Gavin Wilson of VIOOH says programmatic outdoor is growing as advertisers use it for brand and performance, with 43% of marketers now using a DSP for planning and buying, up about 30 percentage points year on year.
Gavin Wilson says non-guaranteed buying, where a DSP buys when data conditions or triggers are met, is gaining ground as agencies seek the flexibility they know from display and video.
Gavin Wilson says the biggest growth need is education and proving channel value, cited by 51% of respondents, which is why JCDecaux is running buyer education sessions and open data.
Programmatic billboards are winning new buyers and fresh budgets
Programmatic digital out-of-home is shifting from experiment to mainstream budget line, according to VIOOH's annual survey of about 1,200 senior buyers across five markets. DSP integration and flexible trading let outdoor be planned and bought like display and video. Growth now hinges on educating buyers, supplying audience data and proving value rather than on access to inventory.
Takeaways
Programmatic outdoor's buyer base is broadening fast. As many as 78% of responses cited specialist buying groups as key investors. 43% of marketers now plan and buy through a DSP, up about 30 points year on year, after omnichannel DSPs added outdoor as almost their last major channel.
Net new budgets signal real adoption. About 24% of programmatic out-of-home budgets are net new, up nine points, and 26% of responses said agencies create dedicated budgets. Gavin Wilson reads this as healthy new revenue, with trial spend turning into repeat investment.
Flexibility is the main reason buyers return. Programmatic lets buyers shift budget from other channels and commit later in the cycle. Wilson adds that it remains slightly cheaper than CTV, that dynamic creative tailors messages to events and conditions, and that marketers judge it on both brand and performance.
Non-guaranteed buying is growing alongside guaranteed deals. Guaranteed deals fix price and impression volume. Non-guaranteed lets a DSP buy when data triggers are met, mirroring display and video. Media owners get incremental demand from it and premium pricing from guaranteed. Reusable deal IDs also cut admin.
Education and proof of value gate growth. 51% of respondents need to justify the channel's value to unlock budget and roughly 40% want training. Audience data drew 42%, packages 41% and cost efficiency 39%. Answers were multiple choice, so figures overlap.
Budget ownership and measurement remain unresolved. Nobody has settled who owns and is accountable for these budgets, though agency groups are making progress. Measurement is improving. Understanding of how programmatic complements direct outdoor is limited, and some direct buyers are shocked by programmatic CPMs before grasping the efficiency gains.
How JCDecaux is meeting buyer demands
Buyer education sessions cover the history of out-of-home and end with site tours to see the frames in person.
Its DMP data is open to any programmatic buyer, including dunnhumby data held under an exclusive contract and YouGov data.
Auction and tiered packages are built around occasions such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Halloween, Christmas and football, with some already on its website.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
It shows the data used for site selection and how buyers can filter it to personalise packages for a brand.
Wilson's advice for newcomers
Start with a simple conversation with the media owner, since the channel is easy to get involved in.
Put programmatic outdoor at the heart of planning and build omnichannel campaigns around it, because the highest-ROI campaigns are multi-channel.
There is no right split between direct and programmatic, so experiment to find it.