GlossaryDigital
DOOH
Also called Digital out-of-homeLED screen advertisingDigital billboard
DOOH — digital out-of-home — is outdoor advertising displayed on electronic screens rather than printed material, sold as slots of time inside a rotating loop that several advertisers share, rather than as sole occupancy of a panel for a month.
In more detail
The unit of purchase is the difference that matters. A printed hoarding is yours alone for a period: nobody else appears on it. A DOOH screen carries a loop of several advertisers, and what you buy is a slot inside that loop — a number of seconds, repeating, for a number of hours a day, across a number of days. Two DOOH proposals quoting the same monthly figure can therefore be selling very different amounts of exposure, and the loop is where the difference hides.
The second difference is that DOOH can be bought by time of day. A printed panel says the same thing at 4am as at 6pm and you pay for both. A screen can carry a lunchtime message at lunchtime, a commute message at the commute, and something else on a Sunday — which is the format's real advantage and the one most Indian DOOH plans do not use.
The third is that a screen can be reconciled. A digital system produces play-out logs, so a booking can be checked against what actually played. That is a materially stronger form of proof than photography, and it is worth asking for by name at the point of contracting rather than at the end of the campaign.
- 01
How is DOOH different from a hoarding?
Exclusivity and time. A hoarding is sole occupancy for a period; a DOOH screen is a share of a rotating loop, so several brands appear on the same face in sequence.
That makes the comparison between a DOOH rate and a hoarding rate meaningless unless the loop is known. A screen at half the monthly cost of a nearby hoarding may be delivering a small fraction of the exposure, or considerably more, depending entirely on how many advertisers share the loop and how long it runs.
- 02
What should be confirmed in writing before booking DOOH?
Four things, and all four are routinely left vague. The loop length and how many advertisers are in it. Your slot duration and the number of plays per hour that follows from those two. The operating hours, because a screen that is off overnight is not delivering what a twenty-four-hour figure implies. And whether play-out logs will be provided and reconciled against the booking.
A proposal that quotes a monthly rate and a screen location but none of these has not told you what you are buying. This is the single most common failure in Indian DOOH buying and it is entirely avoidable at the contracting stage.
- 03
Is DOOH worth more than printed outdoor?
Where the message needs to change, yes, decisively — by daypart, by day of week, by stock position, by weather, by match result. That flexibility is what you are paying for and a printed panel simply cannot do it.
Where the message is fixed for the whole campaign, often no. A static message on a shared loop is paying a premium for a capability it is not using, and the same money in printed large format buys sole occupancy. The question to ask of any DOOH line in a plan is: what is this screen doing that a printed panel could not?
Where it earns its place
- Messages that should change by daypart — a breakfast message at breakfast, a commute message at the commute.
- Campaigns tied to something live: a fixture, a weather condition, a stock position, a launch date.
- Short windows, because there is no printing or mounting lead time — creative can go up the same day.
- Retail and mall environments, where the screen sits close to the point of purchase and the message can be specific.
- Any campaign where reconciled play-out logs matter more than a photograph.
And where it does not
If the creative is fixed for the whole campaign, DOOH is usually the wrong instrument: you are sharing a face with other advertisers and paying for a flexibility you are not using, where printed large format would give you sole occupancy for the same money. It is also a poor buy wherever the loop cannot be confirmed in writing — an unconfirmed loop is an unknown quantity of exposure at a known price, which is not a media buy. And screen quality varies enormously; a dim or failing screen in daylight delivers considerably less than the specification implies.
What moves the price
The variables, not a rate.
We do not publish a rate card. We own no media, so every plan is negotiated against several vendors — a published figure would describe what we would like to charge rather than what the market will take.
- 01Loop length and the number of advertisers sharing it — the real determinant of what you get.
- 02Slot duration and plays per hour.
- 03Operating hours, and whether the screen genuinely runs them.
- 04Daypart. Peak commute and evening slots price above overnight.
- 05Location and screen size, which matter less than buyers expect once the loop is known.
- 06Whether play-out reconciliation is included or charged.
Questions we are actually asked
DOOH, in practice.
How much does DOOH advertising cost in India?
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We do not publish rates, and on this format a rate without a loop is not information. What sets the number is loop length, slot duration, plays per hour, operating hours and daypart — two screens at the same monthly price can deliver wildly different exposure. Tell us the market and the objective and we will negotiate against several operators and show you the loop maths.
What is a play-out log?
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A record produced by the screen's own system of what played, when, and for how long. It is the strongest proof of delivery available in outdoor, and it should be reconciled against the booking rather than filed. Ask for it in the contract, not at the end.
Can DOOH creative be changed mid-campaign?
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Yes, and that is most of the reason to buy it. There is no printing or remounting, so creative can change by daypart, by day, or in response to something that happened that morning. A DOOH plan that never changes its creative has bought the expensive version of a printed panel.
Is a digital hoarding the same as DOOH?
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Yes — digital hoarding, digital billboard and LED screen are all everyday names for the same thing. DOOH is the term the trade and the buying documentation use, and it covers indoor screens in malls, retail and transit as well as roadside ones.
Read next
- Loop
A loop is the full repeating sequence of advertising slots on a digital screen: every advertiser plays once per loop, so the loop length divided by your slot duration is your share of the screen, and the loop length divided into the operating hours is how often you appear.
- Hoarding
A hoarding is the Indian term for a large-format outdoor advertising panel — a printed or digital display mounted on a fixed structure beside a road, on a rooftop or on a boundary wall, sold for a defined period rather than by the number of people who pass it.
- Illumination
Illumination is how an outdoor advertising panel is lit after dark: frontlit, where fixtures mounted in front throw light onto the printed face; backlit, where light sits behind a translucent material and passes through it; or non-lit, where the panel is dark once daylight goes.
- Monitoring Photographs
Monitoring photographs are dated, geotagged photographs of each booked position, taken at mounting and again during the campaign, that evidence the advertisement was actually displayed at the site contracted for the period contracted.
Where this has a local particularity
Municipal rules, authorities and even the vocabulary change at a corporation boundary. These markets carry something specific about dooh.
Knowing the word is not the same as buying it well.
Tell us the market and the objective. We will tell you plainly whether this format is the right instrument for it.