By Ben Baker, managing director APAC, Vistar Media
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising remains one of the most trusted and high-attention advertising channels, reaching 93% of Australia’s capital city population, and quickly becoming an indispensable tool for brands seeking meaningful engagement in the real-world.
Traditionally associated with billboards and posters, OOH has transformed to meet the needs of digital-first consumers, now creating more engaging and interactive experiences. Whether it’s through eye-catching digital displays, strategically placed street furniture or even transit advertising, digital out-of-home (DOOH) offers brands the ability to reach audiences in their everyday surroundings, making it an essential component of any modern marketing strategy.
However, with the rise of programmatic technology and data-led advertising, expectations on agility and accountability are higher than ever. Marketers are no longer just looking for reach – they’re demanding performance, precision and immediate optimisation. Programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) delivers on these needs, bringing the same data-driven sophistication seen in online channels to the physical world, empowering brands to adapt, target and measure like never before.
Ben Baker
Automation as a catalyst for efficiency
As DOOH cements its role in omnichannel strategies, marketers are applying the same expectations they have for digital channels – speed, accuracy and flexibility – to their out-of-home buys. It’s no longer enough for OOH to simply deliver scale; brands want the ability to plan and pivot in real-time, with smart tools that support seamless execution.
That’s where automation comes in. Platforms like Adstruc are reimagining how traditional static OOH is planned and purchased – automating everything from inventory discovery and RFP submissions to vendor communication and campaign collaboration.
Today, we see automation as a game-changer and catalyst for efficiency, reducing campaign turnaround times from weeks to hours, improving accuracy, and removing friction from the planning and buying process. Across Australia, automation tools are reshaping how OOH is managed, empowering media buyers and owners to unlock new levels of planning sophistication. Whether it’s streamlining traditional OOH or enabling programmatic access to digital screens, automation is setting a new benchmark for efficiency.
Real-time, data-driven DOOH
For DOOH, automation and programmatic platforms enable advertisers to activate smarter, more flexible campaigns in real-time. This ensures greater control over ads being delivered to the right audience, at the right time and place – maximising both impact and efficiency.
By harnessing dynamic triggers that adapt the creative – such as weather, time of day, audience behaviour or location-specific insights, brands can deliver contextually relevant messages when they matter most. Dynamic creative capabilities also allows brands to drive consumers directly to nearby retail locations by tailoring messaging based on proximity. For example, ads can highlight in-store offers, limited-time deals, or the nearest store location, helping to influence real-world actions and increase foot traffic at the moments that matter.
Priceline, for example, used dynamic creatives to drive urgency and engagement around key sales periods. The brand’s DOOH campaign leveraged Vistar’s dynamic creative and POI targeting, integrating a real-time countdown clock into ads. Targeting females within 500m of Priceline and Chemist Warehouse locations, the campaign spanned billboards, urban panels and malls. The countdown clock automatically updated as the sale period neared its end, reinforcing urgency and prompting consumers to act before time ran out.
Automation as a driver of measurement & accountability
Automation isn’t just accelerating campaign delivery; it’s elevating how performance is measured. Enhanced data capabilities allow advertisers to segment audiences and access real-time insights into outcomes like brand uplift, foot traffic and conversions.
With smarter measurement tools, campaign effectiveness can now be tracked across the full marketing funnel – from awareness to action. Advanced programmatic platforms also unify metrics across publishers and formats, enabling advertisers to understand footfall attribution, audience exposure and even re-engage exposed audiences across mobile, CTV and social to deliver true cross-channel accountability.
A smarter path forward
As automation and programmatic innovation continue to reshape the OOH landscape, the channel has evolved beyond reach to focus on relevance, responsiveness and results. By uniting static and digital formats under one intelligent, data-driven ecosystem, advertisers can now plan and activate campaigns seamlessly – when and where it matters most.
OOH has always delivered scale and visibility. Now, with automation at its core, it offers the flexibility today’s marketers expect – cementing its place as a truly modern channel and a dynamic part of the media mix.