In the world of digital out-of-home (DOOH) media, the audience is often treated as an externality. Unlike cinema, newspapers, or streaming platforms, where the audience buys a ticket, a copy, or a subscription, DOOH audiences receive content and advertising for free.
And when something is free, it rarely gets measured.
This oversight has serious consequences. Many screen operators only realize their audience has disappeared when advertisers start pulling back budgets. By then, the damage is done.
Why would I measure something I give away for free?
It's a fair question. But it's also the exact trap that causes networks to go stale. If you only listen to the advertiser side, you're hearing about the problem too late. If you wait until campaigns underperform, you've already lost credibility.
As a DOOH publisher, your real commodity isn't your screens. It’s not your loop, either. It’s eyeballs. Attention.
If you're not measuring the very thing you’re selling, you’re operating on hope and assumptions. No serious media business survives long on hope.
Measurement used to be a real hurdle—large-scale studies often cost hundreds of thousands of euros and had to be renewed frequently. Today, that’s changing. Advances in software, AI, and computer vision have made it far more feasible to measure audience attention in real time and at scale.
And no, traffic or footfall data isn't enough. A million people can walk by a screen in a day, but if no one looks, the screen has no value. It’s like buying an ad on a TV channel no one watches or a newspaper no one reads.
Proper audience measurement isn’t a short-term tactic. It’s a long-term strategy.
The reality is, many players in the industry are waiting—hoping that someone else is measuring everything, and that it’s good enough to prop up their own pitch. But leaving audience metrics as an afterthought is no longer sustainable.
Providing proof of what your screens achieve should be part of your business model—not a fallback when buyers start asking uncomfortable questions.
Today, most programmatic DOOH protocols don’t distinguish between high-quality, real-time audience data and assumptions generated by static datasets. But that’s changing—slowly at first, and then rapidly.
Once the buy-side realizes that bid requests mix real measurement with made-up multipliers, they will start prioritizing verified, certified audience data. And when that happens, publishers without real data will lose out.
We say it again and again: DOOH publishers don’t sell screens or slots—they sell eyeballs. It’s time the industry gets serious about proving how many are actually watching.
Audience measurement is no longer optional. It's the foundation for sustainable revenue, credibility, and long-term success in retail media and DOOH.