DOOH Advertising

From 250,000 passers to 5,000 memories: The real math of DOOH impact

To plan DOOH effectively it helps to walk through the full chain from Opportunity To See, or OTS, down to brand recall.

Photo: Generated by AI. Adobe Stock.

October 1, 2025 by Arno Kooijman — Founder, Brandpulse Analytics

When talking about digital out-of-home advertising the numbers can look impressive. A large screen along a busy highway might be presented as reaching 250,000 people every week. But that figure only shows how many cars pass by. It does not show how many people actually notice the screen, look at it, or remember the brand afterwards.

To plan DOOH effectively it helps to walk through the full chain from Opportunity To See (OTS) down to brand recall. On high speed roads with shared digital screens this funnel is much smaller than many expect.

Step 1. Opportunity To See

OTS is the number of people who pass the location. For a highway site this can easily be 250,000 per week in one direction. But DOOH screens are almost always shared between multiple advertisers. If there are four ads in rotation each advertiser only has its message visible for a quarter of the time. That means the OTS per advertiser is not 250,000 but closer to 62,500 per week.

Step 2. Visibility adjusted contacts

Even when the ad is on screen not every passer can see it clearly. Researchers in the U.K., through Route, and in the U.S., through Geopath, have developed visibility adjustment methods based on large scale eye tracking studies. These models account for the size of the frame, its angle to the road, the speed of traffic and possible obstructions. For highway sites where vehicles move at 60 to 75 miles per hour the adjustment is significant. Typically only 30% to 50% of OTS converts into real visibility. For our 62,500 weekly OTS this results in 18,750 to 31,250 visibility adjusted contacts.

Step 3. Conscious viewing

Of the people who had the screen in view only a share will actually look at the ad long enough to process it. Eye tracking studies suggest that between 25% and 40% of visible contacts become conscious viewers. That means between 4,700 and 12,500 people per week actively look at the ad.

Step 4. Brand recall

The ultimate goal is recall. How many people remember the brand or message afterwards. Nielsen and OAAA studies in the U.S. consistently show recall is a subset of conscious viewing. Typically 20% to 40% of those who actively saw the ad can recall it later. For our highway example this results in roughly 1,000 to 5,000 people per week who remember the brand. Out of 250,000 passers this means a recall rate between 0.4% and 2%.

Step 5. How design changes the numbers

This is where design makes the difference between the lower and upper end of the range. Weak design pushes results toward the bottom. Common mistakes are too much text, low contrast colors, small logos and visuals that blend into the environment. Under these conditions the campaign may generate only around 1,000 recalls per week. Strong design pulls results upward. The principles are simple and supported by decades of outdoor research. Use six words or fewer. Keep typography large and legible at speed. Choose one clear visual anchor with strong contrast. Make the brand mark prominent. With these choices recall can reach the higher range of 5,000 people per week. In other words design quality can make the difference between 0.4% and 2% of passers remembering the ad. That is a fivefold swing without changing the media plan.

Step 6. The economics of recall

Outdoor advertising is not cheap. A digital highway screen can easily cost $10,000 or more per week. With 1,000 recalls the cost per memory is around $10. With 5,000 recalls the cost
per memory drops to $2. The economics are clear. Good design lowers cost per recall by a factor of five.

Step 7. Reducing risk with pre testing

Because the design effect is so large it is risky to commit to a full campaign without validation. Today it is possible to run pre tests with real human audiences for as little as $1,250. These tests provide heat maps of attention, stopping power scores and brand recall predictions. Compared to a weekly media spend of $10,000 or more such a test is a small investment. It helps identify the design that will perform closer to 5,000 recalls than 1,000 and ensures the budget is spent effectively.

Conclusion

Counting traffic is not enough to understand DOOH impact. The real story is how many people see the ad, consciously process it and remember the brand. On a highway screen with 250,000 weekly passers and four advertisers in rotation the outcome is closer to 1,000 to 5,000 people who recall the brand.

Design quality is the lever that determines where in this range a campaign lands. Weak creative leaves most of the audience on the table. Strong creative multiplies the impact
without increasing media costs.

The lesson for advertisers is simple. Treat OTS as potential not as guaranteed reach. Always correct for share of screen and visibility. Invest in design that respects the rules of outdoor communication. And whenever possible run a small pre test to verify recall potential before spending heavily on media.

DOOH Advertising