Digital native brands are breaking out of the scroll, blending e-commerce with programmatic DOOH to capture real attention outdoors.
This evolution transforms DOOH from a branding channel to a revenue driving touchpoint in the customer journey.
Brands face fierce online competition and digital saturation. Meanwhile, consumers spend hours in public spaces commuting, dining, and waiting. DOOH captures their attention in these real-world moments. With programmatic platforms and data tied to footfall and weather, digital-native brands can now activate physical presence in smarter, measurable ways.
The timing is perfect: consumers are back outdoors and screens are more programmable than ever.
Brands are no longer just competing online. According to Statista, global spending on Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) is set to jump from $14.8 billion in 2023 to a massive $26.2 billion by 2028. Why the surge of over 50%? Because with programmatic DOOH, being visible when it matters is easier than ever. Meanwhile, Grand View Research reports that the global data analytics market is growing at over 26% a year, underscoring that marketers want every campaign to be smarter and measurable. And in the U.S., eMarketer says OOH ad investment has already crossed $9 billion, with digital formats doing the heavy lifting. All signs point to one thing: the offline world is becoming just as programmatic, measurable and impactful as our digital lives.
Let’s face it, consumers don’t live their whole lives online. According to DataReportal’s 2024 Global Report, the average person spends around 6 hours and 40 minutes online each day. That leaves over 6 to 10 hours spent offline (excluding sleep) commuting, shopping, dining, or just moving through the world. That’s a huge window where digital-only strategies simply don’t have the opportunity to show up.
And even during those online hours, the digital space is crowded. People scroll fast, skip ads, and tune out. With so much noise, even great campaigns can get ignored.
Now think about this: your customer could be walking past your store or near a key location, but if you’re not visible in the real world, that moment’s lost. That’s where digital alone falls short; it delivers impressions, but not presence.To truly connect, brands need to show up everywhere their audience is online and offline. That’s where programmatic DOOH steps in, helping e-commerce brands bridge the gap with smart, location-aware messaging.
Programmatic DOOH begins with precision. By tapping into mobility and location data like GPS signals and footfall patterns brands can identify high-traffic zones where their audience is most likely to be. This ensures messages appear in the right place, at the right time, to the right people – maximizing both visibility and impact. According to Factori, geospatial targeting is central to the effectiveness of DOOH campaigns.
Unlike static ads, programmatic DOOH adapts to the moment. Campaigns can be triggered by real-time conditions such as weather, time of day, or even inventory availability. For instance, showing a cold drink ad during a heatwave drives far more relevance. According to a research feature in MarTech, this type of contextual targeting significantly boosts viewer engagement and campaign performance.
DOOH is no longer just about visibility, it’s about validating impact. With modern tools like footfall tracking, brand lift studies, and geo-behavioral attribution, you can actually link a screen impression to real-world outcomes whether it’s store visits, online purchases, or app downloads. A report from IAB Europe on programmatic DOOH highlights how mobile device ID tracking combined with transaction data makes this level of measurement possible and essential for proving ROI and optimizing campaigns
To increase visibility for its Bright Boost skincare line, Neutrogena, a digitally-savvy brand, partnered with Moving Walls to run a programmatic DOOH campaign at the Mumbai International Airport. The campaign activated across 38 large-format digital screens in the Terminal 2 Prime Passage, a high-footfall area for premium travellers.
Using DV360 and Moving Walls audience targeting capabilities, the campaign served contextually relevant ads to the right audience at the right time.
Results that Mattered:
This success reinforces how programmatic DOOH bridges the gap between online reach and offline impact, especially for e-commerce oriented brands looking to expand their presence in high-value environments and among their target audience.
To ensure your programmatic DOOH campaign delivers both visibility and measurable impact, here’s a quick checklist:
The shift from purely digital strategies to DOOH-integrated campaigns reflects a growing recognition: attention lives offline too. For e-commerce brands, merging the precision of online data with the real-world presence of DOOH can unlock massive business value.
DOOH is no longer just a billboard, it can be a measurable, contextual, and a powerful part of your customer journey.
👉 Ready to activate your brand in the real world?
Book a demo with Moving Walls to see how we help online-first brands go offline with measurable impact.
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