Clear Channel Outdoor’s new CEO, Ron Cooper, is counting on the digital assets of the company to pull them out of one of their toughest financial years ever. Expected to be the key contributor to the company’s growth, Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE: CCO) has plans to add 120 digital billboards in 33 of the largest markets. The company currently has 472 digital billboards.

In addition, later this year, full-motion digital screens will begin appearing in bus shelters – rolling out first in San Francisco and then later to Washington, D.C.

In Denver and Chicago O’Hare airports, digital video screens are being installed. Currently in San Francisco, Clear Channel Outdoor is erecting a high-profile digital billboard on the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge.

Despite a depressed market, in 2009 the digital billboards proved to be winners. In 2009, PQ Media reported that spending on digital billboards grew to $551 million – a 15% increase. The firm also predicted that 2010 spending on digital billboards would grow to $657, or 19%.

Clear Channel Outdoor’s competitors froze the out-of-home digital rollouts, but these digital products kept revenue for Clear Channel Outdoor from dropping more than $1.2 billion. Digital billboards cost a few hundred thousand dollars each, but those high capital costs are supported by the high revenues the signs bring in. Statistical estimations show that digital billboards in high profile markets can demand rates 3 times higher than the traditional, static billboards.

Big brands including Coca-Cola, Fox Television and McDonald’s have increased their out-of-home advertising during the current recession, with new advertisers like Clearwire and Fifth Third Bank starting to use it for the first time. Sophisticated advertisers are changing the way they use billboard advertisements thanks to the technology of digital billboards. Instead of just a marketing message, digital billboard advertisers tend to mix content with their marketing messages. In the Tampa, Florida area, the hospital posts the average waiting time in the emergency room, while Chicago features real-time traffic reports from CC Radio.

Analysis of data from several different research firms has shown that people spend 27% of their time outside of their home, but the out-of-home advertising network is only commanding about 5% of advertising budgets. Ron Cooper believes digital billboards are the key to increasing out-of-home advertising budgets, saying, “I don’t think digital will replace traditional. But over time, digital will become a more important part of our business.”