Month: December 2018

Product News | October 11, 2021

How can I buy digital out-of-home media programmatically?

how to buy digital out-of-home programmatically

Did you know you can buy digital out-of-home programmatically? Do you have a vague idea how it works? If not, read this.

Once you’ve got the basics down, you might be interested in actually adding digital out-of-home to your programmatic campaign. It’s a powerful medium, and automated bidding gives you the opportunity to create efficient and targeted campaigns. Triggers can be set up based on weather, time-of-day, day-of-week – any data feed, really – to only run the campaign when it’s relevant to the audience.

A recent campaign by music video brand XITE did just that, combining mobile, online and digital out-of-home for a creative, efficient and memorable campaign.

“With programmatic digital out-of-home and mobile, we were able to carefully target our campaign to serve our specific target audience in a creative and contextual way, all without having to spend huge amounts of money. We’re happy with how innovative it all was and we will definitely be running this type of campaign again.”

– Moa Afzal – PR and communications manager, XITE

More and more advertisers are embracing digital out-of-home, adding bright, impactful screens to their mobile and online offerings. Are you the next?

Defining audience in digital out-of-home

Before getting started, there is one important way digital out-of-home differs from traditional online and mobile programmatic: the way audience is measured. Given that one screen can be seen by thousands of viewers, audience is not calculated on a one-to-one basis – just imagine the viewership of a digital billboard ad in Times Square! Instead, audience is calculated based on a variety of research and data methods to determine the number of impressions a screen will get.

First-party data – the venue owner has a tally of the number of people in their establishment. This could be done via a ticketing system, like at a cinema or in a public transport network, or by analyzing sales.

Second-party data – the venue owner hires a company to conduct research on who is present, through surveys, a counting system or other anecdotal research.

Third party data – an independent third-party research firm like Geopath or Nielsen conduct a statistical analysis of the likely views that a screen will get using anonymous location data from mobile phones and cars, and custom data resources like traffic statistics and pedestrian count.

Video data – this third-party research uses cameras and sensors integrated with a DOOH analytics platform like Quividi or Linkett to collect views data on an ongoing basis.

For an even more in-depth analysis, OOH audience data can also be broken down by demographics like age, gender, purchasing habits and more. This enables you to better understand who will see your ad, and to ensure you hit your target audience.

These demographics also have an impact on price, as some audiences are more interesting to advertisers than others. For example, a billboard in a wealthy and established neighborhood will likely cost more than one in a less affluent area of the city, as this audience is presumed to have a higher level of disposable income.

How to price digital out-of-home

Once these metrics are found, a multiplier is used to determine the CPM for a given screen, very similar to other programmatic media. As with any product or service, supply and demand play a large role in determining the cost of a billboard. The more attractive it is to advertisers, the higher the price, with factors like location, audience impressions and demographics, and the type of sign affecting the final cost.

Digital signs have an average CPM of nine to 32 dollars, making this medium slightly more expensive than its online partners. However, digital out-of-home offers creative flexibility and budgeting options that are otherwise impossible.

Adding programmatic digital out-of-home media to your mobile or online campaign

While adding digital out-of-home to your campaign is quite simple, it differs slightly from traditional programmatic. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Decide where you want to buy

The main this here to consider if digital out-of-home inventory screens are located where your target audience is. Some DSPs offer a global inventory of screens, while others are more focused in smaller geographical regions.

2. Decide on your DSP partner

Once you’ve determined where your campaign needs to run, select a partner to work with. Depending on the DSP, some are are hands on, and will guide you through initial setup and campaigns, while others are more self-serve. Given that it’s a fairly new medium in programmatic and there a slight differences between digital out-of-home and traditional programmatic, it’s suggested to get a bit of help on your first campaign.

3. Understand your audience multiplier

As mentioned earlier, audience in digital out-of-home is not calculated in quite the same way as traditional programmatic. Working with the DSP, you will need to determine how their audience statistics for digital out-of-home translate to their other metrics. It’s important to really understand the nuances of digital out-of-home to truly know where your campaign dollars are going.

4. Define your audience demographic and environment targeting

For a digital out-of-home campaign to be a success, targeting criteria should be set. This can be as simple as using screen location to determine a given audience. However, other criteria like time of day, the day of the week, or feeds like weather, traffic or even custom data, can be used to further add context to a campaign. Most DSPs already have some form of targeting available, while others will even help you set up custom data feeds for your campaign.

5. Set up a procedure for creatives

Digital out-of-home assets are fairly similar to online and mobile, yet generally need to be of higher quality to look great on large screens. In many cases, creatives can be reformatted from mobile and online. However, be sure to consider text size and graphics to ensure your creatives are impactful on large screens. Given it’s public nature, digital out-of-home publishers may also require an initial creative before a campaign can go live.

Digital out-of-home is one of the newer mediums to join the programmatic realm, and as more brands run amazing campaigns, we’re excited to see what the future holds. Who knows, maybe your programmatic campaign will be the next to dazzle on screens around the world.

Product News | October 11, 2021

Best practices for high-impact out-of-home creative

The out-of-home (OOH) ads that stop people in their tracks, spark awareness, and drive action all share a common thread: they’re built on proven creative principles shaped by real-world testing and what works in today’s evolving OOH landscape.

Effective OOH creative relies on bold design, minimal text, and clear branding. But what works on a static highway billboard may not have the same impact on a digital out-of-home (DOOH) screen or a crowded subway platform at rush hour.

That’s what makes OOH unique. It reaches audiences as they move through real-world environments like airports, malls, roadways, and city centres across both static formats and dynamic, data-driven digital displays, offering far more creative flexibility than the medium often gets credit for.

This guide explores the OOH and DOOH creative strategies that consistently deliver results before you plan your next campaign.

OOH creative fundamentals

When developing the creative for an OOH ad, there are core principles to keep in mind.

  • Define your goals: What does the ad wish to accomplish? Is the aim to drive in-store traffic? Stand out from competitors? Remind existing customers of an ongoing promotion? A firm strategy narrows the focus and clarifies the message. 
  • Be bold: Most out-of-home ads have only seconds to reach audiences. When producing OOH or DOOH creative, employ boldness to stand out.
  • Keep it simple: A less-is-more approach is typically most effective. Messaging should be clear, direct, and to the point. 
  • Let brand personality shine: Use humour, surprise, intrigue, even edginess to amplify your message. 
  • Context is key: think about how your creative fits into its surroundings. Incorporating messaging that speaks to current events or relates to live data can boost performance and turn your ad from informative to innovative.

Think Design

Great OOH design is built for how people experience it. In fast-moving environments, you have seconds to make an impression, so clarity and visibility matter more than complexity.

At its core, effective design comes down to a few essentials:

  • High-contrast colours that cut through busy surroundings
  • Simple, focused layouts that are easy to process at a glance
  • Bold, recognizable imagery paired with clean, legible type
KFC’s bold, recognizable imagery makes this billboard instantly identifiable

Context matters just as much as design. What works on a roadside billboard viewed at speed won’t translate the same way to a street-level or place-based screen where dwell time is longer. Simpler creative performs better at a distance, while closer environments allow for more detail, as long as clarity isn’t compromised.

And while best practices exist for a reason, they are not rules. Intentionally breaking them can be just as effective when done with purpose.

Get the Specs Right

Even the strongest creative can fall flat if it is not built for the screen. OOH and DOOH formats vary widely across billboards, transit shelters, retail environments, and place-based networks, each with different dimensions, orientations, and file requirements.

A few fundamentals to keep in mind:

  • Design for both vertical and horizontal formats so layouts translate cleanly across environments
  • Stick to supported file types like JPG or PNG for static, and MP4 or HTML for digital placements
  • Keep file sizes within recommended limits to ensure smooth delivery and playback
  • Always build with the final screen size and placement in mind to avoid cropping or distortion

Below are some of the most common specs for digital and video displays in the US. 

Most Common Display Sizes:

  • 1920 x 1080
  • 1080 x 1920
  • 1400 x 400
  • 840 x 400

Most Common Video Sizes (15-Second):

  • 1920 x 1080
  • 1080 x 1920
  • 1400 x 400 
  • 1280 x 960

For more guidelines on proper format sizes, read our Best Practices Guide: How to create DOOH campaigns that get results. 

READ ALSO: Our favourite OOH and Billboard Ads of 2025. 

Let’s talk about text

It’s not just about what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it: typeface and formatting contribute to how the ad, and its messaging, are received. 

  • Large, bold typeface is easier for people to read, especially from a distance
  • Avoid thin or serif typefaces, which can be harder to read 
  • Proper spacing between letters, words, and lines will help improve readability and visibility
  • Keep the copy short and sweet, and limit messaging to five to seven words
  • Stick to one simple, direct message and call-to-action 
  Viewing Distance  Minimum Readable Text Height 
  5’ – 50’  1” – 2”   (72px – 144px @ 72dpi)
  50’ – 100’  2” – 4”   (144px – 288px @ 72dpi)
  100’ – 200’  4” – 8”   (288px – 576px @ 72dpi)
Virgin Active’s OOH display delivers big impact with minimal text

Video creatives

A recent study found that full-motion video OOH ads drive a 65% increase in “intent to learn more” compared to static creative, along with a 41% lift in perceived relevance, clear indicators of stronger audience consideration.

That’s why incorporating motion into your digital content is such a powerful way to capture attention. In most environments, videos should run no longer than 10-15 seconds; however, longer videos can be impactful for audiences in specific venue types with longer dwell times, like gyms, doctors’ offices, or bars.

Note: Place Exchange by Broadsign can seamlessly adapt social media and in-app vertical video creatives for portrait-mode screens, so you can get maximum value from a single video. 

Creating personalized and dynamic content

When vying for a consumer’s attention, optimizing a digital out-of-home campaign with Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) can be the x-factor in reaching target audiences. 

DCO means adjusting and optimizing DOOH ads for real-world contexts and environments, pulling data to deliver ads in response to current events or trends, such as the weather, sports scores, financial markets, audience profiles, or other nearby events or relevant information. 

With DCO, ads can deliver more personalized experiences and stronger audience relevance. In fact, according to the OAAA and The Harris Poll, 81% of respondents exposed to weather-triggered ads featuring relevant product offers found them valuable. Thinking about where your ad will live along the consumer’s journey, and in what context, is an opportunity to create a high-impact ad that resonates with your target audience. 

To create a high-impact ad, thread in creative that responds to live signals like time of day, weather, audience demographics or current events for a more targeted activation that reaches audiences at key moments.

Some ideas include:

  • Modify messaging based on relevant data inputs (e.g., weather, sports scores, etc.): Entice customers on rainy days to pop by for a warm cup of coffee, or advertise air conditioning units on extremely hot days, display sports scores during high-ticket events.
  • Schedule time-sensitive or product-specific promotions 
  • Incorporate daily countdowns for popular movies or big events with universal appeal 
McDonald’s weather-triggered OOH campaign in Qatar

Tracking and measurement

Knowing how your current campaign performs is crucial for planning the next. Use ID markers like QR codes, SMS messages, short-link URLs, hashtags, emails, or phone numbers to track and measure your ad’s performance. Adding a Call to Action (CTA) to your creatives can enable you to directly track “click-through” response to your OOH creative.

The winning formula for an out-of-home ad that gets noticed and delivers on ROI is to combine brand-safe creativity, outside-the-box thinking, and contextual relevance. With these OOH creative best practices in your toolkit, you can successfully create an ad that stands out.

Ready to launch a high-impact, creative out-of-home campaign that delivers results? Browse our inventory catalog to see the complete network of high-impact digital screens available. 

Product News | October 11, 2021

De’Longhi drives 121% lift in brand preference with programmatic DOOH

To strengthen its position as a leader in premium home coffee experiences, De’Longhi partnered with Broadsign to launch a programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) campaign across Poland during the competitive holiday shopping season.

Objective

The campaign aimed to move audiences from brand awareness to purchase intent, positioning the Eletta Explore as the preferred choice for holiday gifting in a competitive retail landscape.

Strategy

In collaboration with agency partner Salestube PL, the campaign used the OutMoove DSP to activate premium pDOOH inventory across major Polish markets, focusing placements exclusively within high-traffic shopping mall environments.

Indoor screens in major shopping malls reached consumers in high-intent environments close to the point of purchase. By concentrating on mall inventory, including spectaculars, concourse screens, and food court displays, the campaign captured the attention of gift-seekers while they were actively browsing and shopping.

Dayparting aligned ad playouts with peak shopping hours, ensuring strong visibility during periods of elevated foot traffic throughout the holiday retail season.

Creative

The campaign featured cinematic video creative starring global brand ambassador Brad Pitt, accompanied by the localized copy: “To nie tylko idealny prezent. To Perfetto” (“It’s not just the perfect gift. It’s Perfetto.”).

By combining a recognizable ambassador with motion-driven creative across high-traffic placements, De’Longhi established a memorable presence during the year’s busiest retail window.

Results

  • 121% Lift in Brand Preference: The campaign achieved a significant increase in brand preference, successfully strengthening De’Longhi’s positioning against key competitors in the premium coffee category.
  • 190% Lift in Intent: The campaign effectively influenced consumer behaviour, delivering nearly a 3X lift in consumer intent to interact with the brand or visit the De’Longhi website.

Want the campaign highlights? Check out the infographic below.