The Billboard Buzz

Why this Q3 report matters for anyone using billboards Out-of-home advertising is not slowing down. New data from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) shows that U.S. OOH revenue grew again in the third quarter of 2025 and set a new all-time Q3 record. For brands that already invest in billboards, and for those still deciding how to shift budgets for 2026, this report is an important signal. OOH is not a legacy channel. It is a growth channel that continues to prove its value in a crowded media landscape. The latest OAAA figures show that out-of-home advertising revenue increased 4.5 percent in Q3 2025 compared to the same quarter a year earlier, reaching 2.13 billion dollars in spend. Year-to-date revenue climbed to 6.98 billion dollars, up 3.2 percent over the prior year. This marks the eighteenth straight quarter of growth for the industry, and the highest third-quarter revenue volume on record for U.S. OOH. OAAA’s release makes it clear that this mom...

The media shifts are reshaping how brands reach consumers. The way people watch, listen, and search for information has changed. In 2026, media habits look nothing like the environment in which many businesses grew up advertising. Traditional broadcast channels that once delivered reliable reach are losing influence as consumer behavior shifts toward streaming and on-demand digital options. These changes directly impact how brands build awareness and earn customer attention. Millennials and Gen Z are driving this change. Updated projections from the Pew Research Center show that these two generations will represent half of the U.S. adult population by 2026. They grew up with streaming services, social platforms, and mobile content. Most did not form habits around cable television, satellite subscriptions, or AM FM radio. Their media choices are shaping what advertisers must do to stay visible. As younger generations become the majority, the channels they ignore begin to ...

Why brand safety for billboards matters in 2026 Brand safety for billboards in 2026 is about more than avoiding offensive creative. It is about where your ad appears, what comes before and after it, and whether those messages align with your core values. When you advertise on digital or static billboards, you are sharing a physical space with other brands. That shared space can support your reputation or quietly damage it. Out-of-home advertising is growing, and more categories are entering the medium, including cannabis, adult entertainment, sports betting, and polarizing political causes. Recent data from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America shows U.S. OOH revenue surpassing $ 9.1 billion in 2024 and continuing to rise, driven in part by digital billboards and new advertisers. As more categories crowd into the same inventory, the risk of conflicting messages on the same sign increases. For value-driven local brands, including churches, family medical prac...

Why simple billboard design beats clever ideas When people talk about billboard advertising, they often focus on clever taglines and big creative swings. At Whistler Billboards, our experience points in a different direction. The campaigns that perform best are usually the ones that look the simplest at first glance. Clear copy, strong hierarchy, and bold contrast tend to win more attention and drive better results than complex, award-style concepts. This Friday Feature looks at why simplicity outperforms creativity in the real world. We will walk through what drivers can actually process on the road, why cluttered creative underperforms, how industry research backs simple design, and what our internal design team sees across hundreds of campaigns each year. If you are planning a new billboard or tuning an existing one, this is a practical guide you can apply directly to your next proof. Along the way, we will connect this topic to related resources on Billboard Buzz, in...

Why customer expectations start forming the moment someone sees your billboard Many businesses focus on what happens after a customer clicks a link or visits a website. The fundamental shift in 2025-2026 comes earlier. Customer expectations begin forming long before a search, click, or form submission. Billboard advertising plays a larger role in shaping these expectations than most brands realize. Before a person takes an action online, they build an idea of a brand based on repeated exposure, message clarity, and the promise they see in the marketplace. Billboards sit at the front of this journey because they reach people before digital intent begins. This article breaks down how billboard advertising influences customer expectations, strengthens search behavior, and sets the tone for every future interaction. It also covers how billboards work with SEO and digital marketing to create a stronger pre-click environment for brands. How billboards guide the customer jour...

Why familiarity matters in modern advertising Most people do not trust brands the first time they see them. Trust builds through repetition, recognition, and consistency. Billboard advertising fits directly into that pattern because it places your brand inside a person’s daily environment. When drivers pass the same billboard on their morning commute, they begin to accept the brand as familiar, stable, and safe to choose. This happens even when they do not consciously focus on the board. Familiarity builds in the background. This article explains how psychological familiarity works, why billboards outperform many digital channels in terms of trust and memory, and how businesses can use local out-of-home placements to build credibility faster in the markets they serve. It includes insights tied to research and links to relevant Whistler Billboards articles, such as Why Billboard Advertising Should Be a Part of Your Media Mix and Bulletins Dominate the 2025 CPM which both hi...