Programmatic Matters for Independent DOOH Media Operators
Article first appeared on April 1, 2026 in OOH Today
The first installment in a series about what matters in programmatic DOOH
For countless years, out of home media has struggled with being hard to buy across thousands of publishers, and countless creative formats. The complicated process of a direct buy for OOH media even today is one that agencies are struggling with as they consolidate their OOH specialist teams and plan more spend with less people. Out of home, no matter how you cut it, is a complicated buy. Because of this, agencies have been increasingly shifting to consolidate the majority of their buying to the largest OOH operators. This is not great news for independents.
The top 4 to 5 media operators in the United States enjoy approximately 50% or more of all of the OOH media spend. And if you look at national ad dollars, it is likely far more than 50% as the independents still have a good hold on local ad revenue. As the largest media companies continue to consolidate and grow, and as the agencies continue to do more with less people, this challenge for the independent operators will continue to get worse.
For independent digital out of home (DOOH) publishers, programmatic can make a difference! Programmatic is in fact the great equalizer and enables agencies to buy across countless smaller publishers more easily than they can buy from a single large operator directly today. Programmatic automates and in fact eliminates many steps in the buy process for both agencies and publishers, making it much more efficient.
In speaking to a couple of the largest hold-co’s, I am learning that they are managing similar out of home media ad spend today with 1/3rd of the out of home specialist staff that they had just a few years ago. This forces them to work with only the largest publishers and then reach out to smaller publishers only if they need to fill in some gaps. In some cases, they are even contracting with a 3rd party to help them consolidate the independents into a single easy to buy network that they can buy with a single transaction. This is an opportunity for independents to continue to have their inventory compete for spend against the handful of the largest operators.
The days of RFP’s going out to 30, 50, or even 100 publishers are essentially over. They just do not have the time or the staff to chase down spreadsheets, pricing, creative, POP, etc. So, if agencies can make a media plan work with only the top 5 OOH publishers, you likely won’t be hearing from them, and they probably won’t be returning your calls. In fact, most of the larger agencies have limited the time they allow for lunch-and-learns or other meetings, so even if you can get into the agency to pitch your portfolio, plan for it to take many weeks or months, and when you do get there, you can expect over 50% of the team to be dialing in as opposed to in the room.
This is where programmatic shines! An agency planner or buyer can go into their preferred DSP, have access to most of the digital out of home inventory across the world, and create a very detailed media plan in 30-minutes or less, utilizing as many publishers’ inventory as they want. And they can execute the plan and be live in market in hours as opposed to weeks for a direct buy. No negotiation, no spreadsheets, no checking avails, and no back and forth with creative. In fact, no chasing POP either! And, they can add common audience measurement, data, insights, and post campaign measurement across the entire plan with a click of a button.
If you are an independent operator with a decent digital portfolio, you should be connected properly to programmatic. If you manage it correctly, it can become a very real and growing revenue contributor and keep you on a more level playing field with the largest publishers.
DOOH publishers have a choice, there are several 3rd party programmatic sales and operations partners who can help you connect and monetize your digital out of home media with programmatic, or if your portfolio is large enough, you can make the leap and connect yourself directly and take charge of the sales and operations aspects in-house. Both are great ways to get started and make programmatic viable for even smaller publishers.
Programmatic is a growing revenue opportunity as direct DOOH sales will continue to be replaced by programmatic. And in fact, independent direct sales at the agency level are already mostly replaced by the focus of working with only the largest operators, so your revenue strategy should include programmatic if you want to enjoy growth in national and regional ad revenue into the future.
Jeff Gunderman, owned and operated out of home media businesses, and is the founder of the DOOH Academy, an Education and Advisory initiative focused on out of home and retail media. The DOOH Academy works with experts in OOH and Retail Media to produce certification courses, thought leadership, and webinars on many topics including programmatic DOOH and sales. Jeff also works with OOH publishers, agencies, ad-tech firms, and retail media operators, helping them connect and monetize their programmatic and sales operations. Courses and thought leadership are available at www.doohacademy.com. Jeff is also the host of the new podcast series ScreenSider by AiOO at https://blog.aioo.tech/tag/screensider/ that focuses on the evolution of ooh and retail media and the impact ad-tech is having on the industry.