The newspaper of the street

Alexander Stotz views outdoor media and OOH content as a “playground of possibilities” situated between democracy and digitalisation. We spoke with the CEO of Ströer Media Deutschland GmbH about what is perhaps the most inclusive of all media, the renaissance of a 170-year-old principle, and the manner in which digital advertising columns and screens serve to shape opinion in public spaces.

The story begins with Ernst Litfaß, the Berlin printer and publisher who found a solution to the chaos of the so-called “poster plague” in 1854. When three social developments converged at that time—freedom of trade, industrialisation, and the emergence of the party system—cities were littered with wildly plastered posters. Litfaß’s idea was revolutionarily simple: establish “advertising columns” on which posters could be displayed in an orderly fashion. “And that is essentially what we still do today,” says Alexander Stotz; the Litfaß principle has thus proven itself for 170 years. Today, of course, Ströer is far more than a poster sticker. With around 300,000 outdoor media installations in the out-of-home sector, the company is Germany’s leading outdoor advertiser and, as a versatile media company, equally at home in journalism—content from editorial offices such as t-online or Watson, which belong to the group, can now be found everywhere from bus stops to digital advertising columns.

Stotz speaks of a surprising development here: while digitisation has become an existential threat to newspapers and TV stations in some cases, it is proving to be a catalyst for outdoor media. “For television, digitisation brought YouTube and Netflix as competitors,” explains Stotz. “For us, on the other hand, it creates additional capacity in the best locations.” The business model is becoming more flexible and accessible: instead of booking analogue media for a week—often well in advance—a bistro around the corner can now advertise its lunch menu specifically on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m. Another example from programmatic marketing: “When pollen counts reach a certain level, pharmacies could precisely control the timing of their advertisements for allergy medications on screens.” Such data-driven approaches enable advertisers to place their messages more efficiently.

Content as a democratic duty

The network of screens enables precise, locally relevant content. “We think it’s important that cultural events and location-specific information play a major role here,” says Stotz. This approach has its roots in the historical genre of outdoor advertising: “In the past, when the posterer came to the pillar, he also posted urgent dispatches or official notices and read them aloud to the people because many could not read.” After World War II, when paper was unavailable and the legal situation for publishers remained unclear, outdoor advertising emerged as the first intact medium: “The occupying forces naturally needed a means of commu[1]nicating with the population: When is curfew? Where can you get food?”

This elementary function is experiencing a renais[1]sance thanks to digitalization. Since 2018, Ströer has had an agreement with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and is the official multiplier for warnings, which proved useful during the coronavirus pandemic. Nationwide, the crisis teams of the fire departments and the German Weather Service are connected to the system and can issue warning messages. For Stotz, this is the future of municipal communication: “If, as a city, I have to think about how to communicate with my citi[1]zens—and daily newspapers are selling less—then the only other option is American platforms.” Or digital outdoor media as an alternative, with the city as the contractual partner: “Next week is the marathon. Attention: road closures! We are looking for campaign volunteers. The new waste collection calendar is here. In other words, everything I need to communicate to citizens.” The key difference to social media: “With us, you can reach everyone as long as people are mobile.” No social media bubble, no followers – just the reality of public space, without barriers to entry.

Stotz mentions another advantage: unlike media outlets that must compete for attention with sensational headlines, reach is not determined by ratings but simply by “the fact that you drive to work and someone has to go to school.” This freedom makes it possible to sustain a long-standing cooperation with UNICEF to support children’s rights or to showcase photojournalistic work from the subways in Kyiv.

The future of individualisation and campaigning

And what does the future hold? Stotz predicts that technological possibilities will continue to transform outdoor media. In the future, AI will not only identify the right moment for a message but also individualise the message itself. “Even the motif could be adapted to the context of the environment.” This individualisation also has its price and could alter the perception of the medium. “Campaigns that we all remember—I’m thinking of Benetton’s great, critical campaigns from the past—also thrived on the fact that they were displayed throughout the city for a week.” Stotz is all the more delighted about the diversity and historical significance of outdoor media, which Ströer maintains in an archive in Munich—including the first poster motifs from 1870 and 1880. “It’s truly a treasure, a journey through graphic history at its finest, from artistic motifs to factual posters with instantly recognisable products. What I find particularly exciting are the party posters.” In some cases, he notes, they displayed slogans on topics such as equality over 100 years ago that we still must resolve today...

At the end of the conversation, the main takeaway is that OOH content is much more than colourful consumption in public spaces; it is dialogue marketing in its original sense—a mirror of what is on the public's mind. The advertising column may be 170 years old, but its principle is more relevant than ever: to create a place where information is accessible to everyone, without preconditions, without exclusions. “Deeply democratic” is a phrase that emerges several times in the conversation. And indeed, in an age when social media separates its users into echo chambers and paywalls determine what we see, the simple bus stop with its screen seems almost subversive. It is the opposite of algorithmic selection: public and accessible to all. The vision that Ernst Litfaß held 170 years ago—to bring order to chaos and create a reliable space for public information—lives on.