Key points
- US out-of-home revenue reached $3.16 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.7 percent year over year and the first quarter ever above $3 billion, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America. Year-to-date growth is 9.2 percent.
- Transit, the OAAA category that includes airports, grew 23.9 percent, the fastest of any format. Spending from the computers, software, and internet category rose 149.8 percent. Technology and direct-to-consumer brands made up 30 percent of the top 100 OOH advertisers, with OpenAI and Genspark in the top 25.
- At the airports those brands want (San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Austin, Boston, New York, Washington), the practical effect is sold-out premium networks, category clutter on the same loops, and a share-of-voice problem for everyone else in B2B.
The quarter in numbers
| Measure | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|
| Total US OOH revenue | $3.16B, +10.7% YoY |
| Year-to-date growth | +9.2% |
| Digital OOH | +18.5%, 38.4% of revenue |
| Transit (includes airports) | +23.9% |
| Place-based | +19.3% |
| Computers, software & internet spend | +149.8% |
| Top 100 advertisers increasing spend | 73% |
| Tech and DTC share of top 100 | 30% |
The top 10 advertisers by OOH spend were Morgan & Morgan, Coca-Cola, Apple, T-Mobile, McDonald's, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Progressive, Universal Pictures, and Dunkin'. The top 25 included Genspark, Uber, OpenAI, Amazon, DoorDash, and HBO. Brands that more than doubled their OOH investment included Genspark, NordVPN, Citi, OpenAI, Brex, Odoo, Canva, Meta, and Visa. Billboard Insider's read of the quarter was that a rebound in transit and airport advertising drove the strength; OAAA credited digital, technology and AI advertisers, financial services, and live events.
This follows a 2025 in which OOH grew 3.6 percent to a record $9.46 billion. A jump from 3.6 percent to 10.7 percent is not the base rate. It is a category surge, and the category is software.
Why AI brands buy airports
Ad Age reported in April 2026 that OpenAI and Anthropic had both entered the top 85 US advertisers by spend, each building a marketing organization to define a category that doesn't have a leader yet. JCDecaux's own airport division wrote in 2024 that AI entrants were already running large airport campaigns to reach technology decision-makers, and the OAAA figures show that wave broadening to the whole software category in 2026.
The logic is the one that has brought cybersecurity, cloud, and enterprise software to airports for a decade: the buyer of a $200,000 software contract flies, the terminal is the only place that buyer can't scroll past, and a wall at SFO or a network at SEA reads as "this company is a category leader" in a way a programmatic banner never will. AI companies have added a second reason: a consumer-scale product, a consumer-scale budget, and a need to be the name people recognize before the category settles.
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What the surge does at the airports everyone wants
Premium networks sell out earlier. The digital networks on the arrival path at San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Austin, and the Boston and New York airports are finite loops. When six software brands want the same ten-second position in the same quarter, the media owner sells it to whoever commits first. Booking windows at these airports should be treated as event-week windows now: four to six months out for Q4 and Q1, not the twelve to sixteen weeks a standard flight needs.
Category clutter on the same loop. A loop with three AI assistants, two developer tools, and a cybersecurity brand in rotation is a loop where the fourth AI assistant is wallpaper. Share of voice and position in the loop matter more than impression counts in this environment. Ask for the current advertiser list by category on any network you're quoted. Media owners have it; they don't put it in the proposal.
Exclusivity costs more. Category exclusivity at an airport has always carried a premium. With the software category now a top spender, that premium has gone up where exclusivity is available at all, and some media owners have stopped offering it on their busiest networks.
The quieter airports get interesting. The same budget that buys a crowded position at SFO buys a dominant position at Denver, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, or Raleigh-Durham, where the business traveler is just as real and the loop isn't full of competitors. For a non-AI B2B brand that doesn't need to be in the AI fight, Q4 2026 is a good time not to follow the category to the Bay Area.
What it means for Q4 2026 and Q1 2027 planning
- Confirm positions at the tech-heavy airports now for Q1; holds expire fast when a category is spending at this rate.
- Buy position and share of voice, not impressions. Two networks with guaranteed loop position beat four networks at the back of a crowded rotation.
- Build creative for a cluttered loop: one claim, one visual, a name the viewer can read in three seconds, and a reason to look twice at the next screen.
- Consider the multi-airport version of the buy: a B2B brand that needs ten markets will pay less per decision-maker in the second tier of hubs than in the first.
How EAM Advertising handles it
We watch category load on specific networks and we buy for position. On a multi-airport plan the tech-heavy hubs are one line of several, so a plan can keep the SFO presence for the brand moment and put the reach where the loop is clear. We check what's open, which units will sell out, and who else is in the rotation before recommending a mix. See the airport advertising hub and the multi-airport cost guide, or send a brief.
EAM Advertising plans, secures, and buys airport and in-flight media across 125+ airports and 45+ airlines worldwide. Founded in 2015; collective operator experience in airport media buying spans two decades. Recommendations are based on what performs for the advertiser, not on inventory we have to sell. Clients include Dynatrace, Fortinet, Rubrik, McGraw-Hill, and Wharton.