How to Win the San Francisco OOH Market - When "Everything" (the Skyway) is Sold Out

As part of their BART Station Domination, these digital screens provide a high-impact canvas for Figma.

When advertisers ask for the cost and the availability of a billboard in San Francisco, they often mean the Skyway: the section where the 101 connects to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, with several tech headquarters nearby. It’s why the area is known for both traffic and tech billboards.

To make things more competitive, some brands have “perms,” which are long-term campaigns where their brand appears permanently on the billboard unit. To sweeten the deal, these brands also have the “right of first refusal.” Once their 12-month campaign concludes, they have the first opportunity to extend their campaign.

There are occasions when an advertiser releases their perm inventory, and our vendor partners contact us almost immediately because the appetite for it is always high. But as media planners, we can’t rely on that.

“Are all of the A+ units on the Skyway sold out? For the most part, yes. Does that mean that you're unable to make an impact in the market with other out-of-home inventory? Absolutely not,” shares Ruben Flores, Media Director here at PJX Media.

San Francisco is rich with out-of-home (OOH) opportunities beyond billboards off the Skyway, and the breadth of these formats can still create big brand moments in the Bay.

The Illusion of a Sold-Out Market

It’s easy to look at the Skyway and assume the entire SF market is sold out. Yes, a billboard off the 101 makes a statement for a brand: “We are here.” But OOH is more strategic than just a raised hand. When context is considered, other areas and formats in the Bay easily deliver just as much impact.

Prime inventory is actively waiting for brands ready to look past a single stretch of highway. High-impact areas like Fourth Street Station, Powell Street Station, and the cross-town freeway offer incredible visibility. The inventory is there, and brands need to consider if the Skyway is the most effective use of their budget.

This VTA Light Rail Wrapped by Solidigm is unmissable.

Reconsider the New "Prestige" Zones

The demographics of the city can change, and paying close attention to these shifts can pay off.

“Historically, luxury brands and high-end fashion saturated street-level spaces like Union Square and Powell Street. Today, those areas have undergone a takeover by AI and tech companies,” says Jackie Callaghan, Media Director at PJX Media.

Expanding beyond the expected locations also means expanding into formats you might not have considered. Street-level OOH inventory like bus shelters, kiosks, and newsstands capture a completely different, highly focused kind of attention from passersby. Want to reach commuters in a high-dwell time environment? Digital screens onboard the ferry are available.

Multi-Format Strategies That Actually Deliver

When highway billboards are tight, you can achieve a massive market presence by embracing a multi-format strategy. Brands like Higgsfield AI and Solidigm have successfully used this exact approach.

If you want to build a campaign that can stand out from the noise, consider these high-impact alternatives:

• Target Points of Interest (POI): The Moscone Center, the largest exhibition space in San Francisco, hosts conventions throughout the year, including Dreamforce, the Game Developers Conference, and major global medical summits. Knowing when and where these hyper-targeted audiences gather allows you to map out highly impactful OOH around them. Check our work with Dataiku.

• Transit & Station Dominations: Utilizing Caltrain, newer transit offerings, or full station takeovers guarantees high dwell time that highway drivers simply can't offer. These moving canvases also achieve a reach that stationary billboards cannot.

Figma's station domination also included floor graphics and sequential posters featuring different artists' works created in Figma,

• Street-Level Dominance: Wallscapes, bus wraps, barricades, and guerilla postings put your brand directly into the daily flow of foot traffic. With powerful creative, you have the opportunity to stop people in their tracks.

• The East Bay Arbitrage: “On the other side of the bridge is Oakland, which is not to be overlooked,” highlights Mark Bronzo, Client Director at PJX Media. “It’s a quickly-changing and dynamic area of its own, especially around Berkeley with an appealing mix of savvy students and affluent, suburban parents .” The I-80 corridor near Oakland is a promising alternative, It reaches almost the exact same commuter audiences flooding into San Francisco, but at rates significantly lower than the Skyway.

OOH in Oakland, via planning tool Adstruc.

• South Bay Marquee Events: If you are chasing tech decision-makers, look south to San Jose. Utilizing the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) trains near the convention center during massive events, such as the Nvidia GTC Keynote, allows you to capture an elite tech audience right when they are most engaged.

The Bottom Line: Start with Intention, Not Glamour

Successful OOH planning isn't about buying one billboard just because of its prestige. It’s about understanding your target demographic, their habits, how they move through the world, and the context of the space around them.

Whether your KPIs favor high dwell time, street-level presence, or proximity to specific tech locations or events, the San Francisco Bay Area is wide open for impact. Out-of-home media strategists who want your brand to succeed with the medium will challenge you to look beyond the same stretch of highway.

Let's Dominate the Bay with OOH