JCDecaux: A World Leader through M&A, but Lagging in Africa’s Digital Shift

Summary

JCDecaux, the global leader in out-of-home (OOH) advertising, faces a critical challenge in Africa. Despite successful expansion through mergers and acquisitions, the company has struggled to strategically adapt to the continent's rapid digital shift. JCDecaux's traditional OOH dominance is threatened by digital giants like Facebook and Google, as its slow rollout of digital innovation solutions leaves it vulnerable in it's African markets.

In Botswana, JCDecaux Africa's share of digital assets plummeted from 44% in 2018 to 13.3% in 2024. To regain competitiveness, JCDecaux Africa must accelerate VIOOH platform deployment, expand the Nurture program to engage digital-native startups, increase investment in innovation, and develop localized digital strategies.

The company's future success in Africa hinges on swiftly embracing digital innovation and supporting local markets. Without immediate action, JCDecaux Africa risks losing significant ground to digital competitors in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Introduction

JCDecaux has long established itself as the world’s leading out-of-home (OOH) advertising company, largely through an aggressive and strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) approach. This strategy has worked particularly well in Africa, where JCDecaux Africa has expanded its footprint by acquiring local operators, gaining access to prime real estate for advertising in major cities and transit hubs. However, while this growth strategy has served the company well, it has been slow to address the disruptive challenge posed by digital media, especially in Africa post-2017.

This article will explore how JCDecaux Africa’s sluggishness in investing adequately in technology and innovation has impeded its growth on the continent and how its main competition is no longer other OOH providers, but instead digital giants like Facebook and Google.

The Digital Challenge

JCDecaux’s growth through M&A has solidified its dominance across Africa, securing long-term contracts in high-traffic areas such as airports, shopping malls, and key arterial and trunk roadways. This strategic positioning has enabled the company to lead the African OOH market, offering premium advertising spaces that competitors struggle to match. However, this success through traditional OOH channels has failed to address the sea-change in competition from digital media, which has increasingly dominated advertising budgets worldwide.

Missed Opportunities

Africa’s rapid adoption of mobile internet, social media, and digital platforms has made it clear that the future of advertising is moving towards targeted, data-driven campaigns. Companies like Facebook and Google offer advertisers more measurable, tailored campaigns than static OOH media. Although JCDecaux Africa has introduced programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) in some markets, such as South Africa, powered by the VIOOH platform, this rollout has yet to reach the rest of Africa.

For JCDecaux, addressing the digital shift involves more than just rolling out digital billboards. It requires fully embracing programmatic capabilities, real-time targeting, and seamless integration with other digital platforms. The VIOOH platform, which offers advertisers more control and flexibility, is currently active in 21 markets globally and needs to be rapidly deployed across all African markets to help JCDecaux Africa bridge the gap between traditional OOH and digital expectations.

Lack of Innovation Resourcing

One of JCDecaux’s major stumbling blocks in Africa has been its lack of investment in innovative technology, particularly in digital hardware and software. While digital screens and programmatic advertising are becoming standard globally, many African markets remain underserved. JCDecaux Africa’s reluctance to adequately resource these markets with the necessary technology has allowed competitors, especially digital platforms, to siphon off a larger share of advertising budgets. To compete, JCDecaux Africa must focus on scaling digital offerings, improving interactivity, and integrating with mobile platforms to remain relevant.

A stark example of this lack of investment, has been in Botswana, where in 2018, JCDecaux Africa owned 44% of all outdoor digital assets in Gaborone. Fast forward to 2024, and the company now owns 13.3% of digital assets, with that number set to be below 13% by the end of the year. While JCDecaux Africa has remained stagnant in its digital expansion, local competitors have rapidly deployed newer, larger and more advanced digital assets. These competitors have been more agile in targeting the shifting demand toward digital media, taking a "chase-the-money" approach to the P2.5 billion local advertising market, that JCDecaux Africa has failed to match.

Nurture: Opportunity to Engage the Digital Native Market

A key recommendation for JCDecaux is the rapid deployment of its Nurture program across all African markets. Nurture, initially launched in Europe and later expanded to the U.S. and Australia, aims to support start-ups by providing access to cost-effective OOH media, mentoring, and investment-matching.

By offering this program across Africa, JCDecaux can tap into the burgeoning start-up ecosystem, giving African startups the opportunity to benefit from OOH media, which they may otherwise not consider as part of their media mix. This is especially important because many digital-native companies often bypass OOH entirely, relying solely on digital platforms for marketing.

Deploying Nurture would not only support local entrepreneurs but also help JCDecaux establish a foothold in the digital-first segment, an area where it has traditionally struggled.

Conclusion While JCDecaux’s success in Africa through M&A is undeniable, its lack of investment in digital transformation has left it vulnerable to competition from digital media platforms. The VIOOH platform’s gradual rollout has helped in certain markets, but much of Africa remains underserved, leaving JCDecaux Africa lagging behind. Additionally, the lack of deployment of programs like Nurture across the continent further exacerbates this problem, as it limits JCDecaux's engagement with digital-native brands that are crucial for future growth.

Recommendations

1. Accelerate VIOOH Deployment Across Africa: JCDecaux should prioritize the expansion of the VIOOH platform to all African markets, enabling advertisers to leverage programmatic DOOH and access more data-driven, real-time audience metrics.
2. Rapidly Deploy Nurture Across Africa: By introducing the Nurture program across the continent, JCDecaux can target start-ups and digital-native companies that are currently bypassing OOH media. Nurture’s success in other regions has proven its ability to help businesses scale by giving them a real-world presence through OOH advertising, which is especially important in the African context where digital competition is fierce.
3. Invest in Innovation and Tech Resourcing: JCDecaux Africa needs to allocate more resources to its African business units to boost the rollout of digital billboards, interactive screens, and programmatic advertising. Integrating mobile platforms and offering measurable, data-driven solutions will help regain competitiveness against Facebook, Google, and other digital players.
4. Strengthen Localized Digital Strategies: African markets are diverse, and JCDecaux Africa must develop digital solutions tailored to the specific needs of each region. This includes building stronger local partnerships and adapting their OOH strategies to integrate more seamlessly with digital campaigns.