![[eMarketer] Digital out-of-home advertising spending declined massively in 2020 in Canada](Article Images/Key Industy Images/Anzu advertising.jpg)
[eMarketer] Digital out-of-home advertising spending declined massively in 2020 in Canada
The hardest-hit ad sector in 2020 was out-of-home (OOH) ad spending, according to estimates from eMarketer.
Lingering concerns about crowded public spaces will potentially drag on the sector for years. On the road to recovery, eMarketer expects programmatic buying of digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad inventory will claim a larger share than the small slice it holds today.
eMarketer's pre-pandemic ad spending forecast for Canada anticipated OOH would be the sole traditional format to experience positive growth in 2020. After a relatively normal Q1, when sector growth was relatively flat and concerns about the coronavirus were just starting to surface, the market plunged in Q2 as quarantines were fully enacted in Canada. The market for these ads never fully recovered even as lockdowns eased, summer arrived, and more people ventured outdoors.
The result was OOH ad spending declining massively in 2020, down 30.0% from 2019. eMarketer forecast OOH totaled CA$644.0 million ($485.4 million) in 2020. eMarketer does not expect a recovery of this ad market to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.
Ad spending data recapping the summer months (July to September) from Standard Media Index (SMI) showed OOH spending in Canada was down 51% compared with 2019.
