Should digital OOH transformation be moving faster?

Week in focus: The Future of OOH

OOH’s measurement and trading infrastructure lags behind other channels, with inconsistent audience data standards, fragmented measurement approaches, attribution challenges, and buyer confidence issues across the entire digital OOH ecosystem.

As part of The Media Leader‘s OOH Week in Focus, the team asked industry leaders to answer four questions about measurement obstacles, programmatic display, and the shift needed to drive digital and programmatic growth.

Contributors include:

• Euan Mackay, CEO at Route
• Chris Felton, commercial marketing director at JCDecaux UK
• Mark Halliday, director of programmatic at JCDecaux UK
• Nick Slaymaker, chief growth officer at i-media
• Andrew Gibson, chief revenue officer at Ocean Outdoor UK
• Pannie Hopper, head of OOH investments at Publicis Media
• Dara Nasr, managing director, commercial outdoor, at Global

OOH has invested in screen digitisation and platforms such as Vistar, Broadsign, and VIOOH, yet measurement remains fragmented and programmatic adoption remains low. Where do you see the biggest obstacles, and is it a data problem, a trading problem, or something else entirely?

Until OOH can offer deterministic, provable audience data as standard, programmatic adoption will stay low

Euan Mackay, Route: “My view is that programmatic adoption is not entirely a data issue or a trading issue; it’s fundamentally a workflow issue. Advertisers increasingly expect a connected and integrated experience in which they can evaluate audiences, plan campaigns, activate inventory, and access consistent reporting through a single, streamlined process.

“The next phase of industry development should focus on greater standardisation, interoperability, and integration. Success will come from making OOH simpler to buy, easier to measure, and ultimately making it as accessible (or more so) than any other major advertising channel.”

Chris Felton, JCDecaux UK: “OOH has sometimes been perceived as difficult to measure, but that perception is increasingly outdated. Historically, media effectiveness was often judged through a digital lens, with click-through rates becoming the dominant metric. However, effective measurement should always be aligned to the objectives of the campaign rather than relying on a single metric.

“One of OOH’s greatest strengths is its flexibility. Whether the goal is to drive brand awareness, increase consideration, generate web traffic, boost footfall or ultimately influence sales, different objectives require different measurement approaches. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

“At JCDecaux, we have developed a suite of measurement solutions designed to evaluate success against specific campaign objectives. The key is not whether OOH can be measured, but ensuring that the measurement framework aligns with the outcomes the advertiser seeks to achieve. When campaign objectives and measurement objectives work hand in hand, OOH can be measured as robustly and effectively as any other media channel.”

Andrew Gibson, Ocean Outdoor UK: “I actually think the industry risks asking the wrong question. The challenge isn’t that OOH hasn’t become “digital enough”, it’s that too much of the conversation has focused on replicating digital trading mechanics rather than protecting and championing what makes DOOH valuable in the first place.

“Premium DOOH is a finite, high-attention medium. Its value comes from context, cultural presence and unmissable reach — not endless automation. Unlike digital display, CTV or social, there is genuine scarcity in premium inventory. After all, there are only so many truly memorable, high-impact, premium locations.

“I would argue that the biggest obstacle is commoditisation, not technology. By treating like interchangeable impressions, you create a race to the bottom. Over time, this reduces the premium nature of DOOH and erodes the qualities that drive effectiveness and pricing power.

“Measurement fragmentation is a challenge, but not because buyers lack data. In the UK, there is already enough audience and mobility data to plan effectively. The real issue is that the industry has become overly focused on short-term performance metrics instead of championing long-term brand effects. Attention, memory encoding, fame and mental availability are where DOOH consistently outperforms the rest.

“Finally, direct relationships do still dominate because brands recognise that premium DOOH is a strategic brand asset, not just another biddable medium. Location – not to mention a personal touch – matter.”

Nick Slaymaker, i-media: “It’s all three, but they compound each other. The trading infrastructure is fragmented — four OOH-specific SSPs serving a hundred-million-pound market. Programmatic display solved efficiency and scale early; OOH never did. But the deeper issue is data. Most audience data in this industry starts with probabilistic inference. Buyers know it, even if nobody says it out loud. Until OOH can offer deterministic, provable audience data as standard, programmatic adoption will stay low. Confidence follows data quality. Fix the data, and the trading model becomes much easier to build around.”

Pannie Hopper, Publicis Media:  “It is something else entirely – though data, platforms and trading all sit inside a larger problem. Out of home is as much an infrastructure business as a media one, spanning transport networks, physical sites, software platforms and data standards.

“But a “build it and they will come” approach risks focusing too much on individual parts rather than how they work together. That fragmentation is what continues to hold the industry back. As in media planning, progress comes from integrating distinct elements into connected solutions built around the client’s business need.

“Because technology is never neutral. If it works, it serves the purpose of those who built it. Platforms are markets, where parties contest and collaborate to capture value – so those values must be aligned.

“Measurement and trading are maturing. ID-informed solutions, telco and mobile SDK data, geospatial signals now inform OOH’s ability to drive growth for brands. But data should deepen how we understand audiences and sharpen media decisions, not flatten the distinct qualities of each touchpoint.

“Knowing where and how out-of-home exposure happens, relative to in-home, is a question the medium is already confronting – and every channel soon must.”

Dara Nasr, Global: “The outdoor industry has been innovating at pace for years, and that progress is continuing. At Global alone, we’re committed to long-term digital expansion and we’re always investing in the medium and growing our portfolio. In the last 6 months for example we’ve installed more than 250 new screens across roadside and transport environments and acquired a further 260 large-format screens to strengthen the offering for advertisers.

There’s often a perception that out-of-home is behind other channels, but in reality, the industry has made major advances in digitisation, programmatic buying and audience understanding, and there is strong collaboration across media owners, agencies and industry bodies to keep improving the infrastructure around trading and measurement.

In terms of measurement, there are robust tools and solutions in market, and those capabilities are becoming more sophisticated all the time. At Global we have products such as Access All Audiences and Global: IQ to help advertisers plan and evaluate campaigns using rich audience and location-based intelligence.

Programmatic adoption is growing too. As with any channel, change takes time, particularly in a medium with established trading models and a broad mix of environments, formats and buying behaviours. But the direction of travel is clear: smarter inventory, better data, stronger audience insight and increasing automation.

Since launching DAX Outdoor, Global’s programmatic OOH platform, we’ve seen advertisers enjoying the flexibility and targeting that programmatic outdoor offers, and many who have historically invested heavily in digital only campaigns are enjoy having access to the IRL power of digital billboards and posters through their DSPs. Our DAX Outdoor platform has seen incredible growth with campaigns from a diverse mix of brands that range from highly targeted and data triggered, to bold 3D anamorphic executions.

The sector is evolving quickly and purposefully. The opportunity now is to keep building confidence by showcasing solutions and future innovation.”

Brands want to measure OOH effectiveness against digital channels. What’s missing from the current measurement infrastructure to make OOH truly comparable with online and CTV in terms of attribution and ROI tracking?

Comparability with digital and CTV will come from combining trusted audience measurement with campaign-level verification and data standards that support cross-channel evaluation

Euan Mackay, Route: “One of the biggest challenges for OOH has been the absence of a standardised, time-sensitive campaign measurement framework that can provide advertisers with verified audience delivery data at the campaign level. While OOH has long benefited from robust audience measurement, the industry has not historically been able to offer the same level of campaign-specific reporting and attribution that advertisers have become accustomed to in digital and connected TV environments.

“That gap is now beginning to close. Through the integration of Outsmart’s Playout data, Route is developing a new reporting capability to enable advertisers to measure the audience delivered by individual digital OOH campaigns based on verified play-out data, rather than simply the planned schedule. This represents a significant step forward in campaign accountability, transparency and data accessibility.

“Beyond reporting, the real value lies in making OOH data easier to integrate alongside the other media channels. Advertisers, econometricians and analytics teams increasingly require granular, standardised data that can be easily ingested into marketing mix models, attribution frameworks and ROI analysis. By reducing friction in data access and improving consistency of reporting, OOH has a greater opportunity to demonstrate its contribution alongside other media channels.

“Ultimately, comparability with digital and CTV will come from combining trusted audience measurement with campaign-level verification and data standards that support cross-channel evaluation.”

Nick Slaymaker, i-media: “The attribution models connecting OOH to outcomes are still too tenuous — ROI econometrics that justify the link rather than prove it. Online channels benefit from last-click or near-last-click logic; OOH doesn’t live in that world. What’s missing isn’t more technology, it’s a better starting point. The data informing measurement needs to be deterministic, not modelled. At i-media, we use ANPR-verified, legally proven vehicle data. We know who passed, when, and what they’re likely buying. That’s not inference, it’s a foundation you can build real attribution on.”

Chris Felton, JCDecaux UK: “OOH is a highly complementary medium that excels at delivering broad reach, fame and mental availability. As a result, measurement should not focus solely on understanding the contribution of individual channels in isolation, but on how channels work together to maximise campaign effectiveness.

“No single media channel can achieve every objective. The most successful campaigns leverage the strengths of multiple channels, with OOH often acting as a powerful amplifier for activity across television, digital, audio and social media. Our recommended approach to cross-media measurement is to establish robust test-and-control methodologies, using geographic locations and planned periods of media activity to understand the incremental impact of different channels. At JCDecaux, we have also invested heavily in Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), demonstrating that the use of high-quality exposure data leads to more accurate attribution and stronger decision-making. By incorporating the right OOH data into models, advertisers can gain a clearer understanding of the true contribution of the medium within the wider media ecosystem.”

Andrew Gibson, Ocean Outdoor UK: “OOH simply doesn’t work in the same way as online display or performance media, and forcing them into comparable attribution frameworks risks devaluing their role.

“Digital channels are often optimised around short-term results, whereas OOH operates much higher up the funnel. Its strengths are building brand salience, emotional priming and sustained mental availability at scale.

“What’s missing today isn’t necessarily more attribution technology — it’s a broader industry understanding about the role that DOOH plays in the media mix, not to mention trusting in the value of longer-term brand building.
Ocean’s neuroscience and attention research shows that premium DOOH can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of other channels, which may be harder to measure in last-click attribution models, but are commercially significant.

“The opportunity for the industry is therefore not to copy digital metrics, but to develop more sophisticated effectiveness frameworks that connect DOOH exposure to long-term business outcomes: pricing power, brand preference, consideration and campaign amplification across channels.

“In many ways, better comparisons for premium DOOH are premium video, sponsorship and broadcast environments – channels where context, trust and attention are valued because they genuinely influence consumer behaviour.”

Pannie Hopper, Publicis Media: “What’s missing is understanding how, when and where exposure happens – and what it means for measurement. This isn’t an ‘OOH only’ problem; mobility makes it one for audio, video, search and social. But it bites hardest here: the screen isn’t a device the audience owns, so person-level attribution was never available.

“OOH is a priming medium: a lead signal, a brand effect soon after, an outcome later. Measurement has to connect the three. Judge it by digital’s last-touch logic (which video and social are moving past) and you under-read it. Even identity-rich platforms turn to GEO when exposure can’t be tied to a person – Meta’s GeoLift for constrained cases, Google’s Meridian pairing GEO experiments with mix models.

“That isn’t a downgrade from attribution but the terrain OOH can compete on, where last touch never could.

“The real work is translation, not imitation: getting validated Playout data into the models that decide budgets, so delivered audiences appear where ROI is judged. As the currency’s own leadership concedes, the data simply wasn’t reaching the models. It should never be the aim to make OOH behave like a screen in-the-home.”

Programmatic display reached high penetration by solving efficiency and scale problems early. What would OOH need to do differently in its digital trading models to attract the same level of automation and buyer confidence?

Optimising to sales, footfall and brand metrics is all possible – it just takes more time and effort

Nick Slaymaker, i-media: “OOH needs to move into an omnichannel world, and fast.

“The independent DSP landscape is under pressure — margins are being squeezed, and buyers are consolidating around fewer platforms. OOH can’t afford to exist as a separate silo. Agent-to-agent buying is coming: the question is whether OOH builds the infrastructure to participate in that world or gets left behind. The industry has spent twenty years being sold to rather than selling itself. If you want buyer confidence, you need to show up where buyers already are — not ask them to come to you.”

Mark Halliday, JCDecaux UK: “Firstly, there are no issues with scale and automation with most OOH media owners. At JCDecaux, only a handful of our digital sites are not available programmatically, so we offer 99.9% accessibility. The “problem” is that it has taken OOH a few years to evolve from a nascent programmatic channel into one that can truly scale. Additionally, our SSP (VIOOH) is accessed by over 60 DSPs globally – we see about 30 DSPs connecting to our inventory in the UK.

“Perversely, buyer confidence should be higher than any other channel. We have no bot traffic – they are real human beings going past our frames; fraud is almost non-existent; and viewability is built into our currency at source because the JIC (Route) accounts for consumers’ ‘cone of visibility’ and adjusts the impressions accordingly. In fact, if you work back to a cost-per-on-target-human-viewable impression, then DOOH should be the most compelling channel out there… and that isn’t even taking into account the fact that DOOH produces exponentially less carbon than display and CTV… and investment in OOH helps boost revenue to local councils and keeps transport fares lower.

“DOOH is a one-to-many channel. We can still use incredible datasets including transaction, telco, survey and commuter data to reach the right audience at the right time… the channel just doesn’t have an immediate response mechanism that brands can optimise to.

Increasingly, DSPs are developing this capability, optimising in real time to factors such as Audience Reach Percentage. Optimising to sales, footfall and brand metrics is all possible – it just takes more time and effort, and perhaps that additional effort is what buyers are struggling with.

“Those buyers who do “get it” are those who appreciate that DOOH is the perfect channel to connect the digital world with the real world. Those who are assessing how layering DOOH into an omnichannel buy is actually making other channels work harder. We see time and time again how CTRs, VTRs, LTRs all increase when OOH is able to “prime” audiences and inevitably CPAs fall. DOOH is the ‘secret sauce’ to enhance your plan across all biddable channels, including search and paid social.”

Andrew Gibson, Ocean Outdoor UK: “I’m not convinced that maximum automation should be the industry’s ambition.

“Programmatic display succeeded because digital inventory is effectively infinite. Automation solved a scale and efficiency problem for a medium built on limitless supply. Premium DOOH is fundamentally different because it is location-specific and culturally contextual. Its value is driven precisely by scarcity.
If the industry simply pursues open-market automation at scale, it risks recreating the same race to the bottom that damaged the economics of digital display.

“That said, there is absolutely a role for smarter automation in OOH — particularly around operational efficiency, flexible planning and dynamic activation. Buyers should be able to transact more easily, optimise campaigns faster and access inventory with less friction. But automation should enhance premium trading, not replace it. The future model is likely to be curated automation rather than commoditised automation. Private marketplaces, guaranteed inventory, premium environments, and audience-informed planning will matter far more than open-auction dynamics.

“Ultimately, the strongest buyer confidence in OOH still comes from certainty of environment, quality of location and proven brand outcomes, not from the speed at which impressions can be bought.”

Pannie Hopper, Publicis Media: “Buyer confidence won’t come from replicating display mechanics in OOH. It will come from applying the same operational discipline that made automation work in the first place. Programmatic display reached penetration by solving its unique problem: near-infinite inventory supply. But not all inventory is created equal.

“A model built for volume – and traded as a commodity – with no distinction of quality, devalues its price.

“Premium Digital publishers and content creators in this space have spent time and investment to make this distinction. OOH’s dynamics are the opposite. Supply is limited, physical and often tied to public and private partnerships. Applying an efficiency-first model designed for endless digital inventory brings the downsides of automation without the scale benefits. You can automate the friction – booking, reconciliation, optimisation including phasing, placement, pacing, and reporting – but not the judgement.

“Confidence follows when we can plan with proof: that the screen played, that the audience was there, that the spend produced work the brand can see. That’s an integration argument as much as a trading one. Clients trust a channel they can orchestrate and substantiate, not one they can merely buy quickly. Speed without proof is how confidence was lost elsewhere online”

Looking ahead, what single shift in how the OOH industry approaches data standardisation, measurement, or trading would most accelerate digital adoption and drive programmatic growth in the next three years?

The most important shift would be moving the conversation away from cheap reach and toward attention quality and effectiveness

Chris Felton, JCDecaux UK: “Greater collaboration and standardisation in measurement represent one of the most exciting opportunities for the continued growth of programmatic Digital Out of Home. Consistent approaches to measurement provide advertisers with greater confidence, improve comparability across campaigns and help unlock further investment in the channel.

“The OOH industry has already demonstrated its commitment to working collectively. Recently, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor, Bauer Media Outdoor, and Global collaborated to develop and share measurement best-practice guidance for the Alliance of Independent Media Agencies. Initiatives such as these help establish common standards while showcasing the medium’s effectiveness.

“Looking ahead, the development of a new Joint Industry Currency (Route) presents a significant opportunity for the industry to come together around a shared vision for audience measurement. By working collaboratively, the OOH sector can continue to strengthen its data and measurement capabilities while demonstrating the value and effectiveness of the medium to advertisers, agencies and the wider marketing community.”

Andrew Gibson, Ocean Outdoor UK: “The most important shift would be moving the conversation away from cheap reach and toward attention quality and effectiveness.

“OOH doesn’t need to become more like digital display to succeed digitally. In fact, that would be strategically dangerous. The industry’s real opportunity is in establishing a common currency around attentive reach, premium context and long-term brand impact. This would change the conversation entirely, allowing buyers to compare not just how many people were exposed to media, but how powerfully that media was experienced. That would elevate premium DOOH significantly because the medium consistently over-indexes on attention, memorability, and real-world presence compared with highly fragmented digital environments.

“Programmatic growth would then follow naturally, but in a healthier way: automation used to improve access and flexibility while preserving premium value.

“Premium DOOH should not compete with the infinite supply economics of digital media. Its strength lies in being finite, unavoidable and culturally impactful, and the industry should lean into that difference, not dilute it.”

Euan Mackay, Route: “If I had to identify one shift that would most accelerate digital adoption and programmatic growth over the next three years, it would be greater standardisation and simplification of the buying process.

“The OOH industry has made substantial progress in digitisation, audience measurement and campaign delivery. However, from an advertiser’s perspective, the experience can still be more fragmented than in other digital channels. Planning, buying, activation and reporting often involve multiple systems, datasets and workflows, creating unnecessary friction for agencies and brands.

“Programmatic growth will ultimately be driven by making OOH easier to transact. Advertisers should be able to evaluate audiences, activate campaigns, optimise delivery and access reporting through a seamless and consistent process. The closer we move towards that experience, the more investment, I believe, will flow into OOH.

“Measurement and data standardisation remain an important part of this future. Trusted, transparent and independent audience data provides the confidence that underpins investment decisions and allows OOH to demonstrate its contribution within broader attribution and ROI models. However, the full value of that data is only realised when it is embedded within a buying system that is simple, scalable and easy to use.

“In short, the biggest catalyst for growth is reducing friction. If we make OOH easier to buy, measure and optimise, programmatic adoption will follow.”

Nick Slaymaker, i-media: “Data standardisation, but only if the industry is honest about where its data actually starts. AI workflows and programmatic tools are table stakes now; what makes data a genuine differentiator is its starting point. Probabilistic data fed into a smart model remains probabilistic. OOH needs to agree on what a provable, auditable audience standard looks like and build toward it collectively. Stop fighting over scraps on inventory and start talking directly to planners and clients about what the channel can actually prove. That conversation changes everything.”

Pannie Hopper, Publicis Media: “Standardisation, measurement and trading are all important, but none fixes the problem on its own because OOH’s biggest challenge isn’t technical. It’s what the industry prioritises.

“Too much focus still goes into how media is traded and priced, and not enough into the outcomes clients actually care about.

“Shift the focus to performance and business impact, and measurement and standardisation become tools to prove value across a broader cross-channel plan. But that also puts pressure on the supply side. If the industry is still mainly optimising for trading efficiency, is it any surprise demand has stalled?

“The population the medium serves keeps growing, the UK passed 69 million last year* and yet market share hasn’t followed. The parties who would gain most from a credible currency need to fund measurement that would substantiate the inventory’s worth.

“Fund it properly, let the medium be valued for what it contributes (rather than priced for what it costs), and confidence compounds. Like media, data and technology aren’t the means in themselves. They are how you align them to deliver client’s growth. Aim there and adoption follows the value – not the other way round.”