Product News | October 11, 2021

4 post-COVID-19 retail DOOH trends to watch

Illustrating a curbside pickup offering at a retail location

The world is opening back up, but it is not going back to the way things were. Changes made over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to stick around, including in the world of retail. New conveniences and preferences may be too appealing or important to let slip away.

This new dynamic in retail will carry a number of important implications for DOOH operators and their retail partners. To maximize success in the years ahead, a few changes may need to be made.

Curbside pickup is here to stay, and DOOH should be there too

Curbside pickup has been around for years. Originally, it was deployed as part of a push towards “buy-online, pickup in-store” (BOPIS) services by retailers looking to compete with the convenience of online-only shopping.

But it’s during the pandemic that curbside really took off. A McKinsey survey of Canadian consumer sentiment showed that 18% of respondents had tried curbside pickup for the first time during the pandemic, with a further 11% continuing prior use throughout.

It’s likely to continue. For one thing, it’s likely to take some time before we fully recover from life under COVID-19. For another, there are indications that consumers will continue to prioritize hygiene and cleanliness even after the pandemic’s end. Both suggest that options to shop hands-off will remain in demand for some time.

This will require some strategic rethinking of how to communicate with customers. Indoor point-of-purchase displays, after all, will not be suitable for providing messaging for an increasing cohort of customers who choose to remain in their cars. Depending on the manner in which curbside pickup is managed at a store, even the common approach of placing digital displays near the entrance to a retailer may not suffice.

Addressing this new reality could be a great opportunity. Curbside pickup, like other BOPIS offerings, is not faster than regular in-store shopping. Buyers who go this route, whatever their reasons for doing so, will be sitting in their vehicles, waiting. Deploying larger displays that are visible from a larger portion of the parking lot, or several smaller DOOH displays distributed throughout a parking lot, could be valuable for reaching this audience while they have nothing else to do.

Screens like this one employed by MMD Media’s gas stations could help reach customers in parking lots

And for better odds of capturing these people’s attention, media owners should ensure that their selected DOOH platform offers the ability to display dynamically changing content and messaging. This can allow advertisers to deliver different creative based on external triggers, like weather. It can also allow for advertising to display up-to-the-minute information of interest – traffic, weather, news, etc – alongside advertising.

Having these kinds of dynamic content playing around the pickup area will help the screens deliver messaging that better meet the needs and interests of consumers. This will maximize the value for the retailer, the consumer, and the advertiser all at once.

Shift to value-for-money bodes well for relevant DOOH messaging

As you might expect of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, consumers are demonstrating increased value consciousness in their buying decisions.This will demand that brands change tactics in order to appeal to a different buying mindset, but it also presents an interesting opportunity for media owners with DOOH assets in and around retail environments.

Network owners can use DOOH installations positioned in and around shopping centres, malls, and other retail environments to promote sale items, special promotions, and other kinds of value-focused offerings related to nearby businesses. It’s an easy way to connect buyers with products they want at prices they like, and a good opportunity to leverage the contextual power of location-based DOOH.

**Example**: See how Starlite Media connects brands with buyers on location via shopping centre DOOH

Even better, the power of the sale-assisted impulse buy extends beyond just people walking into stores to start their shopping. A survey by Doddle (via Retail Dive) found that 85% of people who go to a store to pick up an online order will make additional purchases while there.

This means that displaying compelling sales content on displays positioned near the entrance to a location, just inside the entrance, or even in parking lots (to appeal to the aforementioned curbside crowd) could go a long way towards generating additional revenue from all kinds of shoppers. There’s stronger immediate appeal in seeing an ad for products purchasable on location, after all, than in seeing an ad for something you would need to purchase later on.

Touchscreens won’t go away, but the way they’re used needs to evolve

We’re big fans of interactive digital signage as a method of delivering ad-supported content and tools to audiences. Interactivity just drives more eye-catching experiences, which is exactly what media buyers and network owners alike want to achieve.

Touch, of course, is the primary type of interactivity deployed across many digital signage installations, and it had its share of detraction even before COVID. Cleanliness has long been a concern, especially after notable stories of harmful bacteria found to be prevalent on touchscreen kiosks. Thanks to COVID, there’s more attention than ever being paid to what we all touch, how clean those things are, and how we can improve hygiene in a bid to stop the spread of harmful bugs.

Because of COVID-19, touchscreen kiosks are under increased scrutiny

With all of this said, there’s nothing to suggest that touchscreen interactivity will disappear anytime soon. Now that virtually everyone on the planet has a touchscreen in their pockets at all times, touch has become our default method of interaction, and it’s something more people expect to be able to do with public displays. What’s more, the fact that viruses like COVID-19 tend to spread during interaction with others means that interacting with touchscreens can actually be preferable to many people who would rather avoid speaking to a stranger.

Early data from Perch Interactive seem to back this up, suggesting that engagement with public-facing touchscreens had already rebounded to better-than-pre-COVID levels by late June.

Since touch is unlikely to disappear, the priority becomes finding ways to make the touch experience safer or more palatable to the audience. Simple measures, like offering touchless access to hand sanitizer next to screens, or wipes to clean the display before use, can go a long way to increasing user confidence.

It’s also worth considering changing the manner in which users are expected to interact with a touchscreen. Providing a QR code to send on-screen information to a user’s mobile browser can help limit the amount of time users are expected to interact with a screen to get the info they need. This might draw more users to engage with the screen in the first place, and make a habit of turning to interactive displays for timely and relevant information they can take on the go.

There are many ways to improve on the touch experience, and media owners would do well to explore the various options and see which ones can be incorporated across their networks. It will likely prove a worthwhile use of time.

It will pay off to reconsider the ways people should engage with touchscreens

Additional forms of interactivity are maturing and can help reach more customers

Alternatives to touch interactivity have emerged as increasingly viable options in the past few years. While they may not serve as total replacements for touchscreens, they may be beneficial as options for retail establishments wanting to err on the side of caution, or as a tool for engaging with a cohort of customers who are now reluctant to engage with public touchscreens.

Hand tracking and mid-air haptics technology from companies like Ultraleap, or voice-controlled interaction (another technology seeing huge increases in popularity thanks to mobile) seem to be strong early contenders for touch alternatives in retail DOOH.

It’s important to note, of course, that these options are not perfect replacements. Mid-air gesture control just isn’t quite as mainstream as tapping on a screen. Voice control is notoriously imprecise in noisy environments, and can struggle particularly in correctly registering the words spoken by women, racial minorities, and people speaking with different accents or in different dialects. In other words, it’s a difficult thing to get right in a retail environment with diverse consumers.

Voice activation isn’t perfect in controlled environments, and will likely struggle in busy retail locations

Still, incremental improvements are to be expected with these technologies, and deploying one, two, or several different types of interactivity will likely help appeal to a wider range of customers and provide redundancies in instances where a given option is either unpalatable or non-viable.

For media owners with the means, offering multiple options for interaction may prove best in coming out a winner on the other side of the pandemic. In order to successfully take this approach, however, it will be necessary to carefully consider the digital signage platform underpinning the supported functionality. The right choice should help streamline content delivery, integrate easily with all the technologies you want to use, and allow you to leverage your solutions at whatever scale you need, now and in the future.

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Product News | October 11, 2021

How the Broadsign Platform enables ad delivery rates of up to 99% for Orb

At a time when consumer attention is in short supply, out-of-home (OOH) remains an effective medium to attract and retain consumer attention. This is demonstrated in Kantar’s 2023 Media Reactions study, which found that in-person media channels were preferred by consumers, with OOH and digital OOH (DOOH) ranking among the top five favoured channels.

Looking at Group M’s This Year Next Year: 2023 Ireland End-of-Year Forecast, the preference for OOH is particularly noticeable in Irelan, with the medium seeing an average growth rate of 16.65% over the last four years. This growth can be primarily attributed to the introduction of new technology in DOOH, which has provided advertisers with new creative possibilities and added flexibility on how OOH is bought by advertisers and delivered to audiences.

In fact, when looking at the share of static and digital OOH spending in the region, static consistently outpaced digital up until 2023, when shares for both mediums were split evenly. As of 2024, DOOH spend in Ireland exceeded traditional and will continue to do so in the next four years. As DOOH’s presence continues to grow in the region, Irish media owners have an opportunity to enhance their DOOH presence and capabilities.

One Irish media owner who’s already benefiting from the added value of DOOH is Orb. Running a fully digital network of 100 screens, Orb has become a preferred network for both global and local brands due to its flexible buying options and accurate ad delivery rates – made possible by the Broadsign Platform.

Why Orb’s network speaks to advertisers

There is no shortage of demand for Orb’s screens. Its premium locations, creative campaign capabilities and comprehensive campaign reports are why advertisers choose Orb’s network. Orb’s carefully curated selection of screens can be found in bars, restaurants, premium shops and shopping malls found in busy city centres and suburban spots.

Orb’s network attracts both large and local brands from a wide range of verticals. In the entertainment vertical, you’ll often see ads from Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers. Well-known car brands, like Toyota and Kia, as well as alcohol brands under the parent companies of Diageo and IDL Irish Distillers, are also frequent advertisers.

Moreover, in a market where static OOH still has a large presence, Orb is providing advertisers with new dynamic creative optimization (DCO) opportunities made possible by DOOH. For instance, displaying a countdown clock on sports ads for upcoming football or rugby matches or dynamically triggering content based on the location and audience demographics to deliver ads at the right time to the right audience.

Last but not least, advertisers appreciate Orb’s comprehensive reporting. By pulling data from a third-party technology provider for footfall and audience data and Broadsign’s Proof-of-Performance (PoP) report, advertisers are given a comprehensive overview of campaign performance and effectiveness.

How the Broadsign Platform powers Orb’s flexibility

Prior to Broadsign, Orb had tested other platforms to run their network on, but none of them provided Orb with the flexibility they wanted when it came to how inventory was sold and how campaigns were delivered. After careful evaluation, Orb adopted the Broadsign Platform as it not only provided them with new ways of selling, but also dynamic creative capabilities, and comprehensive network monitoring and management.

Flexible buying options that meet diverse needs and maximize ad delivery

While DOOH continues to gain popularity in the region, perspectives in the Irish market vary on the preferred level of flexibility from the medium. Some media owners want to maintain controlled delivery through fixed, frequency campaigns, while others are open to experimenting with flexible, goal-based campaigns. It was essential for Orb to have a solution that allowed them to address the needs of both.

“Our market is divided into two schools of thought; clients who want to keep frequency-based campaigns and another group who have fully embraced flexible campaigns”, says Agnieszka Mendrychowska, Chief Operating Officer at Orb. “The way that the Broadsign Platform is designed allows us to cater to the entire market, as we can select the amount of flexibility we want for each campaign.”

With the Broadsign Platform, Orb has access to frequency-based, goal-based, and data-triggered campaigns. One way Orb is introducing flexible selling to more traditional clients is through play goal campaigns. This allows the client to define how many times they want the ad to play within a given time frame, and Broadsign ensures that the goal is not only met but optimally distributed across all selected screens throughout the campaign’s duration.

Moreover, flexible campaigns benefit from dynamic rebalancing, which leverages Broadsign’s optimization engine to modify the pace at which a campaign is delivered to ensure that campaign objectives are always met. Through Broadsign’s PoP reports, Orb has shown ad delivery rates of up to 99% on flexible campaigns and 95% on frequency campaigns. Having access to this data has not only allowed Orb to reassure its traditional buyers of the effectiveness of flexible campaigns but also helped them attract new customers.

“We’ve been told by clients that what makes our network stand out from others is its reliability when it comes to ad delivery, and that’s thanks to Broadsign.”
Agnieszka Mendrychowska, Chief Operating Officer at Orb

Network and campaign management; the way they want it

Additional benefits Orb has seen with the Broadsign Platform include full visibility into network health and inventory availability. With live digital screen management, Orb can check the status of their network every day, allowing them to resolve issues as quickly as they arise. Moreover, when a more complex issue comes up, they appreciate the support provided by Broadsign’s service team as well as the extensive training guides made available to them online.

Full transparency into their inventory availability has simplified their campaign proposal and booking process. When building proposals, Orb leverages the filter and criteria search function to easily find screens that best meet advertisers’ campaign objectives. When booking flexible campaigns, like play goal ones, Orb can see the estimated number of plays they can reach depending on the screens they’ve selected, allowing them to adjust as needed and provide an accurate proposal.

Finally, the ability to manage and separate content as they need is another advantage

of the Broadsign Platform. For instance, being able to define a percentage split of how content should be rotated within a single campaign. More importantly, leveraging Broadsign’s competitive separation feature allows them to run ads from competing brands on their network, as well as ensure that certain ads don’t play in specific locations. For example, not allowing alcohol ads to be shown on screens that are closer than 200m from a school playground.

Orb’s adoption of the Broadsign Platform has empowered them to meet the diverse needs of their market with flexibility and precision. By offering advertisers dynamic creative options, flexible buying options, and reliable ad delivery, Orb has solidified its reputation as a dependable media owner for the Irish market. Orb’s ability to quickly adapt and deliver tailored solutions through Broadsign ensures they remain well-positioned as DOOH continues to grow in popularity.

What’s next for Orb

Looking into the future, Orb plans to expand its network within Ireland – in cities like Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway – and Northern Ireland. The media owner is also looking to strengthen its programmatic DOOH offering, as the targeting and measurement capabilities made through that medium will unlock a new level of flexibility in how Orb sells its inventory.

Product News | October 11, 2021

How to measure ROI in OOH advertising: Methods and strategies for accurate attribution

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising has traditionally been considered challenging to measure, but that perception is shifting. Thanks to advancements in analytics and cross-channel tracking, OOH is now demonstrating its strength as a powerful driver of return on investment (ROI).

According to a recent study by Analytics Partners, reallocating even a small portion of your marketing budget to OOH can lead to impressive results. For example, increasing your OOH spend has been shown to boost ROI by up to 27% — especially when combined with other channels like digital and TV.

Ready to harness OOH’s full potential? Let’s explore the strategies and tools that make it easier than ever to measure its true impact and drive tangible results.

The attribution challenge: Why it’s crucial to prove OOH’s ROI

(D)OOH attribution links your out-of-home advertising efforts to measurable outcomes, like store visits, online purchases, or app downloads. It helps advertisers understand how OOH ads impact the customer journey and how they contribute to broader marketing goals.

Today, proving ROI is more important than ever. Recent research shows that 88% of marketing leaders are now responsible for revenue goals, so there’s growing pressure to justify their team’s ad spend with clear, actionable data tied directly to measurable business outcomes. Yet, only 25% of leaders report high visibility into ROI across channels.

Advancements in technology have transformed OOH into a measurable, performance-driven channel capable of delivering actionable insights and proving its impact on modern marketing strategies. The rise of digital OOH (DOOH) and programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) is also helping solve traditional measurement challenges, offering access to tools like geofencing, dynamic audience impression tracking, and real-time analytics.

How to accurately attribute results to OOH campaigns: 4 tried-and-true methods

Tracking the impact of your campaigns doesn’t have to be complicated. By using proven methods like brand lift studies, foot traffic attribution, and interactive elements, you can directly connect ad exposure to measurable outcomes. These strategies help you maximize the value of every campaign and confidently demonstrate ROI.

Collecting brand lift insights through surveys and direct feedback

Brand Lift Studies provide tangible evidence of how OOH influences brand perception and consumer behaviour, uncovering data on ad recall, brand awareness, purchase intent, and more. Insights from these studies can guide targeting strategies, creative design, and placement decisions for future campaign efforts.

Measurement partners play a critical role in this process. They identify survey zones based on the geo-locations of digital OOH screens and use GDPR-compliant methods to gather responses through in-app and mobile ads targeting consumers in these areas. The uplift is measured by comparing survey results from two groups: those who recall seeing the ad (exposed group) and those who don’t (control group). Both groups are matched for demographics like age and gender, ensuring accurate, actionable results. Using targeted surveys as part of a brand lift study gives you a clear picture of how your OOH campaigns resonate with audiences and drive results.

Combining OOH attribution with sales data

One of the most direct ways to measure the success of OOH campaigns is by connecting ad exposure to sales outcomes. Integrating sales data — whether from in-store purchases or online transactions — can help you understand how OOH influences customer buying decisions and contributes to your bottom line.

Similarly, pairing OOH exposure data with e-commerce analytics can reveal spikes in online sales or conversions from specific geographic regions targeted by your campaign. This connection is especially valuable for measuring the effectiveness of location-based ads, like billboards near stores or transit ads in high-traffic areas. Integrating OOH attribution with sales data gives you a complete view of your campaign’s performance, helping you allocate budgets more effectively and focus on strategies that drive the greatest return.

Using geofencing and mobile data for foot traffic attribution

Geofencing has revolutionized how advertisers measure the impact of OOH campaigns on foot traffic, making it simple to track real-world results. By setting up a virtual boundary around your ad placement, you can use mobile data to see how many people are exposed to your ad and visit a specific location, like a nearby store or restaurant. For example, a restaurant with a billboard near a shopping mall can measure how many mall visitors stop by after seeing the ad.

Foot traffic attribution partners specialize in helping brands leverage geofencing and mobile data to measure campaign performance. These platforms analyze mobile location data to determine how exposure to OOH ads influences visits to specific locations. They also compare visitor patterns between exposed and non-exposed audiences to provide a clear picture of ad effectiveness. With tools like these, advertisers can gain actionable insights into customer behaviour, ensuring every OOH dollar is well spent.

Embracing marketing mix modelling (MMM) for cross-channel campaigns

When it comes to measuring the true impact of a brand’s outdoor advertising placements across various marketing channels, marketing mix modelling (MMM) is your secret weapon. MMM looks at the bigger picture, analyzing how different marketing channels — both online and offline — work together to drive results. For (D)OOH campaigns, it offers a way to capture the full value of your ads, even when there’s no direct click or digital trail to follow.

This is important because, while effective on its own, OOH has also been shown to supercharge the reach of your other advertising channels, with one study finding that OOH amplifies all major media by more than 90%. For example, a well-placed digital billboard might boost the performance of your paid search campaigns by increasing brand recall, which MMM can measure alongside your total marketing mix. MMM quantifies these synergies, helping you understand how OOH fits into your broader marketing mix and optimize your investments accordingly.

READ ALSO: Check out our Q&A with subject matter expert Ryan Pogy to find answers to some of the most common questions about measuring DOOH effectiveness

Leveraging technology to optimize (D)OOH ROI

By leveraging new tools that provide real-time data and integrating OOH campaigns with digital platforms, marketers can gain deeper insights and drive greater returns on investment. Here’s how these technological advancements are shaping the future of OOH advertising:

Real-time impression tracking

For digital and programmatic OOH campaigns, tools like the impression multiplier — a dynamic, DOOH-specific multiplication index that’s applied to each play on every individual screen — give advertisers a more accurate idea of how many impressions are delivered in a single ad play.

Depending on the network, the impression multiplier for a given DOOH screen is calculated by analyzing factors like:

Screen size and visibility: Larger, more prominent screens are likely to capture more attention and generate higher impressions.
Location and foot traffic: The number of people passing by the screen in a given timeframe, such as in busy urban areas or transit hubs.
Viewing angles: How easily the screen can be seen from different positions and distances.
Dwell time: The amount of time individuals spend within viewing range of the screen, such as in waiting areas or checkout lines.
Content duration and frequency: The length and repetition of ads, which influence the likelihood of being seen.
Time of day: Variations in audience size and engagement during different hours, such as rush hours or peak shopping times.
Environmental conditions: External factors like lighting or weather that may impact screen visibility and audience behavior.

This data provides accurate audience exposure metrics, giving you a reliable way to measure reach, which remains a cornerstone of OOH advertising’s effectiveness. Real-time data also allows you to adjust your campaigns on the fly, maximizing impact.

Interactivity and real-time environmental triggers

Interactive elements in DOOH campaigns go beyond capturing attention — they invite participation and create measurable links between ad exposure and consumer action. Incorporating dynamic QR codes, touchscreens, augmented reality (AR), or social media prompts into your DOOH creative make it easy to track engagement, from website visits and conversions to social shares and app interactions.

Pair these interactive tools with dynamic DOOH content that adapts to real-time factors like time of day, weather, or location, and advertisers can deliver highly relevant messages that resonate with their audience.

Want to see more (D)OOH attribution in action?

Explore our collection of case studies and industry-specific strategy guides to discover how top brands are using advanced attribution methods to maximize the impact of their (D)OOH campaigns.