(Credit: Tractor Outdoor)

WOO Africa Forum scheduled for Cape Town from March 11-13 2024

 The World Out of Home Organization is the global body for OOH media which brings all sectors of the industry together with the aim of increasing the medium’s market share from its current five per cent to ten per cent and beyond.

The Organization has over 200 members from across the world and it includes all sectors of the industry, from media owners to media agencies, national OOH associations  and OOH suppliers/providers. In this year alone it has added 40 new members. Its representation in Africa is currently around 20 members.

WOO has now established a highly successful annual Congress, which next year will take place in Hong Kong, and it also runs regular regional Forums, including the APAC event in Bali from November 1-3 this year.

The first in-person African Forum is scheduled for Cape Town from March 11-13 2024. This follows the virtual Africa Forum, which took place in February last year.

With the pace of media change accelerating around the globe, the great strength of WOO is the way it brings the industry together to exchange ideas, share best practice and combine to build the power and reach of the medium.

WOO works ceaselessly to achieve the following aims:

• To champion and evangelise OOH to Brands, Media Agencies and Trade Press
• To monitor and safeguard OOH from unduly restrictive Municipal and Governmental Regulations.
• To collate, promote and amplify gold standard media owner collateral
• To work with other industry bodies and OOH groups to promote common standards and best practices
• To provide a platform for data sharing and learning
• To celebrate advertising creativity and innovation in OOH
• To inspire and spearhead global campaigns that make a positive societal contribution

WOO enables different sectors of the medium and indeed commercial rivals to work together in a non-competitive way to improve OOH performance and drive increasing growth against other media.

The Organization is outward-looking and dedicated to innovation, regularly bringing to its Congress and Forums outside experts and specialists who can provide new insights and ideas and demonstrate fresh approaches and practices to its members.

For example WOO has set up a senior level Sustainability Task Force of hand-picked experts from all sides of the global industry designed to help the whole industry take the initiative on sustainability so that it becomes an engine for growth rather than an impediment.

WOO also brings in specialists in audience measurement and high-tech areas such as programmatic and automation to keep delegates up to date with these complex and fast-changing media disciplines.

WOO has a strong belief in the importance and immense potential of OOH as a medium in Africa. As a continent where people spend relatively more time outdoors than in other parts of the world, OOH should be the natural advertising medium for a wide range of advertisers.

WOO aims to help the industry deal with the various challenges, notably the need for better audience measurement, media owner fragmentation, and the tightening of government controls on the medium, which has led to higher tax rates for media owners.

On the other hand there have been great increases in the number of digital sites and there is a real commitment to investing in audience research, with some very interesting initiatives on sustainability from some of the larger media owners.

If the industry in Africa can combine to invest in these key issues and developments there is no doubt that OOH has a great future on the continent.

(Credit: Tractor Outdoor)