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In a world awash with fake news and with hitherto all-conquering social media now coming under attack from all directions, Out of Home advertising's status as the most trusted medium is key to expanding the sector, World Out of Home Organization President Tom Goddard told delegates at this week's Central Europe Forum in Warsaw, Poland.

While OOH is growing in double digits, driven by the success of digital OOH, its growth still remains below online media in the worldwide marketplace. But Goddard predicts that will change over the next five years and beyond, thanks in part to a major shift in marketers' views of social media platforms.

Regulators, he said, seem to be finally catching up with many of the Big Techs reckless disregard for their customer base, particularly younger users. Numerous countries are seriously considering adopting the much-publicized ban for the under 16’s in Australia. This is not surprising when you see the elevated instances of clinical depression; body Image distortion; Cyber bullying; and online predators. We’ve also seen huge fines on Meta in what has been described as Social Media’s tobacco moment.

Commercially, ad fraud continues to cost brands billions, advertising systems generating fake impressions, clicks or conversions undermining the legitimacy of social media as an advertising tool while, AI slop is increasingly undermining the medium and at the same time redefining the way search works as an advertising model.

Why is this an opportunity for OOH? Numerous research studies including a recent one from Outfront in the US show OOH in the No 1 position in consumer trust, building brands in real life (IRL) as opposed to online. As Stephan Loerke, Head of the World Federation of Advertisers puts it, trust is and shall remain, marketers' North Star.

It's time the OOH industry made more of this, Goddard said, and he outlined the drivers of growth in the modern media age.

1/ Effectiveness. Proving effectiveness is something we need to address urgently and a major industry-wide initiative is being hatched to demonstrate this.

2/Better Audience Measurement and Data. This is a fundamental requirement yet there are still many markets that don’t have this or have a system that’s neither comprehensive nor unified.

3/AdTech Connectivity. We’re getting there as an industry on programmatic trading, but the bulk of our trading is still cumbersome, labour intensive, not joined up. Consolidation of platforms and AdTech providers is much needed

4/Stronger promotion of Competitive Advantages. Much has been achieved, not least by WOO which now represents 300 OOH Media Owners worldwide. More dynamic national trade associations are needed too.

Collaboration is Magnification across all these issues Goddard concluded, and key not just to underpin the impressive growth of OOH worldwide, but to gain share from other, increasingly embattled media platforms. Building on Out of Home's priceless status as the world's most trusted real life medium in a conflicted media world.