Sign of the times: More than half of Greater Cairo’s outdoor billboards were empty in April 2020, compared to a vacancy rate of just 18% during the same month last year, according to a study (pdf) outdoor advertising aggregator AdMazad. Most industries cut back on their outdoor billboard advertising during the month, with real estate ads accounting for 27% of occupied billboard space, compared to 43% in April 2019. FMCG and banking ad space also dipped y-o-y. On the flipside, the healthcare industry’s billboard ads soared 70% y-o-y — but the jump is not necessarily attributable to the covid-19 pandemic, since the majority of these were already penciled in last year. AdMazad expects outdoor ad space occupancy to begin rebounding next month, but will likely still fall short of last year’s figures. The company surveyed 1.9k “large billboards” in March and April.