Media On The Go

By Ron Graham

If I was to pick one word to sum up out of home media in Malaysia, it would be Frustrating.

It is frustrating to buy, sell, report, measure or otherwise manage media investments in out of home (OOH). Malaysian OOH media owners are largely frustrating. Advertiser and agency expectations of OOH media suppliers, remain frustratingly unaddressed.

Many people much smarter than me highlight what is wrong with OOH/DOOH and yet there is no reaction to make clear and rationally proven change solutions, for better business, efficiency, growth and profitability.

Global trends are evident for all to see however behind those trends are proactive efforts, investment and resources to capitalise on those trends. Sadly, it seems that OOH/DOOH media owners in Malaysia, assume these trends will happen without any changes or actions, to make them a reality in our market.

Trend #1 – Media budgets swing back to out of home as brands realise the necessity of brand presence, real-world visibility and awareness, to sustain long term brand health as well as amplifying the effectiveness of performance-driven, tactical media investments.

Trend #2 – DOOH will keep growing relentlessly with more asset deployment, more infrastructure and more conversion of traditional displays.

Trend #3 – Programmatic is going to pick up unsold DOOH slots – at a premium price – to deliver incremental income to DOOH media operators and improve utilisation.

Trend #4 – As digital dominates all media, OOH will grow as Brands use OOH mass reach to compliment the precision of digital (while other traditional media will continue to decline).

Trend #5 – Consolidation will see big companies adding scale to support more investment into out of home, while smaller companies get acquired for a big pay-day.

How great is this… just sit back and watch out of home money rolling in.

No, no, no. Malaysia’s OOH media operators need to wake up and realise these things happen in other markets, for specific reasons with dedicated effort. Factors that under-pin those trends elsewhere are largely missing in Malaysia OOH including measurement, standardisation and AdTech systems (aka automation)

The first scenario, a resurgence for traditional classic OOH billboards, is happening in mature markets, but in Malaysia, without audience data and efficient communication between buyers and sellers, it is unlikely static out of home will capitalise on the trend.

Same for the trend of relentless DOOH growth which is evident elsewhere, in American, European, Australia and some Asian markets like Thailand, Japan, S.Korea, China and also UAE. Companies like Ocean, Backlite, Plan B and QMS are showing DOOH at its best – both valuable and profitable. If I were to identify one common defining factor, it is quality. Conversely, for DOOH in Malaysia, there are gaps in quality of hardware, systems, creative content and operating practices.

DOOH may seem to be expanding capacity but overall, the OOH sector in Malaysia is not growing, despite some claims to the contrary. Collectively the demand across all OOH is flat, and media budgets are going to the newest, shiny DOOH gantries, away from traditional or tired old screens. (An agency CEO confided their 2026 OOH media plan is more than 90% DOOH and total has not increased over 2025).

The “P” in programmatic stands for promise which is (or was) compelling belief that opening up flexible access to specific time slots and locations, will attract premium rates for the right time and place, and that automated trading platforms will bring online budgets into DOOH and mop-up vacant spaces, to improve yield. Programmatic digital OOH (pDOOH) has the potential to add DOOH growth but that potential is not being delivered. Corners are being cut in the rush to make pDOOH a reality and cracks are being noticed.

Reach is OOH’s fundamental superpower and other markets are capitalising on this trend, where media suppliers provide media products based on audience delivery. If outdoor media is to compliment other media, its audiences and effect need to be understood and demonstrated with reliable and comparable data. Malaysia’s fragmented OOH media supply still sees media sellers pushing their own vacant inventory based on lists of addresses. Often, the only audience refences are traffic counts or just an ‘estimate’ where some media owners invent numbers without any foundation.

Consolidation will happen but at realistic commercial valuations and potential sellers need to combat the threat of declining value of traditional OOH in Malaysia. There are other ways in which consolidation can happen, apart from physical mergers, such as partnering and collaboration, or AdTech to create collective access to media supply, or similarly on the buy-side, or with specialist media agencies and of course programmatic platforms too. The key to consolidation is value, where one plus one makes more than two.

While these trends are not evident today in Malaysia, these are the opportunities that point the way, to recover and reinvigorate the traditional OOH sector as well as attracting additional budgets for DOOH. Three steps will guarantee real growth for a thriving, profitable out of home sector, empowered to invest in quality and long-term health:

1.   Measurement which provides reliable audience impressions data, accepted by media buyers.

2.   Standardisation and transparency of all other data such as asset definitions, locations and DOOH play loops. Basically, calling apples, apples.

3.   Automation systems for more efficient communication between buyers and sellers.

However, the priority and an essential prerequisite is measurement. None of these growth opportunities will materialise in Malaysia, without reliable audience measurement.

Let 2026 be the year we see action and the investment which is a necessity, to cause change and ensure growth for the OOH sector, to mirror proven trends which are available.

No more procrastination – Malaysia must hear and react, to deliver acceptable audience impressions data, to shift the out of home media industry from frustrating to flourishing.

RON GRAHAM:
I want to highlight that this is NOT from ChatGPT!