Out-of-home (OOH) advertising spending in the United States reached $3.16 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a 10.7% increase compared to the same period last year. It was the first time that quarterly revenue in the category exceeded $3 billion, according to data from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). With this result, the accumulated growth for the year reached 9.2%.
The driver of the quarter was digital screens. Digital out of home (DOOH) grew 18.5% year-over-year and now accounts for 38.4% of total OOH revenue. The data confirms a sustained migration from static inventory to digital formats, without implying the abandonment of traditional media.
"Brands increasingly recognize the power of OOH to show up where culture, commerce, and real life intersect,"
stated Anna Bager, president and CEO of the OAAA. She attributed the growth to advertisers in technology and AI, financial services, and the energy surrounding the World Cup and other live events. "This quarter reflects advertisers' confidence in the medium to deliver both visibility and impact," she added.
The numbers support that interpretation. The Computers, Software & Internet industry boosted its investment by 149.8% year-over-year, and technology and direct-to-consumer companies accounted for 30% of the top 100 OOH advertisers. Among formats, Transit led growth with 23.9% and Place-Based advanced 19.3%. Nearly three quarters (73%) of the top 100 advertisers increased their spending compared to the second quarter of 2025, and brands such as OpenAI, Genspark, Canva, and Meta more than doubled their investment.
The ranking of the top ten advertisers for the quarter mixes mass consumption brands and services: Morgan & Morgan, Coca-Cola, Apple, T-Mobile, McDonald's, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Progressive, Universal Pictures, and Dunkin'. Large live events also pushed spending: FIFA invested over $3 million to promote the World Cup and Live Nation increased its investment by 10% to over $2.3 million.
This background changes the interpretation of the data. For years, OOH was seen as a mature, slow-growth medium compared to digital advertising; today, precisely the software and artificial intelligence companies are the ones accelerating their investment in physical screens the most, which reverses that narrative and suggests that real-world exposure has regained strategic value for native digital brands.
From the tracking that next+ has given to this topic, the quarter confirms that DOOH has ceased to be an experiment within the mix to become a fixed and growing line item in the advertising budget. For marketing teams in Latin America, the signal is twofold: out-of-home media is again capturing the attention of more sophisticated advertisers, including AI companies, and, with the 2026 World Cup also taking place in Mexico, the window to capitalize on audience concentration in public spaces is immediate and measurable