IAB Compass & Digital Out-of-Home: The full report

Contents

Executive summary

What is digital out-of-home advertising?

• What is DOOH?
• How is DOOH advertising bought?
• Key DOOH players & the value chain
• Ad placements & formats
• Examples of different creative executions

The current UK DOOH market size

• The outlook for DOOH
• Key drivers of growth
• Key benefits of DOOH for advertisers
• Challenges & barriers to adoption

The rise of programmatic digital out-of-home

• What is prDOOH advertising?
• How is prDOOH bought?
• Outlook for prDOOH
• Key drivers of growth for prDOOH
• Key benefits of prDOOH
• Challenges & barriers to adoption

What’s to come?

Recommendations

• Advertisers
• Agencies
• Media owners
• Ad tech providers

Appendix

• The rise of fake OOH ads
• IAB Compass – methodology

Executive summary

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising has rebounded strongly following the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, with £750 million invested by advertisers in 2022 – making it the market’s most successful year to date.

• DOOH accounted for 63% of all out-of-home (OOH) ad spend in 2022, up from 32% in 2015 – growth was primarily driven by an increase in media owners’ digital inventory
• Forecasts indicate that DOOH will continue growing to form 75% of the OOH market in 2027, driven by continued investment in digital displays

DOOH offers the same advantages as regular OOH, as well as its own unique benefits.

• DOOH benefits from the strengths of offline OOH such as brand safety, high reach and impact, a premium environment, and contextual relevance
• It also offers its own distinct advantages, including creative flexibility, better targeting, improved measurability, and lower barriers to entry
• DOOH has strong synergies with other digital channels – it can amplify search and social campaigns and extend the reach of influencer campaigns

Key players and industry bodies have taken steps to tackle common DOOH challenges and barriers.

• Independent platforms and industry bodies, such as Route and Outsmart, have developed solutions to measure and verify DOOH campaigns
• Supply-side platforms (SSPs) are making it easier for advertisers to buy DOOH inventory programmatically by introducing standardisation across formats

Programmatic digital out-of-home (prDOOH) attracts investment from digital-first brands that are eager to capitalise on the enhanced data capabilities and campaign flexibility that programmatic buying brings to OOH advertising.

• prDOOH is forecast to account for 16% of OOH ad spend in 2027 (up from ~5% in 2023)
• Widespread education is needed to upskill advertisers and agency teams on the unique benefits prDOOH offers

Innovations in creative, targeting and measurement are likely to drive growth in DOOH.

• AR/VR based activations are currently uncommon, but future technological advances (e.g., smart glasses) could bring this technology into the mainstream
• The deprecation of third-party cookies in 2024 and the rise of contextual marketing may lead to increased investment in DOOH, as contextual targeting is one of its key strengths

What is digital out-of-home advertising?

What is DOOH?

Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) refers to digital media messaging specifically intended to reach consumers outside their homes.¹

Digital billboards are the most common form of DOOH displays and are typically located on roadsides, in shopping centres and at transport hubs.

DOOH ad placements 

How is DOOH advertising bought?

1. Using an agency. This can include OOH specialist agencies, digital agencies or full-service agencies
    
2. Direct from a media owner. Key DOOH media owners in the UK include:

Largest UK DOOH site owners

 

Key DOOH players & the value chain

DOOH site and media owners provide the physical inventory (digital screens) for displaying DOOH advertisements. They oversee ad placement locations and offer a variety of ad formats for advertisers to select from. While advertisers can purchase inventory space directly from site owners, media agencies help advertisers optimise and manage campaigns.

DOOH value chain

Ad placements & formats

DOOH gives advertisers the ability to showcase a wide range of content types in their campaigns, including static images, dynamic banners, video, multiple screen and audio-enabled activations.

Unlike classic OOH placements, DOOH formats lack standardisation, with screen sizes varying depending on the location of the placement, and the media owner.

This variability enables a high degree of flexibility in creative executions. Within a single campaign, advertisers can tailor their creative to different poster sizes, spot durations and placement types.

Examples of different creative executions

 

The current UK DOOH market size

The outlook for DOOH

DOOH accounted for 63% of out-of-home market ad spend in 2022 , despite representing only around a third of UK OOH inventory space.

OOH ad spend, £m, 2015 – 2022

This is a significant increase from 2015, when DOOH only accounted for around 32% of the market. This growth has been driven by a number of factors, including the expansion of digital inventory, the increasing popularity of programmatic advertising, and the ability of DOOH to deliver targeted and engaging ads.

As a result, many advertisers are shifting their investments from classic OOH to digital versions. In fact, while DOOH grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14% from 2015 to 2019, spend on non-digital OOH declined at a CAGR of 9% during the same period.

Despite the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, DOOH rebounded strongly once lockdowns ended, delivering its most successful year to date in 2022.

OOH ad spend, £m, 2022 – 2027F

MTM has triangulated different industry forecasts, and we expect DOOH's growth trajectory to continue, with DOOH's share of the OOH market projected to increase from 63% in 2022 to 75% in 2023.

Key drivers of growth

Driving OOH growth by prioritising digital

In response to market demand, media owners are shifting their focus to digital OOH inventory, reducing their traditional estate and/or digitising existing sites.

As a result, roadside digital frames increased by 282% from 2018 to 2023, with notable growth in transport, retail and leisure displays.

UK digital OOH frames by environment, 2018 - 2023

This trend is expected to continue in the coming years, as media owners capitalise on digital opportunities and divest their traditional assets.

Sustained investment in expanding inventory space - whether through establishing new sites or upgrading classic OOH posters - is essential for the continued growth of DOOH.

“I think more availability of inventory is a growth opportunity. It's paramount that you can reach the consumers in the right space. In the next five years, there will be more inventory, which is either brand new or transitioned from traditional OOH. This will create more opportunities for open exchange buying.” Director, ad tech provider

Emerging opportunities in retail and leisure locations are expected to fuel growth in the channel in the near future.

“I think that DOOH has the biggest room for growth in retail media. If you look at supermarkets, panels are moving from being outside the store to on the shelves!" CEO, ad tech provider

“We used to have thousands and thousands of very large roadside paper posters. Slowly, over the past 10-15 years, they have been disappearing. We've only got a few thousand of the very large paper posters now because everything’s become digitalised. Planning, implementation and reporting can be done programmatically now, so everything is going towards digital.” Planning Director, media agency

Key benefits of DOOH for advertisers

DOOH shares many of the same benefits as paper and paste out-of-home advertising, with the addition of several distinct advantages. Let’s start with the similarities:

DOOH offers advertisers a unique combination of high reach and impact.

• High reach: Due to their strategic placement in busy public spaces, DOOH displays are often seen by a wide range of people. According to research from Route² in Q1 2023, DOOH reached 70% of adults in the UK and 73.3% of ABC1 adults per week
• High impact: DOOH displays are often large and eye-catching, making them difficult to miss. When coupled with a powerful image and message, they may be more memorable than other channels, e.g. static display ads. According to a report from Xaxis, 66% of consumers say that interaction with a DOOH ad has encouraged them to search for the featured brand online. And recent research from Clear Channel found that 55% of Gen Z agree that billboards showing dynamic content captures their attention

DOOH is a premium and brand-safe environment.

• Brand safe: Advertisers can control the placement of DOOH ads and therefore the context in which their ads will appear. All outdoor advertising also has established guidelines in place from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to protect brands - such as prohibiting ads for alcohol, gambling, tobacco and fast food near schools
• Premium environment: Many established, leading brands invest heavily in outdoor advertising, which commands a price premium due to its large reach and impact. This association with premium brands lends outdoor advertising a sense of prestige and trustworthiness

The contextual relevance of DOOH can enhance campaign effectiveness.

• Advertisers can select DOOH placements near their stores or stockists to boost the effectiveness of calls to action and accelerate the customer journey from impression to conversion

“With omnichannel DSPs increasingly integrating with outdoor SSPs, there is significant demand and excitement about offering programmatic DOOH alongside display, video and digital audio.” Director, media owner

As mentioned, DOOH also offers advertisers several distinct advantages over classic OOH advertising, including:

DOOH boasts more sophisticated targeting capabilities than classic OOH.

• Better targeting: Advertisers can leverage a variety of data sources - including demographic, location, behavioural and interest-based data - to determine which placements may be most appropriate for reaching their target audience
• Re-targeting capabilities: Advertisers can retarget those who saw their DOOH ads online using geo-fencing and mobile IDs. Geo-fencing targets consumers based on their location, while mobile IDs track devices that saw DOOH ads to inform retargeting

DOOH offers improved measurement capabilities.

• DOOH has revolutionised OOH measurement by enabling advertisers to track impressions, reach and engagement through a digital platform, providing unprecedented insights into campaign performance

There are now several organisations dedicated to providing DOOH campaign insight:

1. Route: The UK audience measurement body for OOH provides weekly audience estimates for DOOH screens by combining DOOH inventory, footfall and audience dwell-time data.
2. Outsmart: Outsmart, the UK's dedicated OOH industry body, launched Playout in 2023. Playout is a data platform that centralises all information on when and where a DOOH ad is played into a single point of access for buyers, improving data communication and accountability for both classic and digital OOH.
3. Independent verification platforms: Independent verification platforms such as Veridooh and UniLIVE use sensors, cameras, and AI to track and measure DOOH campaigns, aggregating and analysing the data to provide advertisers and media owners with insights into campaign performance.

“OOH’s measurement capabilities are growing with the proliferation of digital screens. As a result, outdoor will become a more effective and utilised channel for lower funnel advertising.” Head of OOH Activation, media agency

DOOH delivers a layer of creative flexibility that is not afforded with classic OOH.

• The digital flexibility of DOOH enables advertisers to update their campaign creative in-flight, based on campaign performance

DOOH simplifies campaign execution by reducing lead times and enabling programmatic buying. 

• Streamlined operations: DOOH offers shorter lead times and lower production costs than classic OOH advertising. Advertisers can upload digital ad creatives to DOOH screens within minutes, enabling them to launch and test different campaign variations quickly
• Programmatic buying: DOOH can be purchased programmatically through an ad tech platform called a DSP, dedicated to the buying and selling of digital inventory. Programmatic buying automates the process of purchasing DOOH, offering advertisers increased efficiency by eliminating manual negotiations with media owners, and greater agility by reducing lead times and enabling quick campaign activation

“The window of delivering your creative is a lot shorter with [DOOH] as you don't have to consider the three-week printing and delivery process that is standard with [classic] OOH. This means that there is a lot less room for error in both the planning and the delivery of the campaign, and any last-minute changes can be implemented quickly.” Planning Director, media agency

DOOH offers unique creative opportunities.

• Using digital screens advertisers can leverage cutting-edge technologies such as 3D visuals and augmented reality to deliver innovative and unique creative executions. According to Xaxis, 63% of consumers agree that interaction with DOOH ads makes their journey from A to B more interesting

DOOH complements other digital channels well. 

DOOH complements a number of digital channels, notably search and social media:

• Search: DOOH can enhance search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns by directing consumers to specific search terms or landing pages through messaging or QR codes

• Social: DOOH can amplify social media campaigns by driving traffic to social media pages and encouraging the use of branded hashtags

• Influencer marketing: DOOH can extend the reach of influencer campaigns by featuring the same influencer in outdoor activations

 

 

Case study: British Airways

British Airways won the Outdoor Grand Prix at the Clios, Cannes Lions Festival, LIAs, COOH Awards and the Clear Channel Planning Awards for its campaign that used aircraft transponders, Heathrow air traffic control flight data, and cloud cover information to identify incoming British Airways flights that were visible to the naked eye. When a plane was detected, a video of a child pointing to the aircraft would appear on a digital billboard. The billboard called out the flight number and destination it was arriving from. The campaign achieved significant online recognition – 45 million social impressions, 364 global news articles, and a trending hashtag.

 

 

Challenges & barriers to adoption

Measurement and attribution

Measuring DOOH can be complicated as consumers exhibit different engagement behaviours depending on the location of the placement.

For example, people tend to dwell longer at shopping centres than at railway stations, which can make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of campaigns across different displays.

To address this challenge, advertisers are increasingly utilising various methods to capture consumer engagement, such as eye-tracking technology, mobile location data, and surveys. These methods provide valuable insights into how consumers interact with DOOH ads, allowing advertisers to refine their campaigns and optimise ad placements for specific locations.

“With DOOH, advertisers can reach audiences at the right moments with hyper-relevant messages. It balances mass reach with feeling personalised. This characteristic means advertisers can measure effectiveness: they’re able to consider how actions from their ads are due to the effect of a single connection combined with other campaign touchpoints.” Director, media owner

Addressing environmental concerns

As advertisers become more mindful of the environmental impact of advertising, they are increasingly opting for energy-efficient channels to reduce the carbon footprint of campaigns.

For example, in 2023 OVO used real-time national grid data to programmatically bid for DOOH slots when the grid was running on cleaner energy, ensuring that ads were served during greener moments.

 

DOOH signage can be energy-intensive, but media owners are taking steps to reduce its environmental impact:

• OOH media owners have significantly increased their use of renewable energy to power their screens, from 62% in 2019 to 94% in 2021
• They are also shifting to more energy-efficient LED screens and electric vans to reduce their environmental impact³

“I think advertisers think that [DOOH] is not great for the environment because of the use of large digital screens. But it uses renewable energy, and the one-to-many nature of DOOH means that actually it's much more carbon efficient than a lot of other channels.⁴ ” Chief Client Officer, ad tech provider

Lack of standardisation across screen types & formats

Media owners employ a variety of SSPs, each with its own screen formats. This can make it difficult for advertisers to produce creative that fits the entire spectrum of screen types and formats.

However, as prDOOH continues to grow, supply-side platforms (SSPs) are uniting to standardise format types, enabling advertisers to seamlessly purchase prDOOH inventory from across media owners through a single interface.

The rise of programmatic digital out-of-home

What is programmatic digital out-of-home advertising?

Programmatic digital out-of-home advertising (prDOOH) is a fast-growing buying method that uses technology to automate purchases of DOOH inventory at scale.

Programmatic buying allows advertisers to purchase DOOH inventory through digital demand-side platforms (DSPs) using closed, private marketplaces (PMPs) or open exchanges with real-time bidding (RTB).

Unlike classic or directly purchased DOOH, prDOOH does not require upfront commitments or predefined schedules. Instead, advertisers can buy inventory in near real-time, with no lead times.

Programmatic buying also allows brands and agencies to leverage a range of data sources, including third-party data, to target and trigger activations. Trigger events are used to activate campaigns based on certain conditions. Triggers can be both contextual (e.g., based on location, weather, time, and audience presence) and non-contextual (e.g., aligned with promotions, sales data, and major events).

In addition, programmatic buying enables advertisers to optimise their campaigns in-flight. By offering near real-time reporting, advertisers can observe how their locations are performing and shift spend to the best-performing locations.

Programmatic DOOH trigger event examples

How is prDOOH bought?

1. Using an OOH-specific DSP

These platforms aggregate inventory from multiple media owners into a single platform, making it easier for advertisers to purchase inventory. Examples of leading OOH DSPs that operate in the UK include:

UK OOH DSPs

2. Using omnichannel DSPs

These DSPs allow advertisers to buy digital inventory across a variety of channels, including display, video, mobile, social media, and DOOH. Examples of omnichannel DSPs that sell DOOH in the UK include:

UK Omnichannel DSPs

prDOOH key players & the value chain

The prDOOH value chain encompasses a wider range of organisations compared to DOOH. Site owners supply inventory through supply-side platforms (SSPs), which are linked to demand-side platforms (DSPs) via ad exchange platforms. Advertisers can select from OOH-specific or omnichannel DSPs to purchase inventory directly or through an agency.

prDOOH Value Chain

Outlook for prDOOH

Over the past five years, there has been a growing trend towards buying DOOH programmatically, as advertisers seek to leverage the unique advantages this offers, such as greater campaign flexibility and agility, real-time targeting decisions, and the ability to integrate programmatic DOOH into omnichannel activations.

Furthermore, as OOH media ownership becomes more fragmented - with smaller media owners acquiring abandoned analogue assets from large OOH media owners, and new digital-first media owners emerging - programmatic buying has become the preferred solution for achieving cross-media owner coverage in a campaign.

OOH (incl. DOOH vs prDOOH) ad spend, £m, 2022 – 2027F

Key drivers of growth for prDOOH

Capturing investment from digital-first brands

According to research conducted by MTM for VIOOH’s 2023 Programmatic DOOH State of the Nation report , 31% of UK advertisers plan to increase spend on prDOOH in the next 18 months, and 33% plan to move spend from other digital channels to prDOOH.

According to interviews conducted with DOOH experts, the expansion of prDOOH is partly fuelled by the investments of digital-first brands venturing into programmatic OOH for the first time. These brands have traditionally favoured online channels that seamlessly drive traffic to their websites and other properties, steering clear of more traditional forms of media due to their limited targeting and measurement capabilities.

However, the full-scale digital transformation of OOH through programmatic has increased the channel’s appeal. While DOOH digitalised the front-end of OOH campaigns, PrDOOH digitalises both the front-end and back-end. This transformation has enabled DOOH to be integrated with other digital channels for purchase, thereby establishing it as a digital channel that stands on par with other online channels.

“We've seen a lot of startups and digital only companies come into the channel. What they need is the ability to plan in a more granular way and activate their campaign in real-time based upon a certain trigger, so programmatic is perfect. We've also seen bigger brands that have become more digital-focused increase their spend with out of home because it can now be planned and bought in the same way as other digital media." Chief Client Officer, ad tech provider

Key benefits of prDOOH

Buying DOOH programmatically provides advertisers with a number of significant benefits:

Campaign flexibility & agility: Advertisers can turn placements on or off and scale investments up or down based on campaign performance. They can also adjust targeting parameters and location weighting during the campaign.

“The beauty of programmatic lies in its flexibility. You can dial up, dial down, and switch off, which you couldn't do before.” Chief Client Officer, ad tech provider

Precision targeting: Programmatic buying enables advertisers to leverage real-time audience data to inform their targeting decisions and optimise campaigns to specific locations based on the presence of their target audience.

Full-funnel capabilities: Programmatic buying has transformed DOOH into a full-funnel medium, combining the mass reach of broadcast advertising with the agility and granular targeting and measurement capabilities of digital performance channels.

Direct linkage with other digital channels: PrDOOH can be bought alongside, and easily linked with, other digital and programmatic channels through a single buying interface. This allows advertisers to create more effective and integrated marketing campaigns.

 

 

Case study: BrewDog

In summer 2023, BrewDog, the Scottish craft beer brewery, launched a unique prDOOH campaign in London to promote its ‘Hazy Jane’ beer. In partnership with Hivestack and Flux, the campaign leveraged ‘Moment Targeting’ technology to trigger ads only when the sky was hazy. This was achieved by combining data from various environmental and air quality partners to determine the haziness of the sky. As a result, the ‘Hazy Jane’ ads were only displayed when the conditions were perfect, creating a seamless and impactful campaign.

 

 

Challenges & barriers to adoption

Knowledge gaps across agency groups

While prDOOH offers a wealth of unique opportunities for advertisers to engage their target audience, it can still be overlooked or underutilised.

Media owners, agencies, and ad tech providers need to focus on educating and upskilling advertisers and agency teams on the unique benefits, use cases, and applications of prDOOH.

Recent research conducted by MTM and VIOOH found that advertisers would benefit from real-world examples and case studies to help guide their approach to including prDOOH in their media plans. Many advertisers would also like to see industry consensus and standardisation around measurement for prDOOH campaigns.

What’s to come?

Creative innovative

• Integration with AR/VR: AR/VR-based DOOH activations are still rare and rely on smartphone technology. Burger King’s ‘Burn that Ad’ campaign in Brazil - which allowed users to scan any McDonald’s ad and virtually ‘burn’ it for a free burger - is a notable example. However, future advances in AR and VR could lead to increasingly innovative DOOH campaigns. For example, future developments could see smart glasses used to annotate ads, making them visible only to the wearer

Improved targeting & measurement

• Vehicle Detection Technology: Some media owners are beginning to offer new vehicle detection technology (VDT) for DOOH. The technology uses cameras and AI to identify and track vehicles, triggering targeted ads based on make, model, and license plate number. This allows advertisers to target specific demographics in-car, such as luxury car owners, families, and electric vehicle drivers
• Overlaying first party data to maximise campaign effectiveness: As DOOH becomes more widely used in campaigns, advertisers are likely to increasingly leverage its data capabilities, including overlaying first-party data to deliver more targeted campaigns
• Broader marketing context leading to rise in investment
• Third-party cookie deprecation stands to prompt greater investment in contextual activations: The deprecation of third-party cookies in 2024 may prompt advertisers to shift from behavioural targeting to context-based activations. This could increase spending on DOOH, given that contextual targeting is one of its key strengths

Recommendations 

Key considerations for advertisers and agencies who are new to DOOH and prDOOH:

Advertisers

• In-house or agency: Think about whether you have the in-house skills and resources to develop and implement DOOH campaigns, or whether it would be best to outsource this to an agency or specialist
• Ensure DOOH is a good fit for your brand: DOOH is effective for brands aiming to reach a broad and diverse audience to drive brand awareness or promote a specific product. In addition, DOOH campaigns achieve excellent results when they secure wide coverage and remain active for a sustained period to reinforce messaging. Consider how DOOH would work with your brand footprint and marketing schedule. Will it work with the current format and pace of your marketing campaigns?
• Clearly defined goals: Before selecting DOOH placements, it's important to define its role in your campaign, as this will determine the best locations. For example, performance-based DOOH placements work best closest to the point of purchase, while brand-based placements generate best results in high-traffic areas
• Tailored creative: Ad engagement metrics - such as dwell time and interaction levels - are significantly influenced by placement context. For instance, a large DOOH installation at public transport stations are likely to attract longer dwell time and higher engagement compared to a digital billboard along a roadside, where the primary audience is transient drivers. These insights should guide creative design decisions. For example, developing an interactive video activation for roadside placements might not yield a satisfactory return on investment due to the limited dwell time among drivers
• Employ first-party data: Overlaying first-party data onto DOOH campaigns helps to target relevant audiences with ads, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. By using the same first-party data across different digital channels, you can also create a more seamless and integrated customer journey for your customers

Agencies

• Define the role of DOOH: Increase awareness of the role of DOOH among clients, and how it fits into the planning process, particularly for omnichannel activations
• Communicate the benefits: Promote the use cases and benefits of the channel, communicating them to relevant internal teams (e.g., cross-channel planning desks and OOH/digital planners)
• Ensure tight integration of strategy and execution: Strategists should oversee campaign operations to ensure collaboration at all levels of DOOH campaign planning and execution
• Leverage DOOH with complementary digital channels: DOOH can create powerful synergies with other digital channels such as search and social media. Agencies should harness this through comprehensive omnichannel planning and execution
• Take a targeted approach: Don't try to run ads everywhere all at once. This will be costly and may not be the most effective approach. Consider the target audience and let that inform placement and timing decisions
• Ensure contextual relevance: Consider the contextual relevance of activations, as they won't work in every context. For example, people waiting for a commuter train may be open to seeing an ad for a food delivery service, but shoppers at a supermarket probably aren't

Media owners

• Highlight robust measurement: Media owners can address advertiser concerns about DOOH measurement by emphasising its measurement capabilities, including the verification capabilities offered by industry solutions like Route and independent organizations like Veridooh
• Demystify programmatic: Buyers who are new to prDOOH can find the medium intimidating because of its unfamiliarity. Educational pieces and case studies can help alleviate concerns
• Explore programmatic: prDOOH is an exciting medium for advertisers. Media owners should consider accelerating investment, increasing high quality digital inventory to meet advertiser demand
• Highlight premium inventory: Media owners can assist agencies and ad tech providers by showcasing that high quality inventory is readily available for programmatic buying

Ad tech providers

• Standardise ad formats: Advertisers contend with a wide variety of screen types. Collaboration between SSPs and media owners can establish greater standardisation across screens and formats
• Demystify programmatic: Join media owners in helping advertisers and agencies to upskill internal teams on prDOOH
• Ensure cross-media owner coverage: Partner with a range of media owners to ensure advertisers can access all the inventory they need within the platform
• Fully integrate prDOOH: Continue to roll out prDOOH as part of a media mix offering

Appendix

The rise of fake OOH ads

Brands have recently been using CGI to create fake OOH implementations. While this is not DOOH and therefore not included within this report, it has ignited debate as to what is - and isn't - out-of-home advertising and how ethical it is to create the impression that a CGI ad is a real placement. These campaigns seamlessly overlay computer-generated images over real footage, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. For example, Maybelline’s ‘Giant Lash’ campaign went viral on TikTok when the brand released a video showing eyelashes on the front of a London tube that appeared to be brushed with a Maybelline mascara. The campaign was deliberately ambiguous, as it was not immediately clear to the average consumer whether it was real or CGI. There have been several other high-impact implementations showcased in recent months, leveraging the widespread appeal of mixing reality with visual effects.

 

Methodology

IAB UK commissioned MTM to undertake primary research and synthesis secondary research to inform this report. This was undertaken in Q3/Q4 2023.

• Primary qualitative research – MTM conducted 60-minute in-depth interviews with 13 professionals from across the DOOH advertising industry, to understand usage and attitudes towards emerging DOOH and prDOOH, and how these are likely to develop over time
   
• Participant profile – MTM spoke to a range of DOOH specialists including media owners, ad tech providers and media agencies
   
• Secondary sources/synthesis research – A variety of public sources were used to put the primary research into context, including industry reports and studies

 

Footnotes

¹ IAB UK’s DOOH glossary, March 2021

² Route Research Q1 2023 – Weekly Reach By Environment and Demographics

³ Outsmart / PwC 2023 – Supporting UK society: The impact of the out-of-home advertising sector

⁴ Participant is referring to Outsmart / PwC 2023 – Supporting UK society: The impact of the out-of-home advertising sector