oOh! Media has grown seven per cent revenue in 2014, its first public reporting after it was floated in November, but continues to signal a focus shift from print to digital.
The company enjoyed a profit growth of 27.9 per cent up more than 4.5 per cent from its forecast with its digital revenue rapidly growing to 23.2 per cent from 16.9 per cent, outperforming the company’s forecasts of 22 per cent.
However, the emphasis on digital is not good news for its printers Priority Printing Solutions, Billboard Media, and Opus subsidiary Cactus Imaging.
The company expects to increase the proportion of its revenue that comes from digital from about 25 per cent, already more than twice the industry average, to 30 per cent at $80m by the end of 2015 and ‘significantly higher’ over the next three to five years.
It plans to digitise 15 to 20 of its marquee billboards next year and says a key part of its digital strategy is to ‘progressively digitise [its] existing asset base’.
[Related: More outdoor news]
Chief executive Brendon Cook says while most traditional media businesses are experiencing a decline in relevance, audiences and revenues as a result of the media landscape fragmenting, oOh! is one of the few that is bucking the trend.
“Our core asset mix of static and digital roadside billboards, and portfolio of advertising panels in shopping centres, airports and other key out-of-home environments continue to perform strongly as they reach a growing audience across both metropolitan and regional areas,” he says.
“On top of this our new digital out-of-home media strategy and offerings have helped us further increase our share of the $13.4bn spent on advertising in Australia in 2014
“By delivering advertisers more creative engagement opportunities with consumers nationally and therefore broaden the out-of-home campaign capability.”
Last year it fast tracked its digital rollout to more than 1900 signs, last year, underpinned by proprietary content management system, Argyle.
Cook says the company has changed its advertising strategies through its investment in digitisation and innovation, which he says ‘enabled the company to increase the yield from our assets by providing time-sensitive advertising opportunities’.
“This has seen us not only continue to be the market leader in Australia’s fastest growing traditional media segment, but also lead the market in digital revenues,” he says.
“Digital now represents almost a quarter of our revenue, which is well above the industry average, and we forecast that within three years digital will contribute half of our revenue.”
The company says all four operating divisions, including road division, retail division, fly division, place division, of oOh! made significant contribution to the company’s ‘strong financial performance’.
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter