As we begin the New Year, we spoke to industry leaders to reflect on the shifts that shaped 2025 and the forces expected to define 2026. For Yuvrraj Agarwaal, Chief Strategy Officer, Laqshya Media Group, 2025 marked a decisive shift from visibility-driven planning to emotion-led engagement in Out-of-Home media.
According to Agarwaal, the defining trend of 2025 was the industry’s pivot from 'Reach' to 'Cognitive Resonance.' In an era of shrinking attention spans, brands realized that being 'seen' is no longer enough; they must be 'felt.' We moved beyond counting eyeballs (OTS) to measuring Attention Metrics—utilizing neuroscience and behavioural data to understand quality of engagement. OOH ceased to be just a 'reminder medium' and became a primary channel for emotional priming, leveraging physical context to cut through the digital fatigue that plagues mobile screens. This shift, he believes, fundamentally changed how impact is defined in Out-of-Home advertising. “The industry realized that visibility is cheap, but attention is the premium currency. We stopped counting how many people passed a board and started measuring how many felt it.”
Building on this evolution from visibility to emotional engagement, Agarwaal sees 2026 accelerating OOH’s transformation into a more participative, intelligent, and strategically nuanced medium.
Trend 1: The 'Gen Zalpha' Influence (Gamification of the Street)
As Gen Z matures and Gen Alpha enters the consumer cycle, OOH will shift from 'broadcasting' to 'interaction.' These digital-native cohorts do not consume media passively; they expect to participate. In 2026, we will see OOH evolve into a 'Phygital Playground'—where billboards serve as triggers for AR gaming, social content creation, and instant commerce. The street will become an extension of their digital feed, demanding creative that is 'unfiltered,' authentic, and instantly shareable. Summing up this shift, he notes: “2026 will see OOH designed primarily as a trigger for social sharing—'shoppable' billboards and gamified screens. If it’s not shareable, it’s invisible. The street will become the ultimate backdrop for their digital lives.”
Trend 2: From Demographics to 'Mood-Graph' Profiling
As participation increases, relevance will no longer be driven by who the audience is, but by how they feel in a given moment. Targeting will move beyond static demographics (Age/Gender) to dynamic Psychographic Profiling. Brands will utilize real-time data signals—traffic density, weather, social sentiment, and time-of-day—to match the mindset of the commuter. This 'Algorithmic Empathy' allows OOH to be culturally fluid: serving comforting content during high-stress traffic jams or high-energy visuals during festive weekends. It’s about delivering the right message, to the right mood, at the right moment. As Agarwaal puts it: “2026 will be about 'Algorithmic Empathy'—using real-time data (weather, traffic density, social sentiment) to match the ad to the mindset of the moment. We will stop targeting locations and start targeting emotions.”
Trend 3: The Bifurcation of Inventory (The 'Fast' and 'Slow' OOH)
Alongside smarter targeting and deeper engagement, the very nature of OOH inventory itself will begin to split into two distinct strategic roles. The market will split into two distinct strategic lanes. One will be 'Fast OOH'—highly dynamic, programmatic, and data-led screens for tactical, short-term conversions (performance marketing). The other will be 'Slow OOH'—massive, static, art-installation style formats used for deep brand building and trust signalling. In a world of fleeting digital impressions, large-format static OOH will become the ultimate signal of brand permanence and authority. He concludes, “In 2026, brands will need 'Fast' to sell and 'Slow' to matter. Static will be the new luxury.”
(As told to Antora Chakraborty)
