Did OOH Miss Its Musk Shot?
by Nick Coston, OOH, DOOH, pDOOH Professional; Industry Writer
The business headline on Nov. 29 reads, “Elon Musk tells advertisers: “Go F@#$ Yourself.” It was everywhere; you couldn’t miss it whether you were in the ad industry or reading a book on the moon. It happened in an interview during the DealBook Summit in NYC a couple of weeks ago. Shortly after Musk’s now-infamous outburst filled cable shows and the social media ether, I was attending a cocktail reception during the Digital Signage Experience in Las Vegas.
Funny enough, this reception was sponsored by Sixteen: Nine, David Haynes’s online publication, which touts “all digital signage, some snark.” Several experienced OOH peeps and I were grumbling about why our industry wasn’t jumping on Musk’s remark, saying we’ll gladly take all those billions in ad revenue that are leaving X. That’s right, billions!
With ad spending reportedly reaching a whopping $72 billion in wasted online ad fraud dollars—an amount that is eight to nine times of OOH revenue in a year—why aren’t we grabbing these humongous monies? Just a short while back, as one experienced grumbler noted, our industry has taken a position that bots, fraud, and a cookie-less future were going to be a gold mine of OOH growth. Thus far, my sources say, there’s no evidence these online ad dollars have moved our way. Nada, zero.
Then came more of Musk’s comments.
“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f@#$ yourself. Go f@#$ yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who didn’t want his sprawling company to be affiliated with Musk onstage earlier in the day. “Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel. Don’t advertise,” Musk blurted out.
OOH would love some of those Disney millions in ad spend. We have the space, CPMs, verified impressions, and plenty of live folks to help your media peeps navigate the magnificent world of OOH. Doesn’t that sound easy?
Alas, we just sat there. No billboards went up inviting Musk’s advertisers to come our way, no outraged editorials by industry blogs appeared, and no formal outreach by our associations screaming, “Hey, look over here, yoo-hoo, OOH welcomes your billions!” Nothing but crickets. We buried our heads in the sands of Cannes.
None of us know why, either. With companies such as Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, Coke, Jeep, Merck and Unilever, to mention just a few that have pulled away from X, OOH should be armed with flowers, candy, Starbucks gift cards, and lots of billboard minis, right from the get-go.
What are we waiting for?
What is the holdup?
Someone in OOH must jump on that ball (I love sports clichés) that contains $1.5 billion in lost revenues from X alone this past year. Why shouldn’t it be us? We have static and digital products, place-based, transit, retail, wallscapes, street furniture, boats, mobile trucks, murals, wild postings, airports, and experiential. Like Arby’s says, we have the meat, dammit!
I believe there’s still time. As we slog toward the end of 2023, now is the moment for our industry to rally. It must be a team effort, and it has to start now. Who’s gonna lead this charge? The OOH owners? Our associations? How about all of the above?
Clean shots like these only come along so often. Let’s not lose this one.
So Many Billboards, So Little Time…
• Say what you will about personal injury lawyer ads, but they have become a staple of the OOH media landscape for over 10 years. Many of them are darn entertaining, too. I raced by this one pictured here in Las Vegas last week; I only saw it and didn’t have time to snap a picture. Fortunately, Sherilyn McLain of Landmark Dividend did; she took her shot and posted it on Instagram. This static bulletin containing a “Sphere” joke has nothing to do with law practice, just a clever reminder that Steven Parke of the Parke Injury Law Firm is on the case and at your service. I don’t know if he wrote this funny himself, but it’s an attention-getter. U2 again? You’re killin’ it, Steven.
• Here’s one way to get around Kremlin censorship. Last week, this billboard appeared in Russia. Innocent as it may seem, allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posted the spot. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by the imprisoned and now missing Navalny, paid for these billboards in Moscow and other Russian cities. The copy said “Russia” and “Happy New Year.” However, a web address and QR code in the poster copy led to a website titled “Russia Without Putin.” The website linked to the billboard campaign asks Russians to convince 10 people to vote against Putin, including cold calls, posting on social media, drawing graffiti and distributing leaflets. While the copy was quickly removed, it lives on social media worldwide. Advocacy billboards disguised as a New Year’s greeting. Clever.
• Wayne Partello, co-founder of CUENTO, a San Diego-based marketing company, is an avid and entertaining LinkedIn scribe. Earlier this week, he reminded his readers there’s still much to complete before the year ends. “Make your list of what you need to accomplish before that bell rings on 12/23, and let’s start crossing some items off every day,” he wrote. I agree. Wayne is a terrific storyteller, knows his audience, and likes to share his thoughts without appearing bossy. Give Wayne a follow. And maybe we’ll send him after all those advertisers who have fled X.
Nick Coston has been in the advertising industry for over 35 years. He’s worked at newspapers, magazines, OOH/DOOH companies, programmatic platforms, and ground-breaking ad tech companies, including Washingtonian, Washington Times, New Republic, USA Today Weekend, Clear Channel Outdoor, The Neuron, and Hypercell. Currently SVP media sales/strategy at Smartify Media, Nick also spent 10 years buying OOH for a top 10 national advertiser. He resides with his family in Dayton, Maryland, and has been musing about the Outdoor Media industry for over five years.
Nick you totally hit it. Our industry can’t get past 5% of overall budgets growing at 4.4% YOY which is about inflation rate
We need to show advertisers there is a safe haven - DOOH and nail that message from all players in the space
I love that Elon and X is losing 100 Million in advertisers and told them to F@ck off.
We as an industry have yet to show the online advertisers we are an true alternative and an audience extension.
Why cant we break out past 5% of all ad dollars as an industry.?
This will take the whole industry to get together, working together, between OAAA and the DPAA and all the larger players in OOH combining one campaign and one message across all screens and boards.
I'd be happy to donate 5% of our screens slots to this effort.