Big Screens, Bigger Impact: how DOOH won the 2025 election.
The 2025 Australian federal election was one of the loudest yet, politically and literally. Between party platforms, policy pivots, and viral misinformation, marketers had to work harder than ever to capture public attention and trust. Getting real messages to real people became a game of strategy, not just spending.
While others were battling the algorithm, I, (CAASie), was out there helping campaigns get loud in the real world. Spoiler alert: digital out-of-home (DOOH) came out on top.
A spending surge masks market volatility.
February 2025 looked like a steady month in ad-land, with the market dipping just 0.5%. Not bad, right? Here’s what Shai Luft, co-founder and COO of Bench Media had to say:
“A modest 0.5% decline seems manageable, until you factor in a 46% surge in government spending, a pre-election sugar hit that injected an extra $12 million into the system.”
Take that boost out, and Australia’s advertising market actually declined by 2.7%. Ouch.
Outdoor media was the only channel that grew. We’re talking a healthy 9.2% lift (or 8.7% without the government boosts). This made it the strongest performing media channel in terms of dollar growth. Of course, DOOH was the MVP.
While digital dipped 3% and TV soaked up the usual pre-election spend, outdoor held its ground, loud, proud, and impossible to scroll past. Add in looming blackout laws for digital political ads, and DOOH quickly became one of the last reliable formats standing.
Why political campaigns chose DOOH.
Back in 2022, social media turned into a political minefield of misleading claims, deepfake chaos, and echo chambers that just kept shouting the same partisan lines louder and louder. This election wasn’t just about visibility, it was about trust.
Now let’s face it, digital platforms aren’t having their best moment. Meta paused fact-checking, Google tiptoed around political policy, and everyone braced for the blackout laws. Political marketers, wary of brand safety and misinformation risks, turned to formats they could trust.
So when campaigns hit the usual snags, DOOH came through like a well-timed policy pivot.
- Credibile: Unlike the wild west of social media, every OOH ad gets the media-owner stamp of approval, so your campaign isn’t rubbing shoulders with conspiracy theories or cat memes.
- Unmissable: Can’t skip a billboard on your morning coffee run. Large-format billboards and street furniture deliver an unavoidable presence during peak pre-polling periods.
- Non-stop: When digital ads went dark due to political advertising blackout laws, DOOH remained a key channel for top-of-mind messaging. No pause button here.
- Flexibile: Political parties could update messaging in near-real-time to address breaking news, respond to opponents, or localise policy promises. Want to change your creative because someone went rogue on breakfast radio? No worries. We can have it live before lunch.
This is where OOH steps up. Every ad is vetted, placements are contextual, and there’s low risk of adjacency to harmful content or algorithmic distortion. For the 2025 election, even the Australian Electoral Commission leaned in, running its Stop and Consider campaign through OOH to battle the flood of misinformation. A vote of confidence, if you will.
Agility on tap (thanks, programmatic).
Once upon a time, outdoor ads meant booking six weeks ahead and praying for good weather. Now? With programmatic and self-serve tools like myself, campaigns can:
- Target specific electorates or key battlegrounds.
- Swap messaging on the fly (hot takes welcome).
- Test, tweak, and reallocate budget like the media ninjas they are.
Honestly, it was kinda beautiful watching creative teams spin up region-specific campaigns overnight. Democracy meets dashboards.
What Comes Next?
“Outdoor continues its impressive growth trajectory, up 9.2% (or 8.7% excluding the government boost), a channel now favoured by many of our clients to drive upper funnel awareness”.
- Amy Carr, general manager of growth, Yango
Seeing an OOH ad in the wild doesn’t just make it stick, it often sends people straight to their phones to look it up. That billboard might just be the reason someone Googled your policy (or your party leader’s haircut). OOH drove digital interest, not doomscrolling.
If this election proved anything, it’s that DOOH is no longer a supporting act in media buying, it’s a strategic lead. Ad-land’s bracing for a softer market post-election (less yelling, more planning). But the savvy brands? They’re seeing this as a golden window to get loud while others are napping.
Adrian Roeling, chief operating officer at Hatched, said: “As we witnessed in the US, post-election could prove the perfect time for advertisers to capitalise on a perfect combination of a potential bounce in consumer confidence and a soft advertising market – an ideal environment to generate strong short-term return on investment.”
TLDR: It’s Time to Go Live.
As audience expectations shift toward authenticity and contextual relevance, the flexibility of digital OOH allows brands and political campaigns alike to meet voters where they are (literally). This election proved that real-world reach still rules. Whether you’re marketing policy or popcorn, being seen and trusted matters.
Agile, data-driven, and transparent platforms like me are already empowering marketers, from political teams to local businesses, to get live in minutes and localise at scale.
If you want to get loud without shouting into the digital void, I’ve got your back.
Get your campaign running fast, go local with a click, and adapt on the fly. No contracts, no drama, just screens.
Let’s put your message where it matters.
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