A guide to programmatic Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH)
What is OOH and DOOH?
The abbreviations OOH and DOOH stand for (Digital) Out-of-Home advertising meaning advertising spaces, found everywhere from bus shelters to train stations, malls and high-end shopping streets. OOH is one of the oldest advertising mediums in the world and holds great credibility both with advertisers and consumers.
Programmatic DOOH (prDOOH) is gaining momentum around the world and as of appr. 9% of the global DOOH ad spend is traded programmatically. Below are 3 advantages for prDOOH explaining its rapid growth:
As Programmatic DOOH (prDOOH) gains momentum, learn how to plan, implement, and optimize cutting-edge campaigns with highly visible, dynamic messages that create advertising effects throughout the whole marketing funnel.
1Kantar Gallup Rejsevane 2020, including upcoming digital screens in Aarhus and Frederiksberg
2Kantar Gallup Rejsevane 2020, Street Furniture Copenhagen, DSB in Copenhagen and Field’s
DOOH offers brands the opportunity to make their private mobile screen media work harder since 100% of AFA Decaux’ inventory share the same aspect ratio as typical mobile video creatives, 9:16.
Brands can build awareness, trust, attention and consideration when utilising the public screen, and continue moving through the advertising funnel using private screens to drive conversion, being safe in the knowledge that the incremental uplift from working across public and private together is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Source: Dentsu OCS 2023 and Reklameanalysen 2023
Since prDOOH is different to most programmatic mediums in the sense you’re not targeting one individual but multiple people at once, there needs to be a reliable source of truth as to the audience being sold. We provide a viewed impression currency measured and modelled by AllUnite, viewability calculated by Ipsos and validation done by Nielsen. Read more here.
Sylvain Le BorgneThe viewed impression currency relies on anonymised real time data stemming from mobility sensor measurements done every second at every screen. This allows for second-to-none precision in the modelling of viewed impressions every hour, day, week and month while strictly respecting privacy. The approach puts AFA Decaux in the forefront of audience measurement globally ensuring high precision and qualitative excellence for advertisers.
Group Chief Data Officer, JCDecaux
Andrew WhitneyThe calibration and validation of the data collected by the AllUnite sensors is based on a robust methodology and follows good statistical principles.
Director, Data Science, Nielsen
We use VIOOH as our exclusive SSP (Supply-Side Platform). VIOOH is a leading premium global Digital Out of Home supply side platform that connects programmatic buyers and sellers in a premium marketplace, making OOH easily accessible. VIOOH enables partners to deliver effective prDOOH in an innovative way, ensuring advertisers reach targeted consumers in a brand-safe, broadcast medium, and by maximising the campaign efficiency.
Click here to access VIOOH’s latest “State Of The Nation” report on Programmatic OOH and its future.
Press turquoise button → to view all locations
AFA Decaux offers premium locations across Denmark including street furniture in 3 out of the 4 biggest cities and with our exclusivity contracts, no other Out of Home company can provide these top locations.
| Format | Amount (1080x1920px) | Full moving creative | Slow moving creative | Still creative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Reach 36,2% | 240 screens | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| National slow moving | 199 screens | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Rail Reach 19,8% | 98 screens | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mall | 46 screens | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Aarhus City | 21 screens | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Aalborg City | 9 screens | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Copenhagen City Reach 57,7% of the people living in Copenhagen | 41 screens | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Frederiksberg | 25 screens | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Source: Kantar, Rejsevaneundersøgelsen 2020
There are two trading types available programmatically when purchasing DOOH inventory at AFA Decaux. As there are no truly public deals in the prDOOH ecosystem, all deals are in essence presented on a PMP-level. However, all programmatic partners will be presented with several deals that will be available at all times.
PG will not be available from launch, January 27th. We will open-up for PG shortly after.
Below is an overview of our CPM structure for harnessing the value of programmatic trading via AFA Decaux in different deal types and targeting scenarios.
A non-guaranteed (NG) deal with a floor CPM means, that we set a minimum price, a floor price, that an advertiser needs to meet to win the bid, while still maintaining the flexibility inherent in the non-guaranteed deal type. This is the most common programmatic pricing structure.
| Network/Environment | CPM DKK |
|---|---|
| National network: Rail and Mall (full moving content) | 75 |
| Aarhus, Aalborg: Street Furniture (slow moving content) | 97 |
| Copenhagen: Street Furniture (still content) | 97 |
A non-guaranteed deal with a fixed CPM means, that we in partnership with the advertiser, agency or DSP agree on a fixed price for the deal at hand, that the buyer must meet to win the bid, while still maintaining the flexibility inherent in the non-guaranteed deal type.
Reach out to us to negotiate rates.
A guaranteed deal (PG) has an automatic fixed price, as these deals are made at individual level with each advertiser, agency or DSP for a specific campaign that has more rigid terms for execution period, budget and impression targets.
| Network/Environment | CPM DKK |
|---|---|
| National network: Rail and Mall (full moving content) | 112 |
| Aarhus, Aalborg: Street Furniture (slow moving content) | 142 |
| Copenhagen: Street Furniture (still content) | 142 |
| Specific frame targeting | 172 |
When planning a programmatic campaign with AFA Decaux 5 key elements need to be addressed. What DSP do you wish to trade with? What kind of deal type is best for the campaign? What inventory is the best fit according to the campaign brief? Is the creative ready for submission? Am I ready to bid?
Which DSP are you going to trade with? Are you going to use an omni-channel DSP to unify your programmatic activity on one platform or have you opted for a dedicated OOH DSP? Opting for an omni-channel DSP will give you broad overview of the campaign at large and thus increase your work efficiency. Selecting a DSP dedicated to prDOOH, such as Vistar or Displayce give you the possibilities to truly leverage the traits of DOOH.
Our SSP, VIOOH, is connected to a variety of leading and global DSPs.
At launch we will only offer non-guaranteed (NG) deals but during Q1 you will also have the possibility to buy guaranteed deals (PG). Below are highlighted some advantages for each deal type for you to consider in your planning.
Advantages in non-guaranteed deals
Advantages in guaranteed deals
In this step the true power of programmatic comes into play. Whether you are planning via a non-guaranteed always on deal, a customized non-guaranteed deal or a guaranteed deal, you can leverage whatever targeting or triggering capabilities offered by the DSP of your choice. From our SSP, VIOOH, we deliver to all DSP’s the data to target on dayparts, local geography, temperature, weather, pollen and UV-index. Depending on your choice of DSP you can integrate 3rd party data sources or your own 1st party data to target or trigger your campaign.
Before your campaign can go live, we need to approve of the ad creative or ad creatives you wish to run on the screens you have targeted. If your DSP of choice is using our Creative API, you upload your creative to us in a programmatic deal through your DSP. If your DSP does not support this feature, you send it to us via email. We guarantee an evaluation of your creative within 24 hours of a weekday but in reality, this will of course happen much faster. To be approved your creative needs to meet certain technical and animation specifications but also live up to certain local restrictions and our overall “Advertiser code of ethics”.
Most DSP’s are connected to VIOOH, our SSP, via API meaning that the creative will be passed through the systems. Some DSP's are not connected via API, which means that the sending and recieving of creatives needs to be handled via email.
Once your creative has been approved, you have accepted the deal terms and confirmed your targeting your DSP and campaign will start responding to our bid requests on a second-to-second basis meaning that your creative could be on our screens instantly after final approval.
Creative possibilities in OOH have expanded since the digitisation of assets. Digital capabilities include being able to show an image, animation, motion video or HTML dynamic creatives with data feeds either triggering the playout or as part of the creative itself. This also opens up the ability to use and re-purpose your digital ads onto public media.
Top considerations for your DOOH creative include
Keep it clear and simple
Show the Product
Be Brand BoldResearch shows ads with two message elements are 21% more likely to be noticed than ads with five message elements.
The product provides recognition and strengthens the poster’s decoding. Products that take up +50% of the creative deliver 38% more attention.
Ensure your brand is in a prominent position. Logos at the top deliver +32% brand recall.
Learn more about creative considerations for OOH advertising here.
See the technical and design specifications for OOH creatives for our screens here.
Source: oaaa.org, Lumen, System 1 and JCDecaux UK study 2024
A key component to the AFA Decaux’ viewed impression currency for programmatic is the sensor-based approach to audience measurement. Every digital asset in the media portfolio of AFA Decaux’ is equipped with a mobility sensor that measures in real time the traffic flow of people within the visibility zone of the digital screen. The sensor measurement, manual countings and subsequent data modelling have been validated by Nielsen and AFA Decaux have compared the model output with independent data sources such as passenger counts from the platform passagertal.dk and mall owner entrance counts.
With the ability to measure continuously and hereby allowing for constant revision and adaption of the forecasted available and sold inventory AFA Decaux is equipped with second to none forecasting capabilities to allow for a very precise forecast of the inventory for sale in the programmatic exchange.
The real time traffic flow is further modelled according to industry standard adhering to principles described in the ESOMAR report Global Guidelines on OOH Audience Measurement, the AM4DOOH study done by FEPE and Lumen Research and guidelines published by WOO in Global OOH Audience Measurement Guidelines. Lastly viewed impressions are computed by JCDecaux DataCorp at an hourly granularity with a 24-hour latency.
Examples of how precision in inventory forecasts differs depending on data sources available and subsequent forecasting methodologies is shared below for a week of October 2024:
Impressions stemming from AFA Decaux’ digital screens are characterized as viewed, securing advertisers attention to every single impression bought. Viewability is secured via the globally approved algorithm developed and maintained by UK JIC body, Route.
Impression attention increases the value of the digital out-of-home medium compared to e.g. online display and mobile.
Revised: April 10th, 2025
