“OOH succeeds when cities succeed”

In another insightful session on Day 1 of OAC 2026, Fred Kuhlman – OOH specialist for cities, Partner at NABB Holland, made a simple point with a big message that great cities and great out-of-home advertising grow together.

His talk, titled “Urban ‘X’pressions: OOH at the Intersection of Cityscape and Storytelling,” opened with a question every city planner and marketer should ask — what actually makes a great city?

Fred walked the audience through before-and-after transformations from six major cities: Paris’s Champs-Élysées, London’s Oxford Street, Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon Stream, Barcelona’s harbour front, New York’s 5th Avenue, and Shanghai’s Huaihai Road. In every case, the story was the same — car-choked streets turned into walkable, green, people-first spaces.

This isn’t happening by accident, he said. Cities are changing because of five forces pulling at them at once: competition with other cities, sustainability goals, the needs of retail, a demand for better experience, and the pull of tourism.

For Fred, this shift creates a new role for OOH advertising — one that goes beyond simply selling ad space. As cities build better public spaces, they draw more people. More people means a stronger local economy. And a stronger economy means more valuable OOH placements.

“OOH is the only advertising medium that physically shapes the city,” he mentioned, pointing to landmarks like Seoul’s K-Pop Square, where giant digital screens have become part of the city’s identity.

According to him, successful cities tend to share five habits: they have a long-term vision, they put people first, they invest in public space, they integrate OOH thoughtfully into that space, and they work in partnership with industry.

That partnership, he explained, sets off a kind of virtuous cycle: partnership leads to quality, quality creates public value, public value drives innovation, innovation builds commitment, and commitment improves performance — which in turn strengthens the partnership.

Additionally, more than 50% of OOH revenue flows back into society, according to Fred. That comes through several channels — revenue sharing with cities, rent paid to public authorities, free public service campaigns, emergency communications during crises, and taxes.

Fred’s closing message to the audience was simple and straightforward – OOH isn’t just along for the ride as cities modernise; it’s a partner in building them. The companies and cities that treat it that way, he argued, end up with better public spaces, stronger local economies, and advertising that actually adds value instead of clutter.