5 Minutes With… Jean-Christophe Conti

With media consumption habits shifting and traditional broadcast channels fragmenting, digital out of home (DOOH) is emerging as a powerful alternative for reaching audiences in high-impact environments. CEO of VIOOH, Jean-Christophe Conti, has witnessed firsthand how programmatic technology is transforming the space, making DOOH more dynamic, measurable, and integrated into omnichannel strategies.

In this conversation with LBB’s Olivia Atkins, Jean-Christophe discusses the state of the industry in 2025, exploring how programmatic DOOH is driving new levels of efficiency and engagement for brands.

He breaks down regional market differences, the challenges of scaling programmatic OOH, and why sustainability is becoming a key driver for advertisers. Plus, he shares his predictions for how AI and automation will redefine the medium – and the game-changing innovations that could revolutionise DOOH in the next decade.

LBB> What are the key trends currently in DOOH and how have you seen this category grow since VIOOH’s launch in 2018?

Jean-Christophe Conti> We're witnessing a dramatic media recomposition that positions digital out of home (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 become 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 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.

According to our State of the Nation 2024 research, programmatic DOOH adoption is expected to rise from 27% to 35% in the next 18 months, with an anticipated 28% increase in investment.

Within agencies, we are seeing OOH become more integrated into broader campaign strategy and activation. When prDOOH is bought by digital/programmatic teams, the budget predominantly originates from other digital (81%) and traditional channels (79%), confirming that prDOOH (programmatic DOOH) is becoming a more attractive option on a multi-channel media plan.

We're also seeing a significant shift in budgets towards programmatic OOH. Over a third (37%) of marketers are reallocating budgets from other digital channels to prDOOH, a growth of four percentage points year-over-year.

Another key trend is sustainability. Our data shows that prDOOH generates on average, less than 0.35 grams of CO2e per impression. This compares favourably vs initial industry benchmarks of 3.6g CO2e per impression for programmatic display, and 4.8g CO2e per impression for programmatic video. This remarkable efficiency stems from prDOOH's broadcast nature and streamlined programmatic structure.

2025 will mark the year DOOH cements its position on advertising's main stage.

LBB> VIOOH now operates in 26 markets – how does DOOH differ across Europe, the US, APAC, and LATAM?

Jean-Christophe Conti> The DOOH landscape varies significantly across different global markets, requiring flexibility and adaptation.
In the UK market, about 80% of supply is concentrated among three to four major players, creating a relatively consolidated landscape. In contrast, markets like Japan see 81% of supply spread across 1,000 partners, presenting a much more fragmented environment.

Germany shows a distinct preference for programmatic guaranteed deals, reflecting their structured market approach, and this has helped drive adoption in the German market, where PwC forecasts that programmatic will overtake direct-sold DOOH in 2024 and surpass classic out of home (OOH) advertising by 2030.

The United States stands out with the highest adoption of Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) at 16%, compared to the global average of 9%, highlighting the advanced state of the US market in leveraging data-driven creative optimisation.
Brazil also presents an interesting case study, particularly in the prevalence of Demand Side Platform (DSP) managed services. With a 56% adoption rate compared to the global average of 46%, Brazil's unique market structure and buying practices have clearly influenced its programmatic OOH landscape.

Marketers in the UK (61%), Australia (65%), France (65%) and Brazil (65%) particularly favour prDOOH for its efficiency and sustainability credentials, with its ability to activate only when targeted audiences are present or specific conditions are met, combined with its one-to-many broadcast nature, resonating more strongly for programmatic vs direct-sold DOOH or traditional OOH (62% prDOOH vs. 58% DOOH vs. 52% OOH). The survey also revealed that 60% of marketers globally and particularly in the UK and Brazil, consider sustainability an important driving factor when investing in prDOOH.

German marketers are seeking enhanced capabilities in proximity data for precise targeting and tracking (37%), as well as improved direct response measurement tools (36%) to better evaluate prDOOH's impact on consumer behaviour and sales.

VIOOH currently trades programmatically in 26 markets and drives demand through partnerships with +45 DSPs globally, with more to follow. We're continually expanding our footprint in new markets and onboarding more media owners to offer more inventory in existing markets. Our global approach not only offers opportunities for advertisers in-market but also those from other parts of the world keen to tap into new markets.

New media owner partnerships announced in just the last few months include JCDecaux Chile, helloo in Brazil, Turnadon inFrance, and Captivate and Intersection in the US, among others. We have just launched with JCDecaux in Dubai and the Middle East region is getting a lot of traction. We're also setting our sights on new frontiers, shortly launching in Japan and there are plans to expand our presence in China.

LBB> How does DOOH fit within a brand's overall digital ad strategy and what are the biggest hurdles with the category?

Jean-Christophe Conti> 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.
The modern consumer journey involves numerous touch points throughout the day – from mobile devices in the morning to commuter-facing screens, office environments, retail locations and eventually home entertainment in the evening. DOOH's ability to leverage latitude and longitude data positions it uniquely within this multi-channel ecosystem.

Our research shows that programmatic DOOH serves a diverse range of campaign strategies, proving vital for both brand-led (85%) and performance-led (91%) objectives. Notably, prDOOH rivals social media (85%) as a top choice for brand-led campaigns.

However, several hurdles remain. The most significant is 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, the DOOH landscape remains fragmented in many regions.

Media agencies are therefore increasingly seeking curated deals that aggregate relevant media owners based on specific criteria such as audience characteristics or points of interest. Success here depends on media owners' continued investment in data capabilities and their ability to simplify the buying process for agencies looking to purchase at scale.

Another challenge is the disparity between interest and implementation of Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO). Despite an overwhelming 95% of respondents expressing interest in utilising DCO, the actual global adoption rate remains at a modest 9%.
Finally, there’s a disconnect between recognition and action in sustainability. While 62% of marketers recognise prDOOH's potential for sustainable advertising, only 31% actually prioritise sustainability in their media planning, regardless of channel.

LBB> With AI transforming ad tech, how is machine learning and automation improving DOOH efficiency, targeting, and measurement?

Jean-Christophe Conti> When it comes to artificial intelligence, we believe the short-term impact on OOH will be around patterns in data. It will help analyse both the data we're inputting into the system, to better understand consumer behaviour, their movements with respect to geography and to better target the audiences that advertisers want to reach. Across the data that we're outputting, AI will help us forecast patterns in both inventory availability as well as demand, helping us to understand how the demand side is using and buying the OOH inventory
In turn, both factors enable better forecasting for inventory availability and scheduling, and curated packages that are more meaningful for the demand side to buy.

LBB> You’ve been a strong advocate for transparency in ad tech – how is VIOOH ensuring visibility, accountability, and fair pricing in programmatic OOH?

Jean-Christophe Conti> For media owners, we provide a dedicated partnerships manager for commercial aspects, access to a pool of technical partnerships managers for day-to-day operations, as well as a collaborative approach with our demand and agency teams to drive incremental revenue. This level of support ensures that we understand the media owner's inventory, audience and overall value proposition.

Another critical factor is choosing partners that bring together inventory with complementary screen types, values and overall brand identity. VIOOH has been independently audited by PwC to ensure account-based ‘needs only’ access for all users of VIOOH Trading Manager and associated systems, and there is no transferable data between Media Owners in VIOOH’s systems, structure and processes.
In my experience, successful partnerships are built on transparency and collaboration. It's essential to set clear expectations and priorities, develop joint goals and create structured plans that involve all relevant teams – from product and demand to agency and technical support.

On the sustainability front, we've been transparent about our environmental impact. Working with our sustainability partner Cedara, we've calculated our full year emissions intensity for 2023 at below 0.35 grams CO2e per ad impression, utilising the Ad Net Zero Global Media Sustainability Framework.

Unlike traditional programmatic display advertising dominated by open exchanges, prDOOH primarily operates through Private Marketplace (PMP) transactions. This difference is crucial from both a transparency and environmental perspective. Open exchanges generate higher volumes of bid requests and responses, each consuming energy and contributing to higher carbon emissions. The streamlined PMP approach in prDOOH significantly reduces its digital carbon footprint.

LBB> How do you see prDOOH evolving in the next three to five years, and what’s needed for mass adoption?

Jean-Christophe Conti> First, we'll see significant consolidation and simplification of buying processes. Media buyers are increasingly demanding streamlined solutions that allow them to access multiple media owners through single deal IDs. Curated OOH deals will accelerate, making it easier for buyers to execute campaigns at scale across audiences and media owner inventory.

Second, true omnichannel integration will become a reality rather than just aspiration. We're already seeing major structural changes across agencies, with companies like GroupM, Dentsu and Posterscope evolving their operations to better integrate DOOH into their broader digital strategies. In addition, campaigns that couple the priming effect of prDOOH alongside retargeting via the personal screen are showing tremendous results across both brand and performance metrics, and we are increasingly seeing briefs that are designed to reflect the positive impact that prDOOH is having when coupled alongside other channels.

I’m also anticipating more sophisticated use of data, particularly around audience targeting and performance measurement. As the technology matures, we'll see more granular targeting capabilities and more robust measurement solutions that clearly demonstrate ROI.

For mass adoption, we need continued investment in data capabilities from media owners, further standardisation of measurement metrics and simplified access to inventory through platforms which are able to aggregate across inventory. Education remains critical - our research shows that familiarity with the format and its benefits is a key factor in continued investment.

Most importantly, we and the wider industry need to continue proving the effectiveness of programmatic DOOH campaigns through case studies, measurement and tangible results. As more success stories emerge, adoption will accelerate.

LBB> What's one of your favourite DOOH activations recently and why?

Jean-Christophe Conti> One campaign that particularly stands out isOVO Energy's ‘Power Move’ in the UK. OVO wanted to drive consumer awareness that there are certain times of the day when energy is 'greener' and they wanted to ensure that their advertising ran during those times too, minimising the carbon footprint of the campaign.

They created The Greener Grid, a new technology that calculates the greenest times of day to use energy using National Grid ESO data. The prDOOH campaign was designed to raise awareness that greener moments exist by connecting the Greener Grid API to programmatic buying technology which only bids on very green and green energy moments with the message, 'if you're reading this, it's a greener time to use energy'.
This campaign marks the start of OVO's journey towards greener trading and it pledges to continue serving ads in greener moments.

LBB> If you had to predict one game-changing innovation for DOOH in the next decade, what would it be and why?

Jean-Christophe Conti> I believe the game-changing innovation for DOOH will be the full realisation of multi-channel integration, where programmatic DOOH becomes seamlessly embedded in broader digital strategies.

​Our State of the Nation research shows, we're already seeing significant shifts in how programmatic OOH budgets are allocated and managed within agencies. Digital and programmatic teams are now overseeing prDOOH purchases for nearly three quarters (74%) of the marketers we surveyed, representing a substantial 22 percentage point year-over-year increase.

This integration is currently in its early stages, but in the next decade, I think it will evolve into a truly unified approach where DOOH isn't treated as a separate channel but as an integral component of holistic digital campaigns.

The agencies want simplicity; they're looking for easier ways to build campaigns and deliver outcomes for clients and to streamline their approach. This drive toward simplification in buying processes is accelerating, with media buyers increasingly demanding unified access to inventory across media owners.

The breakthrough innovation will come when programmatic DOOH can be activated, measured and optimised in real-time alongside other digital channels, with seamless data flow between them. This will allow for sophisticated sequential messaging strategies where DOOH primes audiences who are then retargeted on personal devices, creating a cohesive consumer journey.

We're already seeing promising results from this approach. Our campaign with UK Danone Aptamil delivered a 15% sales increase directly linked to prDOOH and a remarkable 37% boost when prDOOH was combined with digital channels.
This integration will transform not just how DOOH is bought and sold, but fundamentally reshape how brands connect with audiences across physical and digital environments, creating more effective and measurable advertising ecosystems than we've ever seen before.