Lamar Acquires Alliance Airport Advertising

The airport advertising marketplace is undergoing consolidation, with Lamar Advertising Co.’s announcement that it has acquired Alliance Airport Advertising, giving it control of out-of-home ad assets in some of the country’s larger airports.

The acquisitions position Lamar to compete more effectively with bigger rivals, including Clear Channel Airports and JCDecaux.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Through the Alliance acquisition, Lamar is adding out-of-home ad space, as well as experiential displays in five airports across the U.S., including McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, Portland International Airport, and Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California.

In 2014, McCarran and Phoenix were the ninth- and tenth-busiest airports in the U.S., respectively, with over 20 million passenger boardings each. Salt Lake City handled over 10 million passenger boardings, while Portland handled 7.9 million and Burbank just under two million.

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These new additions augment Lamar’s existing airport network, which includes airports in Albany and Buffalo, New York; Spokane, Washington; and Boise, Idaho, among other locations. The combined airport advertising division will be called Lamar Alliance Airport Advertising and will be led by Alliance founder, President and CEO Shauna Forsythe.

The U.S. airport advertising market is still dominated by the two main networks, operated by Clear Channel Airports and JCDecaux Airports. Clear Channel Airports has ad agreements with about 145 airports across the U.S., while JCDecaux has agreements with 26 airports, including JFK, LAX and Miami International.

However, smaller competitors have emerged in recent years, including Titan Air, a division of transit advertiser Titan, which struck a deal with Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2013.

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