UK OOH to grow by 31% in 2021: GroupM report

In its latest edition of End of the Year UK Market Forecast report, GroupM has reported a 45% decline in the OOH medium for the year of 2020, owing to the novel Corona virus. According to the report, given the strict lockdown and social distancing measures in place for much of 2020, it is no surprise that spending declined to such an extent.

However, early-returning categories such as e-commerce platforms and fast-food restaurants have mitigated some of the decline, as has government spending on public health messaging. In fact, government spending is expected to reach between £35 million and £40 million this year, according to the report. 

GroupM also expects that much of the losses should be regained next year and that the OOH medium will expand by 31%. Digital formats, which now represent around 60% of the medium’s activity, will continue growing next year and beyond, it says.

Speculating on the post vaccination impact on OOH medium, the reports expects that the return of out-of-home advertising will promote activities currently prohibited by social distancing measures. Also, while the pandemic has had a severely negative affect on the out-of-home industry, the report does include some silver linings. For instance, it talks about various collaborative initiatives to improve industry targeting capabilities through footfall tracking as well as increased emphasis on digital out-of-home (DOOH). Programmatic DOOH in particular is benefiting from renewed industry effort and is expected to grow from 3% of traded revenues to 7% by the end of 2021, says the report.

Brexit Impact on Advertising

Weighing in on the fate of advertising in 2021, the report also clarifies that Brexit’s impact on the advertising market will be limited to a shift in spending away from the first quarter rather than meaningful full-year cuts. More generally, “normal” activity will return by the second half of the year, which pre-supposes that Brexit will not cause ongoing problems and that an effective vaccine will be widely distributed across the population.