Massive, Memorable, & Measurable: Why Brands Love Los Angeles Bus Advertising

May 6, 2025

Out of home advertisers have a lot of ground to cover in LA.

That’s because Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States at over 9.6 million, spans over 4,000 square miles (SOURCE: LA County). To put that into perspective, the cities of Houston, Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, and Indianapolis could all fit comfortably within Los Angeles County’s footprint with room to spare.

With such a massive population spread over such a large geographical area, one of the best ways to cost-efficiently cover LA with OOH is with bus media.

With over 2,200 buses across four transit franchises, bus media can saturate the market with your message, as well as fill in the gaps represented by high-profile areas with limited OOH – places such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the South Bay Beach. And then there’s those landmark locations like the Sunset Strip, Melrose, and Beverly Center, where traditional roadside inventory like bulletins, posters, and wallscapes are often spoken for long in advance.


When it comes to achieving mass branding and awareness, buses make a very big statement. A great example of a category that leverages the power of this format is entertainment. Streaming and studio brands understand the impact bus media can make in the market, generating buzz and attention in a short amount of time to promote a new release. By integrating bus media with their other out of home placements such as bulletins and posters, advertisers can build a campaign’s overall reach and frequency, mixing it up to dominate the market.


Though our buses can reach the masses, we can also get targeted with our OOH coverage, honing in on specific areas and audiences that each advertiser wants to reach. With 18 different bus garages each serving dedicated routes throughout the county, our targeting options are endless. We can build a campaign within specific budget parameters for those clients that might not have the bandwidth for a countywide campaign. The beauty of bus media is that we can be creative in our approach and put together custom-targeted campaigns that generate results – on both the national and local level.


When it comes to bus campaign measurement, we can determine how exposure correlates to success metrics such as footfall, app downloads, and website visitation, all in partnership with our independent third-party measurement and attribution provider, StreetMetrics. This is huge because not only can we talk the talk but we can also walk the walk, providing advertisers hard numbers on a campaign’s impact. A great example of this is a recent Tinder bus media campaign. After six weeks, we discovered that those exposed to the bus ads were 79% more likely to download the Tinder app than those who were not (SOURCE: StreetMetrics).

Buses are the ultimate creative canvas, giving advertisers roughly 45 feet on each side, as well as the back, to play with. Unlike the borders of a traditional bulletin or poster, brands can customize this canvas how they see fit. They can elevate smaller-format options such as Kings with extensions, window clings, and headliners, or go big with Kongs, Ultra Super Kings and bus wraps. We have creative solutions for every budget.


Bus media is massive, not only in size but also the geography it covers.

Bus media is memorable, with 75% of consumers having noticed bus ads in the past 30 days (SOURCE: OAAA/The Harris Poll).

Bus media is measurable. In partnership with StreetMetrics we can determine the reach and impact of your campaign.

Contact us today and let’s talk about how we can help you elevate your brand with a bus campaign!

Author: Brooke Berka, Ship-In Manager, Transit @ OUTFRONT

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