The Cape Town OOH opportunity: Closing the gap between spend and impact

South Africa now has roughly 16,200 billboard faces, with steady growth over the past six months, and digital inventory expanding even faster, with roadside screens up around 10% year-on-year. But most of that growth continues to concentrate in Gauteng, where new sites are added to an already dominant base.

That concentration is clear when you look at how inventory is distributed. Gauteng holds around 54% of the country’s billboard stock, while the Western Cape sits at roughly 9%. In digital out of home (DOOH), the gap is just as stark, with over 500 roadside screens in Gauteng compared to just over 80 in the Western Cape.

Yet the economic picture tells a different story. Gauteng contributes around 34% to national GDP, while the Western Cape contributes approximately 14%, making it the second-largest regional economy in South Africa. In other words, OOH inventory – and by extension, spend – is significantly more concentrated than the underlying economy it is meant to serve.

The skew is even more pronounced when you look at spend, with Gauteng accounting for an estimated R170m in monthly DOOH rate card value, compared to roughly R30m in the Western Cape.

Consider how campaigns are actually planned. Even among the country’s largest advertisers, national DOOH campaigns tend to cluster heavily in Gauteng. The average large campaign sits at around 48 sites, but a disproportionate share of those placements are concentrated in a single province.

A more balanced national strategy would look very different. Based on economic contribution alone, roughly three out of every 10 DOOH sites in a national campaign should be allocated to Cape Town, but in reality, the city receives a far smaller share.

Less clutter, more impact

In Gauteng, scale comes with saturation. More sites mean more competition, with multiple brands competing for the same audience attention in the same spaces. Unless a brand is dominating spend, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out. Presence does not automatically translate into impact.

Cape Town operates differently. With fewer sites and less visual clutter, campaigns benefit from greater visibility. The same investment could deliver a higher share of voice simply because it is not diluted by surrounding noise. It is a fundamentally different media environment; one where impact is driven by the ability to cut-through the noise.

A consumption market hiding in plain sight

The case for Cape Town is also about consumer behaviour.

The Western Cape is one of South Africa’s strongest consumption markets, with high levels of household expenditure and some of the highest average incomes in the country. Cape Town residents rank among the top spenders on key categories such as groceries and dining out – precisely the sectors that dominate OOH investment. Yet despite this, the region remains underweight in both inventory and spend. The result is a mismatch between where consumers are spending and where brands are showing up.

The opportunity for smarter planning

This is not about pulling budget out of Gauteng. It remains a critical market and will continue to showcase a plethora of national campaigns well into the future. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon. But we would argue that the current level of concentration reflects habit more than actual impact.

OOH planning has historically followed infrastructure; where sites exist, budgets follow. But as the market evolves, planners have an opportunity to be more deliberate about how investment is distributed. Rebalancing spend towards Cape Town allows brands to complement scale with impact, and to align media investment more closely with both economic contribution and consumer behaviour.

And as OOH continues to grow, particularly in digital, correcting that imbalance may be one of the simplest ways to deliver more effective campaigns.

Cape Town shouldn’t be your brand’s “holiday destination” – it’s the very place where OOH can have some real OOMPH.

For more information on the Cape Town opportunity and why the Western Cape deserves a bigger piece of the media spend pie, contact moc.roodtuorotcart@selas.