Outdoor advertising outfit Ocean Outdoor (OOUT) ticks up 1% to $7.95 this morning as it provides a robust trading update and secures a new contract in Glasgow. The shares are now up 20% from the lows marked in March.
The company, a leader in digital ‘out of home’ or OOH advertising, reported revenue up 14% to £18.6m for the first three months of the year.
It operates from hundreds of locations including the iconic Piccadilly Lights, Westfield shopping centre and IMAX Waterloo in London and across several major UK cities. The company recently expanded into Europe with the €51m acquisition of Dutch OOH firms Ngage Media and Interbest.
Source: Ocean Outdoor
The company is reliant on contracts with the companies or councils which own the sites which house its screens. So the deal with Glasgow City Council, following on from a similar agreement with Southampton City Council agreed earlier this year, is significant.
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Ocean Outdoor has invested heavily in technology including its facial detection solution LookOut which can deliver adverts to people passing its digital screens based on markers from gender, age and facial hair to eyewear and even mood.
You can read a detailed article on the company, its background and its business model here. According to new data from industry body Route, quoted by the company, digital screens are generating 36% more impacts in the UK compared to 12 months ago.
The 9,766 screens currently measured by Route are reported to be seen by two-thirds of the adult British population each week.
CEO Tim Bleakley says: ‘The group has had an encouraging start to the year, driven by our focus on delivering a customer and audience friendly experience.
‘The continued investment in our digital network has also resulted in more opportunities for advertisers to reach light TV and mobile audiences via trusted, curated spaces.’
Tech consultancy Megabuyte comments: 'Ocean has continued to build momentum during the first quarter in fiscal 2019, with the company’s two recent acquisitions and further contract wins highlighting progression in its European and domestic markets (both of which management identified as highly attractive).
'There also remain plenty of opportunities for Ocean to tap into as the changing media landscape underpins the growing prominence of digital out-of-home advertising.'
Analyst at house broker Numis, Gareth Davies, says: 'All in this is an encouraging start to 2019 that firmly underpins our estimates. The contract wins in both Southampton and Glasgow both bode very well for the future.'
