Ströer notches up another record quarter: accelerated organic revenue growth of 22% in out-of-home advertising as a result of a shift toward OOH on the back of a sustained re-rating of the media mix

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA has published its figures for the second quarter of 2024 and the first half of the year. The Company’s excellent performance in the first three months of 2024 continued with even stronger growth in the second quarter. This means that Ströer has set new records for both revenue and EBITDA (adjusted) in the first six months of the year. Ströer grew its consolidated revenue by 12% (10% in organic terms) in the first half of the year, from EUR 865m to EUR 965m. EBITDA (adjusted) growth outstripped that of revenue, improving by 16% from EUR 227m to EUR 263m. EBIT (adjusted) rose even more strongly, up 34% from EUR 84m to EUR 113m.

With organic revenue growth of 22.0% (reported: 20.6%), the OOH segment (out-of-home advertising) was once again the biggest driver of growth in the second quarter, comfortably surpassing the previous quarter’s organic growth of 17.4%. This stems from an ongoing re-rating of the media mix, resulting in a shift towards out-of-home advertising. National customers, in particular, are expecting the targeted expansion of Ströer’s high-reach digital portfolio to continue and are adjusting the allocation of their advertising budgets accordingly in favor of the media channel with the most flexibility and reach – DOOH.

The revenue of Ströer’s core segment, OOH, for the first six months came to a total of EUR 424m, which was around 18% higher than a year earlier (H1 2023: EUR 358m). This increase was far higher than that of the German advertising market as a whole, which only managed 10% growth (gross) in the first half of 2024. The effect of the re-rating of the media mix can be seen particularly clearly in the growth of DOOH revenue, which advanced by 29% from EUR 115m to EUR 149m. Programmatic, tech-enabled bookings were once again the biggest driver of growth in DOOH (up by 52%). The revenue share contributed by DOOH business in Ströer’s core segment (excluding OOH services) in the first six months rose to around 37% (H1 2023: 35%). Going forward, Ströer expects its most profitable out-of-home advertising channel – DOOH – to see consistently strong growth and expects DOOH to account for at least 50% of segment revenue by the end of 2026.

“Our second-quarter results have exceeded the already good results in the first quarter. The strong performance of OOH reflects the evolution of our core business from a supplementary medium to a core medium – and the re-rating by our customers. Overall, our most profitable business – digital out-of-home advertising – grew by 29% and was the strongest driver of growth. As a result, we believe we are on the verge of further, sustained improvements in all relevant earnings figures for our core OOH business, and thus the Group as a whole,” says Christian Schmalzl, Co-CEO of Ströer. “Based on the extremely pleasing trajectory of our core OOH business, we will surpass the initial revenue expectation set out in our full-year guidance by around EUR 40m. At group level, this will be offset by lower revenue from the Chinese wholesale business with a non-core, medical Asam product. Adjusted for the latter effect, we are therefore beating our expectations for 2024 by some distance. For the third quarter of the year, we expect to see DOOH generate revenue growth of more than 20% and the core OOH business overall to advance by around 10% (in organic terms).”

OOH Media

The revenue of the OOH Media segment rose by 21% (22% in organic terms) in the second quarter of 2024, from EUR 201m to EUR 242m. This revenue growth came from double-digit increases in both Classic OOH (up 21%) and Digital OOH (up 29%), driven among other things by the upbeat advertising market amid the EURO 2024 soccer tournament. The segment’s EBITDA (adjusted) also fared well, rising from EUR 91m to EUR 117m, while the EBITDA margin (adjusted) improved from 45.4% to 48.4% in the second quarter.

Digital & Dialog Media

Revenue also rose in the Digital & Dialog Media segment, up by 12% to EUR 215m in the second quarter of 2024 (Q2 2023: EUR 192m). The growth in Digital continued to be fueled by strong programmatic business. The Dialog business generated even higher growth of 13%, advancing from EUR 95m to EUR 108m. EBITDA (adjusted) increased to EUR 37m (Q2 2023: EUR 31m). The EBITDA margin (adjusted) stood at 17.4% (Q2 2023: 16.1%).

DaaS & E-Commerce

The DaaS & E-Commerce segment achieved revenue growth of 3%, with revenue growing from EUR 83m to EUR 86m in the second quarter of 2024. This revenue growth was helped by good platform business at Statista. Quarter-on-quarter revenue growth picked up as a result (Q1 2024: 4%, Q2 2024: 7%). Asam again achieved double-digit revenue growth, with an increase of 20% in its core European e-commerce and retail markets. The consistently good performance in the European core markets was eclipsed at Group level by persistently weak demand from a Chinese importer for a non-core Asam product. EBITDA (adjusted) decreased, mainly due to the described effect, to EUR 9m (Q2 2023: EUR 15m) in the second quarter. The segment’s EBITDA margin (adjusted) stood at 10.5% (Q2 2023: 17.8%) in the second quarter.