The NYC advertising agencies that plan and buy out-of-home media for brands are OOH specialists such as Talon, Alt Terrain, DASH TWO, Quan Media Group, billups and Rapport, plus the out-of-home teams inside the holding-company media agencies. None of them owns New York inventory; they buy it from the sellers. Each is scored below on four public criteria.
Search for advertising agencies in NYC and the results are lists of creative shops: Built In NYC counts 16, a web agency blog counts 33, and Wikipedia keeps a category page. Those lists answer who writes the ad. A planner putting New York on an out-of-home plan usually has a different question: who will decide which subway stations, which Times Square face and which walls carry it, negotiate with the companies that own them, and prove afterwards that the posters went up. That is a media agency's job, and in out-of-home it is often done by a specialist. The sellers themselves, from OUTFRONT Media to JCDecaux, are checked one by one in the NYC seller directory; this page covers the people who buy from them.
Disclosure: the editor of this site is employed by Firefly, a New York seller of taxi-top and vehicle media. Firefly is a seller, not an agency, so it does not appear in the scores below, and any agency listed here may buy Firefly media for its clients.
Agency, Seller or Marketplace: Who Does What in a New York OOH Buy?
Five kinds of company touch a New York out-of-home campaign, and a planner can hire some of them or all of them. Knowing which is which settles most of the confusion about fees and quotes before it starts.
| Role | What it does on a New York buy | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Creative agency | Writes and designs the ad; rarely buys the space | The shops on the Built In NYC and Ad Age lists |
| OOH specialist agency | Plans the formats and locations, negotiates with several sellers, manages production and proof of posting | Talon, DASH TWO, Quan Media Group, billups, Rapport; Alt Terrain for street formats |
| Holding-company media agency | Buys all media for large advertisers; out-of-home runs through an internal OOH team | WPP Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Media |
| Seller or media owner | Owns the boards or holds the concession, sets the rate, posts the creative | OUTFRONT Media (MTA), JCDecaux (bus shelters), Intersection (LinkNYC), the fifteen Times Square sellers |
| Marketplace or programmatic platform | Lists other owners' inventory for self-serve buying, or connects screens to demand-side platforms | AdQuick, Vistar Media, Place Exchange |
The roles blur at the edges. Colossal Media paints murals and also leases walls, so it is both a production house and a seller; DASH TWO books wild posting on walls it does not own and describes itself as an agency. Where a company sits on that line is recorded for each entry in the directory.
How the Agencies on This Page Were Chosen and Ordered
To be considered, a company had to plan and buy out-of-home media for brands in New York, own no New York inventory of its own, and have a live website that could be read on 23 October 2026. Each was then given one point for each of four criteria, using only evidence a reader can check.
- Out-of-home is the core service. The company's own site describes it as an out-of-home or street-media specialist, not a full-service shop that also buys billboards.
- A New York address. The company's own site publishes a street address in one of the five boroughs.
- Recent independent confirmation. A trade-press article or a named client, dated October 2024 or later, confirms that it plans or buys out-of-home.
- New York work on its own site. A New York page, case study or price guide on the company's own site.
The order is by score, highest first; equal scores are listed alphabetically. A score says how much of an agency's claim can be checked from outside, not how good its work is. An agency with two points may be the right hire for a brief; it simply asks the buyer to do more of the checking.
The NYC Out-of-Home Agencies, Scored
| Agency | Type | New York address on its own site | 1. OOH core | 2. NYC address | 3. Recent confirmation | 4. NYC work | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talon | Independent OOH specialist | 489 Fifth Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10017 | Yes | Yes | Yes (MediaPost, 7 July 2026) | Yes (PJX Media's Times Square guide) | 4 |
| Alt Terrain | Street, experiential and outdoor agency | 237 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (NYC wild posting and street-team work) | 3 |
| DASH TWO | Independent OOH agency | 261 Evergreen Ave #4B, Brooklyn, NY 11221 (head office in Inglewood, CA) | Yes | Yes | No (latest trade profile found: June 2018) | Yes (New York wild posting page) | 3 |
| Quan Media Group | Independent OOH specialist | 295 Madison Ave, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10017 | Yes | Yes | Yes (Quo, 10 June 2026) | No | 3 |
| billups | OOH managed-services specialist | None published; regional teams only | Yes | No | Yes (MediaPost, 28 November 2025) | No | 2 |
| Rapport | OOH specialist inside a holding company | 100 West 33rd Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001 | Yes | Yes | No (latest US coverage found: 2021) | No | 2 |
Every row was read from the agency's own site and the named source on 23 October 2026. A "No" means the evidence was not found on that date, not that it does not exist; an agency that sends a source will be re-scored and the change noted here.
Talon
A UK-founded independent out-of-home agency that opened in the US in 2018 and lists offices in New York and Nashville on its US page. In July 2026 it bought PJX Media, the agency behind one of the two published Times Square price guides this site uses, and said the deal made it the largest independent out-of-home specialist in the US; MediaPost reported the claim and noted that it could not be confirmed (MediaPost, 7 July 2026). PJX's Times Square cost page, still live, is the most specific piece of New York work any agency on this list publishes.
Alt Terrain
A Brooklyn-based agency whose site calls it an experiential marketing, brand activation and outdoor advertising agency, with wild posting, street teams and building projection among its services. Its contact page lists New York City at 237 36th Street, Brooklyn, alongside offices in Cambridge, Chicago and Los Angeles. It belongs on a list of agencies for street formats more than for a subway or Times Square buy; no trade coverage dated after October 2024 was found.
DASH TWO
An out-of-home agency headquartered in Inglewood, California, whose contact page also lists offices in Nashville and at 261 Evergreen Avenue in Brooklyn (read 23 October 2026). It publishes the most detailed New York wild posting page of any agency found, with neighborhood-level price bands, and books murals and wallscapes nationally. The only trade profile found, in OOH Today, dates from June 2018. Its New York wild posting ranges are on the NYC wild posting guide.
Quan Media Group
A New York out-of-home specialist that calls itself "a full-service, out of home (OOH) media concierge, planning and buying domestically and internationally", with its office at 295 Madison Avenue. The independent confirmation is a client's: the phone company Quo wrote in June 2026 that "our media buyer for this campaign was Quan Media Group", across four markets including the subway (Quo, 10 June 2026). AdExchanger covered its launch as a New York agency for direct-to-consumer brands in February 2020.
billups
Describes itself as "a global OOH managed services specialist" that plans, activates and measures out-of-home. MediaPost reported in November 2025 that it operates in 20 countries (MediaPost, 28 November 2025). Its own site lists regional teams but no New York street address and no New York page, which is why it scores two despite its size; ask its US East team who would work the New York buy.
Rapport
A specialist out-of-home agency with a New York office at 100 West 33rd Street. Its site still describes it as part of IPG Mediabrands; Interpublic is now part of Omnicom, whose acquisition of it created the new number one in Ad Age's 2026 Agency Report (Ad Age, 16 June 2026). No independent coverage of Rapport's US business dated after 2021 was found, so a buyer should ask which Omnicom agency it now works alongside and who leads the New York team.
The Holding-Company Out-of-Home Teams
Most of the money spent on New York out-of-home by large national advertisers goes through the media agencies of the big holding companies, and those agencies buy it through internal out-of-home teams rather than through a separately branded New York shop. Publicis Media moved all of its out-of-home buying to its in-house agencies in January 2021 (The Drum, 12 January 2021). WPP dissolved Kinetic, its stand-alone out-of-home agency, into a WPP out-of-home unit in 2023 (DailyDOOH, 27 March 2023), and kineticww.com now redirects to WPP Media. Omnicom, after the Interpublic deal, owns Rapport.
These teams are not scored above because a brand does not hire them on their own: they come with the holding company's media agency. If your brand already has a media agency of record, its out-of-home team is the first call, and the criteria above are still the right questions to put to it.
Do You Need an Agency for a New York OOH Buy?
Not for a single format from a single owner. Every MTA subway and bus unit is sold by OUTFRONT Media, every DOT bus shelter by JCDecaux and every LinkNYC kiosk by Intersection, and all three take direct enquiries; a planner buying one of them gets the same proposal with or without an intermediary. The city-wide format table shows which formats have one seller and which have many.
An agency earns its fee when the plan crosses owners. A launch that combines a Times Square face, the subway entrances underneath it and a run of street posters involves at least three sellers, three ways of counting the audience and three production specifications. Someone has to negotiate each, reconcile the audience numbers and collect the proof. On the Times Square guide, the two published price guides disagree by three times on the same screen; an agency that buys those screens every month is the quickest way to learn which number applies to yours.
What to Ask an OOH Agency Before You Hire It
- Which sellers it buys from in New York, and whether any of the inventory it proposes is its own or held on a resale agreement.
- How it is paid: a fee, a commission on media, or both, written into the contract rather than built into the rate.
- Whose audience numbers sit under each line of the plan: Geopath, the seller's own count, or a modelled figure, and for which year.
- What proof it collects: dated posting photographs for static units, play logs for digital, and who signs them off.
- Who handles production and permits, including printing, installation and, for street formats, the legal status of each wall under the city code.
- Who in New York does the work, by name, if the agency's office is in another city.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an out-of-home advertising agency do?
It plans which formats and locations a campaign should use, negotiates with the companies that own them, manages printing and installation, and collects proof that the ads ran. In New York that usually means working across several sellers at once, such as OUTFRONT Media for the subway, JCDecaux for bus shelters and the Times Square sign owners.
Which agencies plan and buy out-of-home in New York City?
Specialists include Talon, which bought PJX Media in July 2026, DASH TWO, Quan Media Group, billups and Rapport, with Alt Terrain for street formats. Large advertisers usually buy through the out-of-home teams inside their holding-company media agencies, such as Publicis Media and WPP Media. None of these owns New York inventory.
What are the biggest advertising agencies in New York City?
By revenue the largest agency companies run their US media businesses from New York, and Ad Age's 2026 Agency Report puts Omnicom first after its acquisition of Interpublic. For out-of-home, size matters less than whether the agency buys from the New York sellers every month; Talon says its PJX Media deal made it the largest independent OOH specialist in the US, a claim MediaPost could not confirm.
Can you buy NYC out-of-home without an agency?
Yes. OUTFRONT Media sells the MTA subway and buses, JCDecaux the bus shelters, Intersection the LinkNYC kiosks, and the Times Square Alliance lists fifteen outdoor sellers, most with a named sales contact. All take direct enquiries. An agency adds value when a plan crosses several owners and their different audience counts.
What is the difference between an OOH agency and a media owner?
A media owner controls the boards, screens or concession and sets the rate; an agency owns nothing and buys from several owners on a brand's behalf. Some companies sit in between: marketplaces such as AdQuick list other owners' inventory, and mural companies such as Colossal Media both paint and lease walls.
How were the agencies on this page ordered?
By a score out of four: out-of-home as the core service, a New York address on the agency's own site, independent confirmation dated October 2024 or later, and New York work on its own site. Equal scores are alphabetical. The score measures how much can be checked from outside, not the quality of the work.
The Bottom Line
An NYC advertising agency that buys out-of-home is worth hiring when the plan crosses sellers, not when it buys one format from one owner. Of the specialists that publish enough to check, Talon scores on all four criteria, Alt Terrain, DASH TWO and Quan Media Group on three, and billups and Rapport on two. Ask any of them the six questions above, and compare what they propose with the sellers' own pages in the directory. For street formats that no single owner sells, see wild posting and mural and wallscape advertising.
Brief received.
It is in the queue and will be read by a person. Expect a reply with questions rather than a quote.
Describe the New York campaign
Market, timing and the format decision still open. A person reads every brief and replies with questions, not a rate card.
Four lines make a brief
- Where. The formats on the plan and the neighborhoods they must cover.
- When. The day the creative has to be live, and the day it comes down.
- How much. A band is enough; nobody here needs the final number.
- Judged on. Reach, footfall, search lift or sales: the number your boss will ask for.
The reply names the units that fit and the published ranges behind them, with the source for each. This desk prints no rates of its own.
Send the briefSources
- Talon, Talon US (New York and Nashville offices; 489 Fifth Avenue address; out-of-home services) · talonooh.com · read 23 October 2026
- MediaPost, "Indie OOH Agency Talon Acquires PJX Media" (Steve McClellan, 7 July 2026; US expansion in 2018; largest-independent claim not confirmed) · mediapost.com · read 23 October 2026
- PJX Media, Cost of Billboard Advertising in Times Square (New York pricing guide) · pjxmedia.com · read 23 October 2026
- Alt Terrain, Contact (New York City office at 237 36th Street, Brooklyn; Cambridge, Chicago and Los Angeles offices) · altterrain.com · read 23 October 2026
- DASH TWO, Contact (Inglewood, Nashville and Brooklyn offices) · dashtwo.com · read 23 October 2026
- OOH Today, "DASH TWO: Culver City / Nashville OOH Agency" (published 5 June 2018) · oohtoday.com · read 23 October 2026
- Quan Media Group, home page ("full-service, out of home (OOH) media concierge"; 295 Madison Ave address) · quanmediagroup.com · read 23 October 2026
- Quo, "Inside Quo's first out-of-home campaign" (10 June 2026; names Quan Media Group as media buyer) · quo.com · read 23 October 2026
- AdExchanger, Quan Media Group launch (5 February 2020) · adexchanger.com · read 14 September 2026
- billups, home page and North America locations ("global OOH managed services specialist"; regional teams) · billups.com · read 23 October 2026
- MediaPost, "Billups Debuts Audrai, AI Tech That Innovates OOH Delivery" (Fern Siegel, 28 November 2025; 20 countries) · mediapost.com · read 23 October 2026
- Rapport, home and contact pages (specialist OOH agency; part of IPG Mediabrands; 100 West 33rd Street office) · rapportww.com · read 23 October 2026
- Ad Age, Agency Report 2026 overview (16 June 2026; Omnicom first after acquiring Interpublic) · adage.com · read 23 October 2026
- The Drum, "Publicis brings OOH media buying in-house" (12 January 2021) · thedrum.com · read 23 October 2026
- DailyDOOH, WPP folds Kinetic into its OOH unit (27 March 2023) · dailydooh.com · read 14 September 2026; kineticww.com redirect to WPP Media checked 23 October 2026
- Built In NYC, "16 Advertising Agencies in NYC Putting Brands First" · builtinnyc.com · read 23 October 2026