Ask the Experts: The Power of Place-Based DOOH with Vertical Impression
Vertical Impression is an elevator advertising network with a story like no other. The co-founders were in class together at university when one of them had their car towed for missing a notice that was posted on the building’s bulletin board. The experience led them to question if there was a way to improve how buildings communicate with tenants. From there, the idea of putting screens in elevators to display important, targeted messaging was created.
Today, Vertical Impression is the largest residential elevator network in Canada with over 1700 screens across 30 major markets. With rapid growth in Quebec, Southwestern Ontario, and across Canada’s east coast, the company is showing no signs of slowing down as they project a network of over 2000 screens by the end of the year.
We sat down with Nicolette Leonardis, Vice President and Co-founder of Vertical Impression, to get her insights on the role place-based DOOH has on reaching the right audience at the right time with contextual messaging.
How digital marketers can adopt DOOH in their campaigns
What sets Vertical Impression apart from other out-of-home networks is the fact that its screens are powered by privacy-by-design certified AI, enabling ads to be served in real-time based on who’s looking at screens or riding in an elevator. This provides valuable information by allowing the company to capture first-party data on their audience’s engagement.
There are a lot of metrics that can be acquired when running a digital campaign. Marketers often prefer digital advertising thanks to its flexibility, targeting, and measurement capabilities, but OOH is quickly becoming a more popular channel as technology advances. The ability to purchase OOH programmatically is enabling more and more marketers to include it in their strategies, but as Nicolette explains, there’s still a lot of education missing to get advertisers to look at OOH as a strong data capturing method:
DOOH as a location-based performance channel
According to Nicolette, marketers who include OOH in their campaigns should shift their focus towards measuring actual engagement over exclusively looking at impressions. Going beyond measuring how many people saw your ad to really evaluate the quality of an impression is important in understanding if audiences can recall what they saw.
For Nicolette, large format out-of-home messaging is the best route to take if a marketer’s goal is to drive mass reach and impact. For a more targeted approach, or to reach more segmented audiences, indoor ad space like elevator screens should be considered. Check out what she has to say:
The evolution and future of DOOH
Thanks to increasingly sophisticated and innovative advertising technology, DOOH has evolved extensively in the past 5 years and will continue to do so in the future. With the looming elimination of third-party cookies, digital marketers will have less data available to them than they’re used to, amplifying the importance of capturing contextual data through OOH channels.
We’d like to thank Nicolette for taking the time to chat OOH with us.
What is digital out-of-home (DOOH) media? Definition, examples & key advantages
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is an innovative form of out-of-home (OOH) advertising. It allows brands to connect with consumers as they go about their daily lives via digital screens in high-traffic public spaces, delivering contextually relevant content to targeted audiences at scale.
DOOH is fast becoming a core part of the media marketer’s toolkit, with programmatic trading and automation-enabled OOH media planning helping to further fuel advertiser interest and investment in the channel. While nearly two-thirds of OOH spending still goes toward traditional static formats, digital OOH is forecast to represent 43.9% of total OOH revenue by 2030, reaching $31.4 billion.
Below, we break down the fundamentals of DOOH advertising, from its differences from traditional OOH to where it appears and the advantages it offers advertisers, along with real-world examples in action.
DOOH, which stands for digital out-of-home, refers to advertising media displayed on digital screens strategically placed in shared environments outside the home.
Unlike traditional OOH, which relies on fixed creative displayed for defined periods of time, DOOH supports dynamic messaging that can be updated, scheduled, and adapted more efficiently. Advertisers can align creative with specific moments, locations, audiences, or campaign objectives, making it easier to keep messaging timely and consistent across placements.
For advertisers and marketers, DOOH plays a strategic role in connecting digital media planning with real-world presence. It’s commonly used alongside online, mobile, and social channels to extend reach, reinforce messaging, and support omnichannel marketing strategies — without relying on third-party cookies or personal identifiers.
Digital OOH ads on LinkNYC’s urban panels
OOH vs. DOOH: Understanding the difference
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising includes all media formats designed to reach people outside their homes, from roadside billboards to transit posters to place-based media. Traditionally, OOH has relied on printed creative displayed for set periods of time, delivering high-impact static imagery perfect for spreading awareness to a large audience for a relatively low cost-per-impression.
DOOH builds on this foundation by introducing digital screens and software-enabled delivery. Rather than replacing traditional OOH, digital OOH expands what advertisers can do with the channel by enabling greater flexibility and more control over when and where creative runs. This makes it easier to align messaging with specific moments, locations, audiences, or campaign objectives while retaining the real-world visibility that defines OOH.
At a high level, the distinction between OOH and DOOH comes down to how creative is delivered, updated, and managed throughout a campaign.
Key differences between OOH and DOOH
Traditional OOH:
Static creative displayed for fixed periods
Manual creative changes
Limited flexibility once live
Broad, sustained exposure
Primarily awareness-focused
Digital OOH (DOOH):
Dynamic digital creative that can be scheduled or updated over time
Remote, software-enabled updates
Greater agility during a campaign
Broad exposure with the ability to target when and where messages appear
Supports awareness alongside other campaign objectives
Common DOOH formats & screen types
Digital out-of-home shows up across more of daily life than people often realize — from major roads and city centres to stores, transit hubs, and places people return to week after week. Different screen types tend to play different roles, depending on where they appear and how people encounter them.
Large-format digital billboards and spectaculars
Large-format DOOH includes roadside digital billboards, highway screens, and large-scale city-centre displays often referred to as spectaculars. These screens are typically placed along major routes and in busy urban areas, where they’re visible to drivers, commuters, and pedestrians throughout the day.
Often used for:
Brand launches and tentpole campaigns
Broad reach and sustained visibility
City-wide or regional presence
Large-scale digital out-of-home billboards in Toronto’s Dundas Square
Retail and point-of-purchase DOOH
Retail and point-of-purchase DOOH includes screens placed in and around shopping environments, from aisle and shelf displays to menu boards, checkout screens, and digital posters in grocery and convenience stores. These formats reach shoppers close to the moment of decision, when intent is already high.
Often used for:
Promotions and offers
New product launches
Retail media and co-branded campaigns
DOOH ads at retail locations can influence consumers close to the point-of-purchase
Transit and travel DOOH spans environments like airports, train and subway stations, bus terminals, onboard transit screens, and rideshare or taxi placements. Many of these settings involve repeat exposure or longer dwell times.
Silbö Telecom’s DOOH campaign included transit ads across major Spanish cities
Place-based DOOH screens
Place-based DOOH refers to screens located within specific venues, such as offices, gyms, healthcare settings, campuses, and entertainment venues. What defines these networks is the environment they appear in and the mindset that comes with it.
Messaging can reflect where people are and what they’re doing, making place-based formats well-suited to situations where context adds relevance.
Often used for:
Contextual or lifestyle messaging
Reaching audiences during routine or dwell time
Reinforcing relevance through environment
Benefits of DOOH advertising
Digital out-of-home offers clear advantages for agencies and brand marketers looking to meaningfully connect with screen-weary consumers in the context of their daily routines.
High-impact visibility & consumer favourability
Digital screens command attention in public environments, reaching people during everyday moments like commuting and shopping trips without feeling intrusive. According to a study by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), 73% of U.S. consumers view DOOH ads favourably — significantly surpassing other forms of ad media like television (50%), social media (48%), online (37%), and print (31%).
Plus, like all forms of outdoor advertising, it’s unskippable and adblock-proof, with new research from Solomon Partners finding that both printed and digital OOH formats drive the highest consumer ad recall among major media channels.
Flexible activations & creative updates
Because DOOH is delivered digitally, advertisers can launch, adjust, or refresh creative more quickly than with printed formats, making it easier to test and refine campaigns over time. This kind of flexibility is often enabled through programmatic DOOH (pDOOH), which allows advertisers to adjust campaigns and creative in real time using familiar digital buying tools.
Unlike traditional OOH, which is static, DOOH creative doesn’t need to remain fixed for the duration of a campaign. Digital signage supports dynamic creative formats that can be updated in real time to align with the moment in which messaging appears.
This contextual approach helps campaigns feel timely and situational rather than one-size-fits-all. A study by JCDecaux UK found that DOOH campaigns using contextually relevant messaging increased viewing time, improved consumer ad recall, and delivered a +16% increase in sales.
DOOH supports precise and flexible targeting, allowing advertisers to cast a wide net or focus on highly specific environments, moments, or target audiences. Campaigns can be tailored based on factors like location, time of day, and proximity to points of interest — without relying on personal identifiers.
Instead, DOOH uses first-party data integrations and real-time environmental signals, such as weather conditions and nearby local events, to inform ad delivery. This privacy-first approach makes DOOH a strong option for brands looking to maintain relevance as the industry continues to move away from third-party cookies.
DOOH doesn’t just capture attention or build awareness — it also influences what people do next. According to a survey by The Harris Poll and the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), 76% of U.S. consumers reported taking some form of action after seeing a DOOH ad.
These actions ranged from watching a video (38%) or visiting a nearby restaurant (36%) to going into a store (29%), making an in-store purchase (30%), or talking about the brand with someone they know (30%).
DOOH works alongside social media, mobile advertising, and other digital channels to reinforce messaging across both physical and digital touchpoints, supporting more cohesive campaigns.
By combining real-world presence with digital creative, DOOH gives marketers more opportunities to influence people throughout the customer journey — from awareness to action — turning brief moments of attention into visits, conversations, and, ultimately, measurable outcomes.
Looking for inspiration? Here are a few DOOH advertising examples that show how brands are using DOOH in real-world environments to drive awareness, influence consideration, and deliver measurable results. Explore our full case study catalogue for more success stories.
HP: Driving brand and sales impact with programmatic DOOH in Dubai
HP set out to increase awareness, strengthen brand perception, and drive purchase consideration for its Smart Tank printer series in Dubai, one of the UAE’s highest-value media markets. Partnering with Broadsign, the brand launched a programmatic DOOH campaign reaching parents aged 25–54 — households with children, the Smart Tank’s core audience — through high-frequency exposure on premium digital screens in shopping malls, transit hubs, and other family-oriented environments.
The results: a 12% year-over-year sales lift, a 42% increase in purchase consideration for the Smart Tank 585, and a 2× lift in positive brand image among exposed audiences. Read the full HP case study.
See how HP leveraged programmatic DOOH to drive incremental sales lift in Dubai
Decathlon: Driving in-store foot traffic with near-store DOOH
Decathlon, a global sporting goods retailer, wanted to increase store visits by reaching consumers closer to decision-making moments. Working with Talon NL, the brand launched a programmatic DOOH campaign using Broadsign’s OutMoove DSP, activating screens located near and along routes to its retail locations.
By aligning DOOH placements with shopper movement and proximity to stores, the campaign helped influence in-the-moment behaviour at key points along the path to purchase.
Visit Arizona: A 30% increase in arrivals with programmatic DOOH
Visit Arizona, the official tourism board, launched a nationwide programmatic digital out-of-home campaign to inspire travel planning and engage high-intent audiences at every stage—from awareness to booking. The strategy paired high-traffic DOOH placements with mobile retargeting and an arrival lift study to measure real-world impact. The campaign achieved strong mobile engagement and delivered a 30% lift in arrivals, outperforming the national average for similar efforts. Read the full case study to learn more.
FAQs about DOOH advertising
Is DOOH the same as digital signage?
No — while the two are related, they aren’t the same thing. Digital signage refers to the screen technology itself, whereas DOOH is an advertising channel that uses those screens to deliver paid media campaigns.
In other words, digital signage is the infrastructure; DOOH is how advertisers use that infrastructure to reach audiences outside the home.
Is DOOH advertising privacy-safe?
Yes. DOOH advertising is widely considered privacy-safe because it does not rely on personal identifiers or individual-level tracking. Instead, campaigns are typically planned and activated using aggregated, contextual signals such as location, time of day, environment, or audience movement patterns.
This approach allows advertisers to stay relevant without collecting or storing personal data, aligning DOOH with evolving privacy expectations and regulations.
How much does DOOH advertising cost?
There’s no single price for DOOH advertising. Costs can vary based on factors such as screen format, location, audience reach, time of day, campaign duration, and whether inventory is purchased directly or programmatically.
For brands new to out-of-home, understanding how pricing works across different formats can be helpful. This is similar to how traditional out-of-home pricing is often explained when advertisers ask how much a billboard costs — with variables tied to placement, demand, and scale rather than a fixed rate.
Ready to explore how DOOH can elevate your next campaign? Contact us to learn more about planning and activating DOOH media.
Product News | October 11, 2021
What’s new in the Broadsign Platform: Sophisticated targeting, creative management and UI improvements
We can’t think of a better way to end the year than with fresh updates to the Broadsign Platform. We’re introducing streamlined creative management, sophisticated targeting tools, and major UI improvements, making the campaign planning and management process for directly sold campaigns seamless 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.
This new round of 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!
Simplified creative management and centralized campaign planning
Media owners juggle multiple campaigns and creatives simultaneously, and without the right tools, the creative management process can become complex and error-prone for your teams. Our new creative management tools now allow you to create, edit, manage, and assign campaign creatives with ease. On top of that, you’ll also be able to push your campaigns live – all within a single unified workflow through the Broadsign Platform.
Assign and schedule creatives the way you want to
You now have full flexibility in how you want to assign and schedule creatives to your campaigns. Assign one or multiple creatives to your line items of a campaign, and apply multiple scheduling options to your creatives for all or specific line items in a campaign.
Simply put, this makes it easier to build multi-message or multi-venue campaigns, simplifies the management of mixed-duration or staggered-start campaigns, provides more accurate alignment between creative strategy and real-world delivery, and makes you less reliant on offline scheduling adjustments.
Manage your creatives in one place
You can now manage creative bundles for each campaign directly in the new web-based workflow, eliminating the need to go through the Broadsign desktop tools. This enhancement provides your team with greater flexibility by allowing them to access and manage their campaigns from any location at any time.
We think you’ll also love how intuitive and easy-to-use the campaign planning tools are to adopt. Users of all technical proficiency levels can quickly learn and use this streamlined approach to create and manage campaigns with ease.
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!
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.
How Visit Arizona drove a 30% increase in arrivals with programmatic DOOH
Visit Arizona, the official tourism board, launched a programmatic digital out-of-home campaign to inspire consumers nationwide to plan a trip to Arizona. The initiative was a strategic move to engage potential travellers in target markets and communicate with them at every stage of the planning process, from initial awareness to final booking.
Objective
The campaign aimed to build top-of-mind awareness and drive measurable results in the form of increased arrivals, with effectiveness measured through a combination of mobile retargeting and an arrival lift study to track actual consumer visits.
Strategy
Planned by agency of record, Off Madison Ave, OutMoove DSP was used to strategically place DOOH ads across high-traffic venues in key markets, to specifically target the client’s core High Value Personas. Programmatic DOOH was selected due to the ability to target these specific audience segments through a variety of placements. The media strategy maximized visibility and engaged consumers throughout their daily routines, guiding them along the travel planning journey.
Results
Success was measured through mobile retargeting via Native Touch and an arrival lift study conducted with Arrivalist.
High mobile engagement in key markets
Mobile retargeting was used to continue the conversation with consumers who saw the DOOH ads. This retargeting effort was highly successful, with mobile ads achieving a viewability rate of over 90%. The campaign drove strong results in key markets, demonstrating its ability to create a lasting impression and bridge the gap between OOH and mobile engagement.
Significant arrival lift
Visit Arizona saw a 30% arrival lift, exceeding the national average of 23% for similar campaigns. This result confirms the campaign’s strong influence on consumer travel decisions and its effectiveness in translating ad exposure into real-world arrivals.
“At Off Madison, we are thrilled with the success of Visit Arizona’s programmatic DOOH campaign. By strategically placing digital ads in high-traffic venues across key markets, we not only captured the attention of potential travellers but also drove significant results. Our collaboration with Broadsign and the deployment of a multi-faceted media strategy enabled us to surpass the national average in arrival lifts, reinforcing the power of innovative, targeted OOH advertising. This campaign is a testament to our commitment to engaging audiences in meaningful ways and transforming inspiration into action.” – Kriss M. Scheid, Associate Media Director, Off Madison Ave
Want the campaign highlights? Check out the infographic below.
