Strauss’ core outdoor advertising business has once again proven to be one of the most resilient segments of the German advertising industry. The at-home market share of the German advertising market rose to 10% for the first time, DooH continued its double-digit growth trajectory with over 40% of total OoH revenue and programmatic DooH increasing by 12%.
The company’s core OoH-Media division generated a record €989 million, driven by the continued digitization of premium locations. One of the highlights of this year was the launch of Europe’s largest LED screen “The Whale” in Hamburg.
From OoH+ to AI platform business
For Ströer, the most important developments are happening behind the scenes. Stroher wants to reinvent himself (again). The company believes that AI will unlock further potential of its existing assets, including national reach, deep customer relationships, extensive datasets, and one of Europe’s largest digital advertising networks.
Ströer’s future is centered around platform logic that unifies previously siled media products into AI-orchestrated products. This model will allow the company to automatically generate customized campaigns for both local small businesses and national advertisers through its upcoming Ströer Ad Manager. For planning and measurement, the AI-based analytics suite ‘Public Mind’ provides clearly defined KPIs to the OoH world, increasing transparency and accountability.
Local advertising requires Stroer to leverage AI to dynamically configure media products based on context, location, time, and budget, allowing them to be deployed through self-service or managed services. With around 50,000 existing local advertisers and over 3 million small and medium-sized businesses as potential customers in Germany, the potential for growth is huge. Ströer sees a competitive advantage in the future by enabling simple, goal-oriented and automated purchasing processes. This approach is already standard among social media players and is now being implemented in physical public spaces as well.
Efficiency, yield management, and a new era of CTO
The move to AI will also reshape Ströer’s internal processes. Smarter yield management promises more efficient use of digital inventory, while automation increases productivity without proportionally increasing headcount. This transition is expected to improve margins, improve capital efficiency and strengthen free cash flow over the next three to five years.
To accelerate the transformation, Mr. Stroer has appointed Sven Scheffler as the Group’s first CTO, effective March 1, 2026. His mission is to build the technical backbone that will transform Stroer’s media network into a scalable platform business centered on AI.
