Digital out-of-home explained: screens, spots and audience contacts
Digital out-of-home, or DOOH, is outdoor advertising delivered on digital displays. Booking a screen does not automatically buy a specified number of unique viewers. Sound planning distinguishes the medium, the delivery of the advert and the audience contact.
Screen, spot and loop
The screen is the display; the spot is the advert played on it. A loop is a repeating sequence of content. A booking therefore involves the number of screens, spot length, period and agreed frequency of playouts. Source: IDOOH glossary, booking unit and DOOH loop.
A simple calculation illustrates this: one spot every four minutes gives 15 playouts an hour during continuous operation. That does not establish an audience size. The example explains the arithmetic; it describes no particular offer and excludes interruptions.
Playouts are not people
A playout is one instance of an advert being shown. Contacts describe the audience side. Gross contacts may include repeated contacts with the same people; net contacts distinguish individuals. Contact with a screen must also be separated from contact with a particular spot. The IDOOH glossary explains these terms and their measurement basis.
Ask what a quoted number actually means: technical delivery, modelled contacts or people reached? Request the data source, period and scope. Only figures with compatible definitions can usefully be compared.
What does programmatic DOOH mean?
Programmatic describes software-supported buying and selling of advertising inventory. A demand-side platform represents buyers and a supply-side platform represents sellers. This does not automatically mean that every person in front of a screen is addressed individually. Source: IDOOH glossary, DSP and SSP.
Our planning recommendation is to ask which specific benefit the buying method offers for your task. Do you need several areas, changing time windows or frequent creative changes? Or would a straightforward direct booking be easier to manage? Compare support, technical fees and the scope of reporting too.
Design for the actual screen
Start with the media owner's technical specifications. Aspect ratio, resolution, permitted file formats and spot length belong at the beginning of the design process. Check which animation is possible at the location and whether audio is available. The core message should remain understandable to someone who sees only part of the sequence.
A useful internal test is to view individual moments of the spot without having seen its beginning. Are the brand and message still recognisable? Across different formats, the same creative may need a different arrangement rather than a simple crop.
Questions for the brief and final report
- Which screens, locations and operating times does the booking cover?
- Which playouts are promised, and how are they documented?
- How are outages or under-delivery handled?
- Which contact definition and data source does the report use?
- Who checks the files and approves the final creative?
The broader process is covered in planning out-of-home advertising. What is Road Media? puts the different media into context.