Closing the gap for independent agencies in programmatic DOOH

Week in focus: The Future of OOH

Agile independent agencies have a natural advantage in pDOOH. Yet parts of the ecosystem are less accessible to the agencies that could drive greater use of the medium, MINT Square’s CEO writes.

According to VIOOH’s annual research into the programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) market, UK marketers are preparing to direct more spend to leverage the scale of traditional outdoor advertising while benefiting from the flexibility of digital media.

This is easy to understand. Programmatic DOOH is one of media’s most flexible formats. Campaigns can adapt to local weather patterns, traffic flows, sporting events, shopping mall footfall, and shifts in customer behaviour. Ad creative can be updated hourly, while real-time, location-based budget allocation can take effect instantly.

OOH has always been closely tied to movement and public behaviour. The pandemic clearly illustrated this. As audiences disappeared from streets, stations, and shopping districts, spend followed them elsewhere. Recently, under economic pressure, advertisers have been moving towards media that enable faster optimisation and clearer performance metrics.

Programmatic DOOH has enabled OOH to respond to rapid changes in demand by providing advertisers with greater control over timing, activation, and budget allocation.

Independent agencies have a natural advantage in this environment. They generally operate under thinner organisational structures, which enable faster decision-making. Therefore, campaign changes don’t necessarily have to go through layers of internal approvals before being implemented. Despite these advantages, many independents still face barriers to programmatic DOOH.

Access is currently at the heart of the issue……

The complexity problem surrounding programmatic DOOH

What was historically a relatively simple buying process has now grown into a complex array of platforms, intermediaries, and commercial arrangements. Agencies now require sophisticated technologies, multiple integrations, specialised operational experts, premium inventory relationships, and sufficient resources to develop competitive campaigns.

Programmatic DOOH campaigns are now activated dynamically and optimised in real time. Additionally, they are increasingly traded through automated marketplaces that mirror wider digital media buying.

Advertisers expect the levels of responsiveness and accountability they experience with paid social, online video, and search. Meeting those expectations requires infrastructure that many smaller agencies find difficult to access.

The wider programmatic ecosystem is also continuing to consolidate. Large holding groups are making significant investments in proprietary tech stacks, centralised buying hubs, and exclusive partnerships that strengthen their control over premium inventory and trading infrastructure.

Across digital advertising as a whole, interoperability is beginning to decline as major players develop increasingly isolated environments around their respective technologies and supply chains.

For independent agencies, this creates a very real, practical pressure. Access to premium programmatic channels often comes attached to long-term contracts, minimum spend commitments, or rigid commercial structures that favour scale over flexibility. That creates a significant disadvantage for agencies running shorter campaigns or managing more variable client budgets.

At the very moment when advertisers are looking to the flexibility and responsiveness of DOOH, parts of the ecosystem are becoming less accessible to the agencies that would drive greater usage of the medium.

Why openness matters for the growth of OOH

This matters because independent agencies contribute something valuable to the health of the channel itself. They often approach planning differently than larger agencies, work closely with their clients, and are willing to test new format or activation ideas. In a media space that continually evolves, that responsiveness adds business value.

There is also a broader industry backdrop worth acknowledging. In recent years, several major holding groups have undergone restructuring, lost accounts, and seen profit margins decline, while advertisers have reassessed the value proposition of large central agency models altogether.

Independents have benefited from this shift, in part, because many advertisers want quicker execution, greater transparency, and more direct communication with their agency partners. Programmatic DOOH should enhance these value propositions rather than increase friction.

Improving access does not mean reducing sophistication. If anything, the opposite is true.

The industry needs more open, interoperable infrastructure so agencies can access premium inventory without relying on closed buying environments or single-vendor ecosystems. Agency success is maximised when technology remains flexible enough to accommodate client needs, rather than requiring clients to fit into restrictive commercial structures.

That flexibility creates resilience too. Agencies operating across multiple platforms and partners are better positioned to optimise costs, adjust campaigns quickly, and respond to market changes without being constrained by vendor lock-in or restrictive agreements.

Transparency is just as important. As programmatic DOOH continues to mature, advertisers increasingly expect clearer visibility into supply paths, pricing, and campaign delivery. Independent verification and consistent measurement standards will grow in importance as more budgets move into automated OOH environments.

Participation will determine the future of programmatic DOOH

Ultimately, the long-term growth of programmatic DOOH will depend upon participation.

The channel operates best when advertisers of varying size can access quality inventory, try innovative creative formats, and dynamically allocate budgets based on changing circumstances. Limiting this flexibility through complexity or consolidation reduces the medium’s overall potential.

Many independent agencies are successfully executing sophisticated programmatically bought DOOH campaigns utilising specialist partnerships and flexible operations models.

Now, both the challenge and the opportunity are to ensure that the marketplace develops in a manner that allows more agencies to participate fully, rather than restricting access over time.

Christoph Berg is the CEO of MINT Square