Lindsey Talbot, President of Canadian Out-of-Home Marketing and Measurement Bureau (COMMB), had an opportunity to attend this year's World Out of Home Organization.
Canadian Ad Insider had a chance to catch up with Lindsey and discuss how Canada's digital out-of-home landscape is keeping pace with global trends, where the market is leading, and the massive opportunities ahead for brands and operators.
Attending the WOO Annual Congress in London as a representative of COMMB was an invaluable opportunity to connect with the global OOH community at a pivotal moment for the industry. With WOO reporting a 15% surge in global OOH revenue to USD $54 billion, the conversations in London were energized and forward-looking, spanning AI, programmatic growth, measurement standardization, and the future of creativity in the medium. As Canada's marketing and measurement bureau, COMMB's presence at the table reinforced our commitment to aligning Canadian standards with global best practices and brought back insights directly applicable to how we serve our members.
How is Canada doing compared to other countries?
Lindsey - Canada is a growing and increasingly influential player in the global OOH landscape, contributing roughly USD $775 million to North America's $9.7 billion share of a $46.2 billion global market. Canada's DOOH segment is expanding at a strong 11.3% Annual
Growth Rate through 2030, a trajectory that outpaces many mature markets. While digital
leaders like Australia (74% DOOH revenue share), the UK (66%), and South Korea (44%) set
the benchmark, Canada has significant runway ahead, and the gap is closing. Canadian
OOH ended 2025 with 5.8% growth and 57% digital share, which is encouraging. The growth
potential for Canada is enormous. With Toronto and Vancouver co-hosting the 2026 FIFA
World Cup and Canadian creativity earning global recognition at WOO London, there has
never been a better moment for Canada to accelerate investment and step into a larger
role on the world stage.
What areas is Canada leading in OOH?
Lindsey - Canada's clearest edge is in culturally responsive, contextually dynamic creative. In 2025, DOOH didn't just sit beside culture, it participated in it. Justin Bieber's album launch used synchronized DOOH across Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, creating a moment fans
carried straight to social. The NHL playoƯs sparked localized DOOH plays around arenas
and fan zones, letting brands tap national pride without paying in stadium rates. Canada is
also leading in retail media integration: Vistar Media's integration with Stingray Advertising
is linking in-store screens to programmatic systems, paving the way for more connected
retail media strategies, an area where Canada is moving faster than many comparable
markets. And COMMB data shows that 78% of shoppers notice OOH ads, and 70% take
action after seeing them. Consumer responsiveness that rivals any market globally.
Proudly, Canada's "Hit It Here" campaign for TD Bank and the Toronto Blue Jays took top
honours in the Digital Creative category at the WOO Global Awards 2026, presented at the
Annual Congress in London. A landmark win that put Canadian OOH creativity on the
global stage.
What can brands do better?
Lindsey - The biggest opportunity for Canadian brands is to stop treating OOH as a standalone awareness play and start building it into a performance strategy from the brief stage. OOH in 2026 isn't just a media buy; it's becoming a strategic performance layer, and Canadian advertisers are stepping into a definitional shift: OOH is no longer the final stop for
awareness. Brands that are winning are designing for the medium, not repurposing digital
assets. Great DOOH isn't a print ad on a screen; it's paced, animated, and built to land in a
short time frame. There's also an urgency gap. Brands that move fast and contextually are
seeing outsized returns. The brands that treat OOH as a slow, fixed format buy may be
leaving the most value on the table.
What can operators do better?
Lindsey - Operators have never been better placed to seize one of the most exciting growth
opportunities in Canadian media right now, and the industry is watching them lead the way.
By continuing to simplify access, improve transparency, and align on cross-operator
measurement consistency, operators can make it even easier for buyers to say yes with
confidence. Attribution capabilities are advancing rapidly, and the opportunity ahead is
connecting DOOH's proven upper funnel strength to digital style performance data that
speaks to the full customer journey. Retail media is another area where Canadian
operators have enormous upside, as international markets accelerate the integration of in
store screens into programmatic networks. Canada is well positioned to follow suit and
carve out a significant share of what is projected to be one of the fastest-growing
advertising channels globally. The operators that invest now in interoperability,
standardized reporting, and opening up premium inventory to programmatic access won't just be keeping pace with global peers; they'll be defining the next chapter of Canadian
OOH.
