Glossary
What is DOOH (digital out-of-home)?
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising delivered on digital screens in public spaces — stations, roadsides, shopping centres, transport hubs — rather than on personal devices or televisions.
Almost every explanation of DOOH is written from a media-buying perspective. The production constraints are what determine whether the creative works, and they are unusually severe: no sound, a viewer in motion, and a dwell time measured in seconds rather than tens of seconds.
That combination rules out most of what makes a film work elsewhere. Dialogue is unusable. Narrative structure has no room. Anything requiring more than one idea to land will not land. A DOOH execution is closer to a poster that moves than to a short commercial, and treating it as a shortened commercial is the most common way the format is wasted.
DOOH compared with other video placements
| DOOH | Connected TV | Paid social | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | None | Full, unmuted | Often muted |
| Dwell time | 2–10 seconds, in motion | Full duration | Until the thumb moves |
| Viewer | Passing, distracted | Seated, attentive | Scrolling, lean-forward |
| Rewards | One idea, legible instantly | Completion and craft | A hook in two seconds |
| Typical length | 6–10 seconds | 30–60 seconds | 6–30 seconds |
| Production implication | Contrast, scale, no dialogue | Sound design carries weight | Vertical, subtitle-safe |
What DOOH asks of the creative
- One idea, and only one. A second idea is a wasted screen.
- Legibility at distance and speed. Text that works on a laptop frequently does not work on a roadside screen.
- High contrast. Ambient light is uncontrolled and frequently hostile.
- No reliance on sound. Not muted-by-default like social — genuinely silent.
- Plan it at storyboard. A DOOH cut derived from a finished commercial almost always ends up as a crop with a logo on it.
In practice
The DFDS Seaways campaign delivered 2.1 million DOOH impressions alongside its Connected TV and cinema placements, all from a single production day — because the DOOH executions were designed at storyboard stage rather than cut down from the finished spot.
See how DOT builds for the full media stack on the commercials page.
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