Outdoor media is going through a particularly promising moment, and it is not difficult to understand why. It has preserved its historical strengths intact: mass coverage, constant presence in the urban environment, and effectiveness in brand building. At the same time, it has successfully incorporated new layers of technology, advanced creative developments, more refined planning, and increasingly rigorous measurement. In a advertising market that is evolving at an unprecedented pace, this ability to innovate without losing its essence is precisely what makes outdoor media increasingly relevant for advertisers.
The data confirms this. According to the InfoAdex Study of Advertising Investment in Spain 2026, outdoor media reached €460.5 million in estimated real investment in 2025, with a growth of 6.7% compared to the previous year. A figure that stands out significantly against the overall trend of controlled media, which recorded a variation of 0.9%, positioning outdoor as one of the most dynamic media in the market. Its share of total controlled media rises to 7.3%, consolidating an upward trend that positions it as a key player in media planning.
The growth of outdoor media is not the result of a short-term situation: it is driven by structural reasons. Outdoor brings together very strong attributes in an advertising context increasingly shaped by audience fragmentation. It is a medium that is in the street, in transit, in waiting areas, at key passing points and, ultimately, in the everyday rhythm of cities. This organic connection with people’s daily routines allows it to offer a particularly valuable combination of scale, visibility, and impact for advertisers.
Early 2026 data point in the same direction. In January, outdoor media recorded €26.2 million in investment, with a year-on-year increase of 6.6% and a 6.0% share, standing out as one of the best-performing conventional media of the month.
The positive evolution of the medium extends to both digital and non-digital formats. Non-digital formats reached €268.4 million (+5.2% vs. 2024), while digital reached €192.1 million (+9.2%), showing that both realities do not compete but complement each other. In 2025, digital formats represented 34.2% of total outdoor investment, compared to 16.2% in 2018: their weight has doubled in just seven years. And most importantly, this growth has not cannibalised traditional formats, which have also increased in absolute terms year after year. Digital outdoor has added value without taking away.
The transformation of outdoor media goes beyond the incorporation of new formats: it has redefined its capabilities in planning, segmentation, contextualisation, and buying. Today, dynamic creatives (messages that adapt to the time of day, context, or weather) are already an operational reality. Increasingly, campaigns are designed with an omnichannel logic, connecting street presence with search engines, social media, or e-commerce through QR codes, specific URLs, or retargeting strategies. The street thus becomes the first touchpoint in journeys that continue and expand into the digital environment.
By format category, street furniture already concentrates 51.5% of investment, driven by the digital conversion of digital screens and bus shelters, and shows a 12.9% year-on-year growth. Large format maintains its role as a high-impact visual medium, with a 16.5% share, while transport, with 21.4%, remains the most receptive environment for mobile audiences.
Regarding sectors with the highest investment in 2025, Culture, Education and Media rank first, with an 18.3% share, relying on the medium to achieve the scale and visibility needed for launches and campaigns. Retail and Restaurants, with 17.2%, leverage the geographical proximity of the medium to the moment of purchase decision as an effective driver of foot traffic to points of sale. Meanwhile, Beauty and Hygiene, with 10.9% in 2025, uses outdoor as a platform to build brand image through strong visual impact and sustained urban coverage.
Creativity plays a central role in outdoor media.
In an advertising environment where attention is one of the most valuable resources, the medium has demonstrated a strong ability to capture it by forcing message simplification to its essence, working with clear, direct, and memorable visual ideas. In outdoor, a campaign has only a few seconds to be seen, understood, and remembered, and this time constraint, far from being a weakness, has historically made the medium a particularly fertile ground for well-executed creativity.
This is demonstrated by proposals ranging from pieces incorporating 3D elements and augmented reality, to dynamic DOOH creatives that react to weather, time of day, or real-world events.
From InfoAdex, this creative dimension is also observed and systematised. Through our Mosaico platform, outdoor campaign creatives are collected and archived, allowing the analysis of trends, comparison of sector approaches, study of the evolution of visual codes, and a better understanding of how the medium competes for attention. Creativity thus ceases to be only intuition and becomes market intelligence.
Finally, the optimal development of outdoor media must go hand in hand with solid measurement. Having rigorous data makes it possible to understand the evolution of the medium, plan with greater precision, and evaluate results more clearly. In a market that increasingly demands certainty and comparability, measurement acts as a compass: it structures the medium, makes its transformations readable, and provides a stronger basis for decision-making.
It is precisely in this area where InfoAdex adds value, supporting the market with quantitative and qualitative control of advertising insertions, offering reliable references on the evolution of investment, formats, media, and categories.
Outdoor has a lot to say. Data is the best way to listen to it.
