Giant Pumpkin CEO Sebastian Svensson takes a look at the competitive Malaysian OOH market as it undergoes a radical transformation. Giant Pumpkin is DoohClick’s partner in Southeast Asia.
The Malaysian OOH market is highly fragmented and competitive. Ripe for automation and led by people who are more than ready to embrace new technology, the sector is undergoing a rapid transformation. And those media owners who can quickly transform their sales offering, building a solid infrastructure to support and automate their digital out of home (DOOH) assets will be the winners.
Digital advertising is expected to grow from USD 59m in 2021 to USD 115m by 2025, representing half of all OOH advertising spend. An exciting prospect for players in this region.
Although the percentage of total advertising budgets allocated to OOH declined in the recent years, from 17% in 2017 to 13% in 2022, the digitalization of the industry is set to reverse that trend with the channel set to grow revenue share over the next five years.
Ron Graham, regional director of Plan B Media and management team member of Sanctuary Billboards cites three clear, fundamental factors behind this potential growth
- The digitization of OOH billboards and displays
- Data driven media planning
- Automation for more efficient trading and campaign measurement
Geographically, the Klang Valley remains the main centre of OOH ad spend, however there is significant growth potential in other commercial areas such as Johor, Penang and Sabah where some operators are currently active and expanding their offering.
Giant Pumpkin’s mission together with DoohClick is to support media owners like Sanctuary Billboards by optimizing and automating their operations, something which is essential as players switch from classic to digital assets across the market. This will eventually lead to higher efficiency for advertisers and higher profitability for media owners.
We remain very optimistic about the Malaysian market as we see a more competitive landscape compared to its neighboring peers in Singapore and Thailand. And competition is ultimately a great opportunity for advertisers, media owners and the industry as a whole as it will drive innovation forward.