A. Guttmann
Research Lead covering media
Digital out-of-home advertising in the United Kingdom (UK) - statistics & facts
The United Kingdom is home to one of the most iconic digital displays in the world – the Piccadilly Lights. The screen is 783.5 square meters large and shows a patchwork of six ads that change their place around the screen every 90 seconds. Owing to its central location in London, it reaches both local and tourist audiences, whom market research describes as “city sophisticates” and “career climbers” with “lavish lifestyles.” It is quite a tasty morsel for advertisers that attracted many big brands, such as Amazon, Balenciaga, Cinzano, and McDonald’s, to name but a few. In fall 2023, Gem Display launched Scotland’s largest and UK’s second-largest digital out-of-home (DOOH) screen in central Edinburgh. It measures 166 square meters and is located directly in Edinburgh’s World Heritage zone, gathering impressions from local and foreign audiences. Leading out-of-home (OOH) advertising companies, such as JCDecaux or Clear Channel, seem convinced of the medium’s effectiveness as the number of DOOH screens has been growing uninterrupted through the pandemic and the economic instability of 2022 and 2023. This, in turn, results in ever-broader audience reach and an increasing number of impacts.
