Product News | October 11, 2021

Why in-store signage advertising belongs in every brand’s retail media strategy

Raise your hand if you’ve ever set foot in a grocery store and picked up a few extras that weren’t on your grocery list. Maybe you were tempted by a tasty-looking bag of chips at checkout or remembered to grab the dish soap because some in-store signage reminded you it was on sale. Impulse purchases happen all the time, even when we’ve got a plan when heading into a store. After all, we’re much more likely to snap up a few add-ons on a whim if we’re already shopping. The temptation can be harder to resist.

Consumer packaged goods brands know that capitalizing on these moments of impulse are great opportunities to give sales a boost, not to mention stay top of mind with customers while they’re out and about. But the world is oversaturated with messaging, so how do you stand out against the competition and create a memorable experience that stays with your customer? There are many ways to go about this, but one of the most pivotal steps you can take is by including in-store signage messaging as part of your omni-channel strategy, using helpful, handy in-store displays to drive sales. Delivering unique, compelling ads to consumers while they’re on site and ready to spend means you get to be a part of the consumer experience every step of the way.

Reaching a receptive audience inside the store

By and large, when people are out shopping, they’re focused on the task at hand: getting what they need, and preferably efficiently. It’s part of why shoppers tend not to look at their phones much in the store unless for a price comparison or to check the shopping list. The action unfolds in real-time, and that demands a level of presence that makes checking your phone inconvenient. For brands, this makes the brick and mortar retail environment an exciting opportunity to reach customers who are undistracted.

Brick and mortar retail offers a great opportunity to reach a receptive audience with ads

Changes to buying habits have demonstrated that now, more than ever, a little extra push is sometimes needed to complete the sale. Several factors brought on by the pandemic have led to major changes in the ways people shop—mainly where they’re shopping.

For instance, in our pre-pandemic lives, waltzing into a grocery store to grab what we needed was the standard. But that changed with the introduction of coronavirus rules around hygiene, capacity limits, and physical distancing requirements. Suddenly, shopping for groceries was a more stressful experience, one that involved a greater time commitment and even a wait in line before getting into the store.

While this was happening, shoppers sought out more convenient options, with many turning to the internet. Instead of blocking off an excessive amount of time to go get the groceries, people making use of e-commerce didn’t have to leave home and, often, could take advantage of same-day delivery to boot.

All this means that in order to entice people to go back to shopping in stores, it’s important to try and deliver a more convenient and information-rich experience, similar to what is found online. And while in-store signage and point-of-purchase displays have always been used to attract and target audiences shopping in-store, digital displays in particular offer new opportunities to brands looking to get their content in front of buyers at the right moment.

A more information-rich experience helps to drive in-store shopper satisfaction

In-store advertising and the death of the cookie

Another change to buying habits is coming thanks to restrictions on how advertisers can target their messaging in the online space. For privacy reasons, big tech companies and web browsers have begun to move away from the use of third-party cookies to collect consumer data. Some web browsers have already ceased gathering third-party data, and a full phase-out is expected to come into full effect by 2022. This will mean consumers will have to opt in if and when they want to share their data with brands. For marketers, media buyers, agencies, and brands, that means customer insights won’t be as easily available, and so creating hyper-targeted campaigns may become even more challenging.

But the absence of third-party data means now is the time for in-store advertising strategies to really shine. In-store advertising gives your brand the potential to reach consumers right when they are likeliest to spend. When partnered with other omnichannel marketing strategies like digital marketing or shelf placement, a compelling message delivered on in-store digital signage can deliver a big push to turn visitors into buyers.

Rethinking retail with omnichannel advertising

The pandemic’s impact on retail is no longer news—now, it’s time to analyze the ways that brands intend to incorporate the past couple of years of learnings into a new vision of what retail should be.

A key finding from a recent survey by Inmar Intelligence is that more retailers will be investing in on-site media offerings in the coming years. The main reasons? A desire to drive sales and diversify revenue. As brands start to develop their own digital messaging apparatus, this opens up a world of possibility.

More retailers are creating opportunities to advertise in their brick and mortar locations

Say a customer was exposed to an ad prior to their arrival at a store. Through in-store signage, brands can build content that reinforces that message while the shopper is on premises. Digital displays will usually be installed at high-intent locations throughout a store, in order to optimize the effectiveness of the messaging.

By coordinating these in-store ads with ads deployed across online channels, it’s possible to create a unified message that drives improvement to both online and brick and mortar sales. It’s a chance to build stronger campaigns, in other words, by placing your brand in front of people in a high-value, high-trust environment.

Delivering contextual media with in-store displays

In-store signage has an advantage over other ad formats for its capacity to open the door for more contextual opportunities. What resonates most with CPG brands and their buyers is messaging that tells a story, creating a more favourable perception of your brand in the mind of consumers.

Launching an effective digital retail signage campaign directly in-store isn’t just a powerful way to reach customers when they’re in a buying mindset. It’s also a way to create a lasting moment that connects them to the brand. The right contextual storytelling has the power to make a lasting impression and positively influence buyer behaviour.

Customers are savvy, and by working in a contextual component to your advertising, you can help give them an experience that strikes a chord. Beyond that, contextual digitized in-store signage can work in concert with other marketing assets, such as in-store product shelf placement, flyer ads, coupons, or even digital ads, thus helping to create a more cohesive customer journey, moving from one message to the next depending on their location.

Digital in-store ads mesh well with shelf-placement and other retail marketing tactics

Digital signage advertising also gives brands the added opportunity to harness audience data for better relevance and more creativity. For example, demographic data can give you a better sense of who’s shopping and when. Messaging can then be adapted to suit, say, the stay-at-home parent crowd during the daytime, while catering ads during evenings and weekends to young professionals. Being able to track how these data change with the seasons, as holidays approach, and in response to current events can help you to flex your creative muscle and always keep your messaging up-to-date and relevant to different audiences at different times in a single location.

The power of dynamic content

While you’re at it, digital signage gives you the tools you need to take the storytelling aspect of your campaigns even further. Unlike other traditional ad formats, digital signage opens up the possibility to run dynamic content that takes the storytelling even further.

Through programmatic ad buying, the process of using contextual triggers like the weather, sports, or traffic can create a memorable moment in the eyes of your customers, thus influencing them to move forward with a purchasing decision. For example, a drop in temperatures is an opportune moment to market hot chocolate or soup, while running an ad before a big sports event might encourage you to offer a promo on chips and other gameday goodies. There’s really no limit to what can be accomplished with the dynamic capabilities offered by in-store signage.

Dynamic content can allow brands to promote different offerings based on things like weather or current events

Comparing in-store signage media costs to other channels

One of the most concrete reasons why more brands are turning to in-store signage is that, unlike other ad formats, it can be a fairly marketing-budget-friendly solution. The CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, is fairly low in DOOH as compared with online channels, television, etc.

Given the high costs surrounding digital advertising, media buyers and agencies are thinking about ways to reallocate some of the marketing budgets to best reach out-of-home audiences. With a high-exposure medium such as in-store signage, an advertising campaign can reach a wide audience for less.

Quick recap: Why you should start in-store digital ad campaigns

Already, we’re starting to witness a change to retail, as stores try to get buyers back in their stores and shift away from competitors in e-commerce. In the coming months, we’re expecting to see CPGs continue to make these changes by investing in in-store content as a way to modernize the shopping experience and create a more enjoyable and tailored experience for shoppers.

By investing in digital in-store signage advertising:

  • You signal to consumers that your CPG business or media buys are adapting your omnichannel campaign strategy to suit the changes taking place in retail.
  • You’ll overcome some of the major obstacles faced by brick-and-mortar retail given the rise in popularity of e-commerce.
  • You can reach customers through an innovative and creative channel, one that can be tailored to suit the time of day and enhances a customer’s relationship to your brand through contextual storytelling.
  • You put your marketing dollars towards a more cost-effective solution than many other advertising channels.

The world is changing quickly, and those in the retail sector have seen the lasting impact of a changing world, even in just the last year. These changes are only going to continue, as brick-and-mortar shopping evolves to keep up the pace with the increasing convenience of online shopping. For this reason, meeting your consumers where they are by using an innovative solution like digital retail signage is a necessary component of adapting to the changing times in retail.

Including in-store signage messaging as a part of an omnichannel strategy is pivotal in driving revenue and taking steps towards building lasting and nurturing loyal relationships with consumers, as well as in ensuring your CPG business stays relevant in consumers’ minds.

Supercharge your next campaign with in-store digital advertising

Get started with Broadsign!

Product News | October 11, 2021

What’s new in the Broadsign Platform: Sophisticated targeting, creative management and UI improvements

Spring has finally sprung, which means fresh air, greenery, and, most importantly, fresh updates to the Broadsign Platform. This season, we are bringing you sophisticated targeting tools, streamlined creative management, and major UI improvements to make the campaign planning and management process for directly-sold campaigns as seamless as possible for campaign planners. 

Why does this matter? While the activation process for digital out-of-home (DOOH) may only require a couple of minutes, the campaign planning and management process often requires much more time. Discovering available and relevant inventory, collecting data to prove the medium’s effectiveness in meeting campaign goals, and managing campaign creatives are all time-consuming tasks.

The new spring updates introduce a new level of automation that not only reduces the time and complexities of getting DOOH campaigns out the door but also helps make out-of-home (OOH) a competitive and attractive medium for buyers. Let’s dive in!

Sophisticated targeting tools that find the best inventory 

Granular targeting shouldn’t be exclusive to programmatic. That’s why last year, we introduced targeting tools for directly sold campaigns executed through the Broadsign Platform, giving campaign planners the same flexibility and comprehensive targeting capabilities as online and programmatic media buyers. 

The targeting tools included the ability to filter your inventory by location and key points of interest (POIs), enabling campaign planners to find the most relevant inventory for each campaign at the click of a button. An intuitive map view was also introduced, allowing you to better visualize your inventory with quick filtering options by area, support for bulk location uploads, and setting radius parameters. 

This year, we’re introducing two powerful targeting upgrades for directly sold campaigns: demographics and criteria targeting. With demographics targeting, you can filter inventory by attributes like age, gender, or occupation to find the screens that will maximize campaign impact. We’ve also enhanced criteria targeting, giving you more granular control over inclusion and exclusion rules. For example, when building a proposal for an alcohol brand, you can now quickly exclude screens that don’t allow alcohol ads from your inventory search in just a few clicks. 

These new additions to the Broadsign Platform not only reduce the manual work required for inventory discovery but also give your team the opportunity to be a more strategic partner to buyers. We’re also excited to share that these enhanced targeting capabilities are now available to Broadsign customers worldwide! 

Simplified creative management and centralized campaign planning

Media owners juggle multiple campaigns and creatives at the same time, and without the right tools, the creative management process can become complex and stressful for your teams. Last year, we released our in-platform creative management tools, which allowed you to create, edit, manage, and assign campaign creatives with ease. On top of that, we also made it possible for you to push your campaigns live through the Broadsign Platform, eliminating the need to go through Broadsign’s desktop tools. 

In this latest update to the Broadsign Platform, we’re introducing creative scheduling. You’ll now be able to apply multiple scheduling options to your creatives, making it easier than ever to deliver the right message at the right time. You can also target your content by time of day or event, making it easier than ever to adapt your messaging to dayparts or changing campaign goals. Finally, you can update your creatives in real-time, allowing you to plan and deliver up to 55% of your campaigns in one unified workflow directly in-platform. 

Additional management tools for an improved user experience

Along with comprehensive creative management and targeting tools for directly-sold campaigns, additional tools and UI enhancements have been added to improve the usability and user experience of the Broadsign Platform:

Inventory package accessibility

Access inventory packages effortlessly through the platform’s updated navigation bar, enhancing efficiency and ease of use.

Centralized settings management

Administrators can now adjust and manage all necessary settings for digital and static inventory, user management, and more directly within the platform’s web-based UI through a centralized hub for control and configuration.

Campaign monitoring enhancements

With the newly implemented progress indicator, real-time monitoring of campaign pacing is now possible, giving immediate insight into campaign performance. This allows for quick adjustments to be made, as needed, to meet campaign goals effectively.

Search functionality and filters

An improved search mechanism, complemented by additional filters like campaign, client or contract names, enables quicker and more accurate campaign retrieval, saving time and improving workflow.

Line item list

You can now access a list of all line items directly through the navigation bar. Operations teams now have a more precise and comprehensive view of all bookings made on your network.

Dashboard customization

Tailor the platform’s dashboard to meet individual needs, ensuring that the most relevant and important information is always front and center.

Interested in testing out these new features? Book a demo today

Product News | October 11, 2021

How to integrate in-store digital signage into your retail media network

If your retail media network (RMN) is thriving online but underutilized in-store, you’re not alone, and there’s untapped value waiting on the sales floor. While many retailers have monetized their websites and apps, in-store signage often remains overlooked and disconnected from broader retail media efforts.

Forward-thinking retailers are closing the gap by deploying in-store screens or connecting existing ones to their broader retail media ecosystem using specialized digital signage software. From investing in new displays to syncing with data systems, workflows, and programmatic platforms, they’re transforming stores into dynamic, measurable environments that complete the omnichannel shopper journey.

The benefits go far beyond operational efficiency. As of 2025, more than 200 RMNs operate globally, each with its own formats, technologies, and measurement frameworks. This fragmentation has become a major challenge, with marketers calling for more standardization to unlock the next wave of retail media investment. Integrating in-store signage into a cohesive strategy helps retailers close the loop—connecting the full shopper journey, enabling comprehensive measurement, and driving long-term growth for both themselves and their brand partners.

Whether your goal is to enhance in-store advertising, maximize ROI on existing hardware, or deliver smarter, data-driven shopper experiences, this roadmap will help you turn screens into a strategic cornerstone of your retail media network.

Why digital signage is critical to your retail media strategy

Despite the rise of e-commerce, 80% of purchases still happen in-store, making the physical store a high-impact, yet often underutilized, media environment. Still, many RMNs prioritize digital channels like websites, apps, and email, overlooking the opportunity to bring that same power to the sales floor.

Digital signage bridges the gap between digital media and in-person purchase moments. It turns your store into a full-funnel, monetizable channel that enhances, not competes with, your broader retail media strategy. Here’s how:

  • Connects online precision to in-store decisions: Bring the targeting and flexibility of digital media into the physical store, where buying decisions are made, with dynamic, contextually relevant content—brand campaigns, personalized promos, seasonal messaging—delivered right where buying decisions happen.
  • Monetizes real-world traffic: Turn foot traffic into a scalable revenue stream by offering brand partners premium placements on high-visibility screens, targeted by location, time, or context—especially impactful during add-to-cart moments.
  • Delivers measurable, flexible performance:  Modern digital signage platforms integrate with your data and ad tech stack, enabling real-time scheduling, updates, and reporting. Track key metrics—product engagement, sales lift, dwell time—and connect in-store exposure to online behaviour.
  • Enhances the shopper experience: Effective signage supports the customer journey, not disrupts it. From back-in-stock alerts to curated promotions, digital displays make in-person shopping more engaging, relevant, and responsive.
  • Powers your omnichannel strategy: Signage closes the loop between discovery and conversion, syncing messaging across email, mobile, online ads, and in-store screens so shoppers experience a consistent, connected journey.

READ ALSO: Why in-store media is essential for forward-thinking retail media strategies

Integrating digital signage into a unified retail media strategy

Whether you’re building from scratch or integrating existing screens into your retail media stack, you need to lay the right foundation. That means designing a signage strategy built for scale, content relevance, and future monetization — and then connecting it to the data, workflows, and systems that power your RMN.

As Jonathan Franco, Broadsign’s Global Head of Retail Media, notes in a recent piece on bridging lessons from digital out-of-home (DOOH) to in-store media: “The OOH market has taught us that success isn’t just about having screens in impactful locations; it’s about playing the right content in the right place at the right time.”

In other words, a successful signage strategy goes beyond high-traffic ad placements or hardware specs. It’s about creating strategic touchpoints that support the full shopper journey and integrate seamlessly with your broader digital media operations.

Here’s how to bring it all together:

1. Plan your screen zones with both placement and content in mind

Think like a media planner, not just a merchandiser. Whether you’re starting from scratch or expanding an existing setup, begin by aligning screen placement with key shopper moments:

  • Entrances: High-impact campaigns and branded takeovers
  • Main aisles: Seasonal themes or product spotlights
  • Promo zones & end caps: Shoppable content, limited-time offers
  • Checkout areas: Loyalty messaging, app signups, basket-building prompts
  • Specialty departments (e.g., pharmacy, bakery, butcher): Context-specific content like curated product picks, pairing suggestions, or department-specific promos 

Once placement is mapped, define content zones and use cases that bring structure and scalability to your network:

  • Utility-first content like wayfinding, back-in-stock updates, and localized promos
  • Retailer-owned storytelling through seasonal campaigns or private label features
  • Brand-sponsored media with paid placements, co-branded messages, and monetizable ad space

Pro tip: Map screen zones based on foot traffic, dwell time, and product affinity to guide content planning and ad pricing. This helps ensure a coherent in-store experience while maximizing the media value of each screen.

2. Keep it flexible and connected

Retail moves fast — and so should your signage. Choose a retail digital signage platform that’s not just flexible but also built to integrate with your broader retail media stack. In particular, look for solutions that support:

The more your signage tools sync with your RMN systems, the easier it is to deliver value to brand partners and internal stakeholders alike.

READ ALSO: How to choose the best digital signage software for your business

3. Align signage with your cross-channel media strategy

The same shopper might see your ad on social media, browse your website, and visit your store—all in a single day. To keep pace, your content and media offerings should reflect a cohesive journey. When deployed strategically, in-store screens become physical extensions of your digital media plan — not standalone inventory.

For marketers, that means:

  • Repurposing assets from other RMN channels (e.g. email banners, social creative, seasonal campaigns)
  • Reinforcing digital campaigns or driving app engagement via in-store screens
  • Ensuring messaging is consistent across in-store and online touchpoints
  • Bundling signage with other digital placements in your media kits
  • Offering tiered packages with omnichannel reach or localized activations
  • Providing turnkey creative support to streamline advertiser onboarding

When thoughtfully integrated, digital signage becomes a powerful part of your go-to-market strategy, helping brands reach shoppers with the right message at the right time, both online and offline. Integration isn’t just about technology; it’s about alignment across content, channels, and teams.

4. Centralize measurement and reporting

One of the biggest hurdles in building or scaling digital signage within your retail media strategy is measurement. Without a clear plan, in-store signage can quickly become disconnected from your broader performance story—making it harder to justify spend or demonstrate value to advertisers.

To avoid that, build signage into your reporting framework from day one. Start by tracking foundational metrics:

  • Screen-level impressions and play counts to understand exposure volume
  • Dwell time to assess attention and engagement
  • Content playback logs to validate ad delivery and campaign pacing

Then, go deeper by connecting signage exposure to in-store outcomes, like product interaction, add-to-cart moments, or sales lift. These insights help prove that your in-store media is driving real business results, not just awareness.

By applying consistent measurement frameworks across both online and offline channels, you can tell a unified, full-funnel story. Mirroring key OOH and digital metrics—like reach, frequency, and lift—helps demonstrate how in-store signage works in tandem with campaigns on email, mobile, and paid social.

Modern digital signage platforms provide unified in-store reporting, making it easier to analyze performance, share results with brand partners, and refine campaigns in real time—turning in-store media into a measurable, scalable revenue channel within your retail media network.

READ ALSO: Discover how the OOH industry is leveraging technology to achieve more measurable campaign outcomes in our guide to out-of-home measurement, attribution and audience extension.

Ready to make your in-store signage a seamless part of your RMN?

Whether you’re planning your first deployment or optimizing existing screens, Broadsign’s industry-leading platform makes it easy to connect your in-store signage with the rest of your retail media ecosystem. With over two decades of experience in digital out-of-home, we help retailers build, manage, and monetize scalable signage networks that align with your broader media strategy.

Get in touch to see how we can help you unlock the full value of your in-store presence.

Product News | October 11, 2021

Broadsign Unveils Automated In-Advance DOOH Transactions

New platform capability to extend and simplify traditional DOOH and OOH buys through automated trading platforms; early adopter WPP Media Netherlands, formerly GroupM Netherlands, one of the first to deliver DOOH campaign with the technology

MONTREAL, June 3, 2025Broadsign today announced Broadsign In-Advance. Breaking down longstanding accessibility barriers to out-of-home (OOH) advertising, the new Broadsign Platform capability unlocks automated in-advance Digital OOH (DOOH) transactions, with support for static OOH transactions anticipated via a future update. Programmatic media buyers can now leverage Broadsign In-Advance to secure guaranteed DOOH campaigns months ahead of delivery using technology built on top of familiar automated trading tools. It also allows direct DOOH buyers to streamline historically lengthy buying cycles, saving hours spent manually discovering, curating, and reserving inventory. 

With most OOH and DOOH media purchases still taking place manually, Broadsign In-Advance is designed to enable programmatic and traditional buyers to use automated, dynamic processes for guaranteed in-advance buys. It improves planning flexibility, significantly reduces back-and-forth communications between media buyers and owners to confirm the availability of and secure inventory, and simplifies campaign adjustments. The advancement further unlocks the data-driven targeting available via programmatic buying platforms for more traditional DOOH buys, so media buying teams can make more informed decisions to maximize the performance of their reserved campaigns.

DOOH media owners who make their inventory available for in-advance buys via the new capability similarly benefit from more efficient transactional processes and enhanced revenue potential through access to new buyers. They can choose the inventory they want to make available, and Broadsign In-Advance will automate bookings based on their defined business rules. Demand partners who activate the new capability via their Broadsign Supply-Side Platform (SSP) integration will be able to unlock previously unavailable inventory to support new campaign types and maximize profitability. 

WPP Media Netherlands (formerly known as GroupM Netherlands) has already tested the new capability to secure DOOH ads across the Netherlands via OutMoove, the inaugural DSP to integrate with Broadsign In-Advance. As Broadsign evolves the technology, it will continue to enlist new demand and both digital and static OOH media owner partners worldwide. Representing one of the first agencies to execute a transaction supported by Broadsign In-Advance, WPP Media Netherlands Practice Lead OOH Noella Klein Ikkink said, “We see the potential of Broadsign In-Advance to increase efficiency for media buyers for standalone direct buys or in the mix with programmatic activation. It could also facilitate more streamlined, packaged buys alongside current buying methods and open up more opportunities to determine the best path forward, depending upon our planning strategy and budget.”

“OOH is one of the most enduring ad mediums today, yet it’s one of the most complex to transact outside of programmatic, which only accounts for less than ten percent of global digital buys, a figure that excludes static buys. Booking OOH and DOOH ads today should be as easy as securing a hotel or flight, and automation is the key to making this possible,” explained John Dolan, Vice President, Global Head of Media Sales, Broadsign. “Broadsign In-Advance is the next step in facilitating an industry-wide transition to more automated transactions. It introduces tech-driven advancements that will make the channel more accessible and elevate the quality of campaigns, helping to usher in a new era of growth for OOH.”

Broadsign’s new in-advance DOOH transaction capabilities are accessible to Broadsign SSP customers and demand partners for early adoption today via the latest platform update. Get in touch with a Broadsign representative to learn more or check out this blog post to better understand how automation can transform both OOH and DOOH. Broadsign encourages media buyers to consult with their preferred demand partner to confirm present or future plans to support Broadsign In-Advance. 

About Broadsign

Broadsign empowers media owners, agencies, and brands to harness the power and reach of out-of-home to connect with audiences in ways unlike any other advertising channel. More than 1.5 million static and digital signs along roadways and in airports, shopping malls, retailers, health clinics, transit systems, electric vehicle charging stations, and more run on Broadsign, reaching audiences at multiple touchpoints throughout the consumer journey. The Broadsign Platform helps media owners such as Outfront, Pattison Outdoor, Global, and Intersection streamline business operations and maximize revenue opportunities while enabling marketers and agencies to more easily plan and execute dynamic OOH campaigns that resonate with audiences. Brands spanning AB InBev, Disney, FanDuel, H&M, Honda, HP, Johnson & Johnson, KLM, Uber Eats, Sea-Doo, Samsonite, and many more have run successful programmatic DOOH campaigns enabled by Broadsign technology. https://broadsign.com