What's shaping digital OOH in 2025? Key trends revealed

As traditional TV's grip on mass audiences slips, digital out of home (DOOH) is emerging as the new broadcast powerhouse—but this time with a crucial difference. Armed with programmatic capabilities, location data and multi-channel integration, it's not just about reaching everyone anymore, it's about reaching the right people, in the right places, at exactly the right moments. 

The evolving broadcast media landscape 

We're witnessing a dramatic media recomposition that positions DOOH as a primary broadcast medium. Traditional linear TV continues to struggle with declining viewership, particularly among younger demographics. While connected TV (CTV) and video on demand (VOD) platforms have emerged to fill this gap, they haven't fully replaced the broad reach that traditional TV once offered. This fragmentation has created an opportunity for DOOH to step into the role of a true broadcast medium.

Unlike traditional TV, DOOH's presence in city centres and high-traffic areas continues to grow, with an increasing number of digital screens being deployed. These screens offer brands the chance to deliver their messages on a larger-than-life scale, reaching diverse audiences throughout their daily journeys. What makes programmatic  DOOH particularly powerful is its ability to maintain broad reach while simultaneously offering precise targeting capabilities.

The acceleration of multi-channel integration

Programmatic DOOH stands tall as a brand-safe, broadcast medium, unaffected by the cookie restrictions, fraud, bot traffic, ad blockers and privacy updates plaguing display, mobile video and social media platforms. It embraces the power of first exposing consumers to campaigns in a broadcast, public environment, priming the campaign for effective retargeting on personal screens, seamlessly integrating into the lives of consumers without invading their privacy. 

This strategy allows for nuanced, personalised multi-channel advertising experiences without compromising user data or privacy. Following up an exposed consumer who has been primed with prDOOH with retargeting strategies on personal screens ensures that advertising messages are more effective and reach the right audience, at the right time and in the right context.

With the modern consumer journey involving numerous touch points throughout the day - from using mobile devices in the morning to commuter-facing screens, office environments, retail locations and eventually home entertainment in the evening, location data has emerged as a valuable common denominator.

DOOH's ability to leverage latitude and longitude data positions it uniquely within this multi-channel ecosystem. Through programmatic trading, DOOH can now seamlessly integrate into broader digital campaigns, satisfying both brand awareness and performance objectives. This is a significant evolution from the traditional view of out-of-home as purely a branding medium.

The challenge of supply fragmentation

Unlike search advertising, where Google dominates with 83.5% market share of global desktop search , or traditional TV markets with a handful of major broadcasters taking the lion’s share, the DOOH landscape remains highly fragmented in many regions. For instance, while the UK market has about 80% of supply concentrated among three to four major players, markets like Japan see 81% of supply spread across 1,000 partners.

This fragmentation creates both challenges and opportunities. Media agencies are increasingly seeking curated deals that aggregate relevant media owners and publishers based on specific criteria such as audience characteristics or points of interest, a way of buying inventory that is already common in programmatic web. Success in 2025 for DOOH curated deals will depend on media owners' continued investment in data capabilities and their ability to simplify the buying process for agencies looking to purchase at scale.

DOOH winning the sustainability race

One trend that is still gaining traction is sustainability. DOOH advertising is proving itself as one of the most environmentally efficient forms of digital advertising, with data showing it can be over ten times more carbon-efficient than traditional programmatic display. 

Using the Ad Net Zero Global Media Sustainability Framework, we've seen how prDOOH generates less than 0.35 grams of CO2 per impression, compared to 3.6g for display and 4.8g for video. This remarkable efficiency stems from prDOOH's broadcast nature and its streamlined programmatic structure, particularly through Private Marketplace transactions that significantly reduce the digital carbon footprint.

Yet I'm struck by a curious paradox in our industry. While 80% of consumers say they favour brands actively working to reduce carbon emissions and 81% expect companies to be environmentally responsible in their advertising, only 62% of marketers recognise DOOH's potential for sustainable advertising and only 31% actually prioritise sustainability in their media planning. 

I believe this represents a significant opportunity for brands to make smarter choices without sacrificing performance, as demonstrated by campaigns like OVO's Power Move, which optimised for more eco-efficient screens without compromising campaign performance or delivery metrics. DOOH offers a practical pathway to reduce advertising's environmental impact while maintaining effectiveness. This combination of sustainability and performance will become increasingly crucial for brands committed to responsible advertising.

As we move into 2025, the DOOH industry stands at an exciting crossroads. The convergence of broadcast reach, data-driven targeting, multi-channel integration and supply aggregation is creating new opportunities for both media owners and advertisers. Those who can successfully navigate these trends while addressing the challenges of fragmentation and sustainability will be well-positioned to capture an increasing share of advertising budgets in the months ahead.

JC Conti is the CEO of VIOOH. This story first appeared on Performance Marketing World.