OUTFRONT CEO Nick Brien and CFO Matt Siegel presented at this week’s J.P. Morgan Tech, Media and Communications Conference. Some excerpts from their talk, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue
CEO Nick Brien says AI companies are a hot ad category
The West has done exceptionally well. We’ve had meaningful benefit in LA and San Francisco — partly because technology, including AI, is now one of our largest advertising categories. AI-native businesses as well as established players are spending heavily. It started in San Francisco, but it’s now very extensive in New York. Finance, CPG, and a number of other exciting categories are contributing as well. The level of ambition from AI companies — across all sizes — is remarkable. We’re pretty much sold out to the end of the year. They start in San Francisco and then want to expand to other markets. Some have migrated to Chicago, Boston, and most of New York. We’re very excited — it’s clearly here to stay.
Brien wants measurement to improve faster
Industry measurement standard is the priority — not what I have individually. No individual operator is going to resolve the inherent weakness of this medium’s lack of growth, because we haven’t had credible, consistent, and robust audience measurement that buyers trust. We haven’t had it for decades. I’m excited that after running the pilot, Ipsos won the RFP. Ipsos manages out-of-home advertising measurement in 26 markets around the world — they’re a major brand alongside Nielsen and Kantar. I want it to go faster. We need to capture the September-October planning cycle for 2027. It’s very promising. On top of that, each individual operator can decide what level of data and signal integration to overlay — but if you don’t have credible universal audience measurement, everything else is secondary.
CFO Matt Sigel expect OUTFRONT to convert 125 static billboards to digital this year
We’re still getting those returns — 4x revenue, 2x cost — and that’s held for a number of years. The biggest constraint is regulatory and the gestation period for approvals: local community boards, engineering reviews, landlords who move slowly. We have about 300 projects in the pipeline that take multiple years, and somewhere between 100 and 150 come out of the pipeline in a year. We’d like to speed that up, but we think we’re doing the right number for now.
Brien sees potential in pharma advertising
Pharma spends less than half a percent of its total ad budget in out-of-home — and it’s one of the biggest spending categories in advertising overall. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a massive opportunity. We’re already seeing Pfizer, J&J, and other major brands, both on billboard and in transit. We’re excited.
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