.

The categories with the strongest growth in Q1 were:

Wireless Telecom Providers: +116%
Architects, Contractors, and Engineers: +27%
Legal Services: +18%
Chain Food Stores & Supermarkets: +14%

Among product industries, the highest growth rates were:

Communications: +99.3%
Insurance & Real Estate: +9.7%
Local Services & Amusements: +8.4%
Financial: +7.2%
Automotive Dealers & Services: +6.1%
Restaurants: +1%

There were a number of new companies investing in OoH in the first quarter, including Boost Mobile, Rocket Mortgage and Turo. Six advertisers increased their OoH spending by more than $2 million: M&M’s, Verizon, Boost Mobile, Morgan & Morgan Attorneys, Universal Hotels & Resorts, and AT&T.

The figures from the OAAA are estimates based on multiple data sources. They include spending across digital and static billboards, street furniture, transit media, place-based media, and cinema advertising – broken down by product category and advertiser.