Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jim Goss: Okay. And one other thing is, you mentioned Belgium, UK and Denmark were doing reasonably well, but Sweden and Norway were having more challenges. And I’m wondering what would be the distinguishing factors between those markets? Are there specific market-by-market issues? Or is there something broader than that we might look at?

Scott Wells: Justin, do you want to comment on that one?

Justin Cochrane: Yes. I think the simplest way to think about it is, the only difference in those markets maybe is we’ve got a higher degree of transit and transits at longer to bounce back from COVID. So I think in those markets, you saw a bigger bounce back in the middle of 2022. So on a comparative basis, they’ve got hard comparative than other markets that have I don’t think there’s anything else particularly that distinguishes them. It’s probably more just a function of timing.

Jim Goss: Okay. And one last thing. You also mentioned that you felt you’re strengthening digital capabilities, we’re helping potentially including planning and measurement, we’re helping broaden the range of advertisers you can serve. And I wonder if you might talk a little bit more about that. What types of additional advertising advertisers you might be able to access? Whether it might change your national and local mix to any great extent? And I guess that’s mainly it.

Scott Wells: No. It’s a great question, Jim, and it gets to the root of what we’re working on in the U.S. of becoming a more modern medium I think there’s a couple of avenues to it. I think first off, we’ve called out that we’re seeing growth in pharma, and that is directly related to analytic capabilities that we have developed and that we have demonstrated the efficacy of. We’ve been working with that vertical for some time. Now is when we’re talking about it because we’re in the midst of renewals with a key partner and seeing the results kind of compound and that’s a direct result of the kind of analytics. I think related to that, the CPG category is a phenomenal advertiser globally, but not very good in the U.S. And part of the reason in the U.S. is the lack of data.

Part of the reason is that the assets are not as close to point of sale as like street furniture is, but you’ve got advertisers that spend meaningfully in out-of-home in Europe or Latin America that do not spend in the U.S. that we have seen some traction with the data that we’ve got. And then I think the final piece is we really do perceive opportunity in the digital-first advertisers and there’s a lot of them. And you saw our announcement on data clean rooms. That is something that we think is going to pay real dividends for us over the medium term because it enables us to be – it enables us to be in dialogue and in partnership with companies that frankly don’t use traditional media hardly at all. And so it’s all three of those areas that we’re seeing opportunity in.

Marketers do move fairly slowly. And so the way that it works typically is you do test budgets, you go through a cycle, that might take six months, nine months, and that’s setting aside whatever it took you to sell in the idea to begin with, which is not a short sale. And then once you’ve had the tests, you start to get the renewals and you start to get the upsizing of the budgets. And so this is a compounding process. It’s not a fast process, but it’s something we very much believe is a key to the future of this industry, and we’re aiming to be at the forefront of it. So hopefully, that gives you some more color.

Jim Goss: It does. And it sounds like if you’re discussing pharma and CPG that, that would tend to tilt a little more toward national, if that’s a fair assumption?