CONFERENCE INSIGHT

World Out of Home Organization is born

Irene Revilla reports on a seminal annual congress for the Out of Home advertising sector’s leading association, marked by a name change and an upbeat mood about industry prospects.

INTERNATIONAL. The recent rebranding of FEPE International, the trade body for the Out of Home (OOH) advertising sector, as the World Out of Home Organization (WOO) was a response to “seismic changes” in the sector, according to the association’s President Tom Goddard.


The decision was announced at FEPE International’s 60th annual congress held in Dubai between 1 and 3 May.


Goddard said: “It’s fitting that this change is announced at our 60th annual congress, a record-breaking event with over 400 delegates from across the world, held outside Europe.” Moving on from FEPE was “like saying goodbye to a much-loved old friend”, he noted, adding that Out of Home is both a global and a rapidly-changing industry and therefore the rebranding was needed.


WOO is a worldwide association of outdoor advertising companies, advancing the sector’s interests with authorities, international organisations, political opinion formers and the communication media.

FEPE (Federation European Publicite Exterieur) was founded in Paris by French outdoor pioneer Jacques Dauphin 60 years ago and initially comprised the national outdoor advertising federations of France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands. It now has members, including many national associations, from the US, UK, Australia, Latin America, India and China.


UK brand consultancy Heavenly crafted the new name, logo and other related visual materials. Heavenly Chief Executive Richard Sunderland said: “Heavenly was engaged to help modernise the FEPE brand, ensuring it better reflected the unprecedented level of innovation that is now transforming the Out of Home sector. The name itself had become an acronym that not many could decode, even among the membership, and one that did not truly reflect the international role the organisation now plays.”

Key take-outs from the Dubai conference included:

  • Collaboration between the different stakeholders is key to the growth of the OOH industry
  • OOH enjoys a 6.7% share of global media spend. This has remained stable for a long time – the industry’s aim is to grow both the pie and the OOH portion
  • The industry is changing fast: digital and programmatic are expected to drive growth
  • DOOH delivers an emotional experience: 2.5 times more impact than static displays. However, dynamic content in OOH is still rare
  • It is expected that 68% of digital spend globally will be programmatic by 2020. DOOH and programmatic will drive OOH growth
  • Mobile is the fastest-growing media channel for ad spend
  • The OOH market remains fragmented and its metrics are different from regular programmatic norms

In his well-received keynote address themed 'The Clock is ticking', JCDecaux co-CEO Jean-Charles Decaux highlighted 10 key steps to driving future OOH success and for the sector to become the second-biggest medium (after digital) by 2040. It currently ranks a distant fourth behind the Internet (40.6%), television (32.9%) and press (8.4%), and just ahead of radio (6%).


  1. Facing the competition: 61% of the digital spend is split among 3 companies: Google, Facebook and Alibaba
  2. Self-disrupting the market: via programmatic for instance
  3. Investing in research: 90% of the world's stock of data was generated in the past two years yet just 0.5% is currently used and analysed
  4. Educating the advertising ecosystem – 84% of millennials are resistant to traditional forms of marketing technique but millennials and digital natives are the new decision makers. However, OOH is highly appreciated by millennials
  5. Enhancing value: the industry should compete on value, not in price
  6. Stimulating creativity – 47% of a brand's sales uplift comes from creative execution
  7. Self-regulation of OOH assets – better discipline and higher standards
  8. Beautifying the OOH
  9. Connecting the executions: Maximising the relationship between OOH + digital
  10. Getting involved

Decaux urged the OOH sector to cement its status as a key strategic media of the future by accelerating its transformation.

Source: Heavenly

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