Global Brands Are Reimagining OOH with Programmatic Campaigns
JCDecaux, VIOOH, and Arla Foods share insights on how programmatic out-of-home is reshaping the consumer journey worldwide.
At the Cannes Lions 2025, JCDecaux opened their panel by asking a simple but powerful question: what happens when out-of-home (OOH), one of the most conventional advertising formats, is combined with the reach and agility of programmatic buying?
Seeing out-of-home everywhere
Dom Kozak, Director of Programmatic at JCDecaux Middle East, began the session by reflecting on his team’s journey with programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH). Just two months ago, they launched pDOOH in the region, allowing brands to reach multiple markets from a single point of activation. For Kozak and his team, this is about more than increasing efficiency. This is about redefining how global brands can connect with their audiences across borders.
Helen Miall, CMO of VIOOH, followed up by illustrating how programmatic media has seamlessly integrated OOH into the consumer journey. Her vision was strikingly relatable: from the moment one checks their phone in the morning to the billboard on their commute, the elevator screens at works, and the signage near bus shelters and shops, OOH is not just a standalone form of communication, but instead, a consistent presence in our daily lives.
Helen MiallThe key trend is not just thinking about one channel in isolation, but actually seeing how you can impact and connect with your audiences throughout the day… And it’s really that interconnected, full journey that programmatic is enabling out-of-home to be a part of.
VIOOH
Miall further elaborated by explaining what she calls the “priming effect”, or the phenomenon that early exposure to high-impact screens boosts the reach and impact of digital channels by more than double. Recent campaigns like ByteSim’s gate-specific airport targeting and Qatar Airways’ activations across multiple markets illustrate that programmatic advertising is about continuously prioritizing scale and relevance.
The numbers clearly support these findings, as cross-border campaigns are on the rise and a growing number of global brands are prioritizing inter-regional or global activations (increase from 10% to 17%), particularly in China and the Nordic countries. As Miall puts it, “it has become much more seamless, much easier through programmatic.”
Arla Food’s method of testing, scaling and repeating
Miall also led a conversation with Martin Ditlev, Global Head of Media Strategy and Planning at Arla Foods, to discuss how this would look from a brand perspective. With Arla Foods being a farmer-owned cooperative with a strong presence in Europe, Ditlev’s journey has been about connecting data-based insights with creativity through its in-house agency, The Barn.
Ditlev explained how his team approaches pDOOH as a crucial part of their full-funnel strategy, stating, “It’s very important for us to understand the full circle and journey that our customers go through, which is also why pDOOH has been an interesting channel for us to investigate and further work with.” Due to their inherently perishable nature, dairy products are still largely sold in-store, heightening the importance of proximity and placement-based media to drive impact. The agility of programmatic advertising enables Arla to distribute messaging in real time, successfully targeting areas where sales need to be increased.
Martin DitlevI think, essentially, it’s very much about what do we want the output of having a given channel in the mix to be. When we think about this space and think about this journey, we are doing a lot of video communication to build our brains, but it’s also about, how you create the right moments on top of that, to create a full journey when people go shop for groceries. Because it’s never linear in a world like ours.
Arla Foods
The data speaks for itself:
+6.5% uplift in visitation at stores Apetina cheese
+9.6% uplift in visitation at stores Castello cheese
5.3% uplift in visitation at storesStarbucks chilled coffee
For Ditlev and his team, these examples are not just case studies, but clearly proven examples of how pDOOH can lead to strong branding-based performance.
Looking into the future
One of the main takeaways from this session is that pDOOH is no longer in just a phase of experimentation. Global campaigns are increasing their reach and scale, and the ability to accurately measure a campaign’s impact has made investors more creative and confident. This kind of opportunity emerges from not compartmentalizing a consumer’s journey, but rethinking it as one interconnected experience, with
