After years of growth in digital inventory and increasing adoption of programmatic buying, 2026 will be the year in which DOOH consolidates several strategic advances within the out of home advertising sector. These include standardized audience measurement, a stronger focus on sustainability in OOH advertising, simplified digital buying, and greater maturity of omnichannel platforms.

Below, we´ll provide a clear and practical analysis of the key challenges, trends, and advances that will shape DOOH in 2026.

Standardized measurement in DOOH: from discourse to implementation

Measurement has historically been one of the main challenges of DOOH advertising, due to the coexistence of disparate measurement methodologies, non-standardized metrics, and fragmented reporting across formats and platforms. However, 2025 marked a clear turning point for DOOH measurement, with significant progress toward more homogeneous and comparable models.

Thanks to industry initiatives and reference frameworks developed by multiple ecosystem players, advertisers, agencies, technology platforms, and OOH operators are increasingly aligning around a consistent and standardized measurement language.

These efforts have focused on key areas such as standardized KPI definitions for DOOH, the evolution of attribution models, and the consolidation of reporting standards for OOH and DOOH campaigns. This progress enables more efficient DOOH campaign planning, improved cross-market comparison, and a more accurate assessment of DOOH’s impact within the media mix.

At the same time, the growing maturity of the programmatic out of home ecosystem is driving technical advances that directly affect DOOH. The evolution of programmatic measurement standards, the use of more consistent signals, and deeper integration with omnichannel platforms are bringing DOOH measurement closer to the models already established in other digital channels.

Although some verification, viewability, and audience measurement technologies remain primarily focused on web, app, and video environments. The industry direction is clear: extend common principles of transparency, consistency, and measurement to DOOH, reducing gaps between channels and reinforcing DOOH’s role as a strategic medium within digital and omnichannel strategies.

Among other industry players, IAB published a dedicated DOOH measurement guide in mid-2025, aimed at aligning buyers and sellers around:

•    Common KPI definitions
•    Attribution approaches
•    Reporting standards

This initiative, among many others, represents a tangible step toward a shared measurement language that facilitates planning, cross-market comparison, and performance evaluation.

Sustainability: from promise to practice

If 2023–2024 were the years of commitment, 2025–2026 are the years of real implementation.

Following an initial phase focused on sustainability commitments, the 2025–2026 period marks a turning point for digital out of home advertising, as the industry moves from intention statements to the practical application of environmental criteria in the planning, buying, and activation of DOOH campaigns.

Looking ahead to 2026, the sector faces greater regulatory pressure on sustainability, alongside increasing ESG reporting requirements from brands. Advertisers will demand clear, comparable, and traceable sustainability data in digital out of home advertising, while DOOH operators and media owners will need to demonstrate energy efficiency, responsible technology usage, and their ability to integrate into sustainable and omnichannel media strategies.

In this context, the out of home and digital media ecosystem is converging toward shared frameworks for measuring environmental impact in advertising, enabling the estimation and reporting of media related carbon emissions, the progressive inclusion of Scope 3 impact, and the comparison of sustainability results across channels, markets, and countries.

For DOOH, sustainability becomes a strategic pillar. It is no longer just about measuring the carbon footprint of OOH advertising, but about doing so using homogeneous, transparent, and auditable methodologies, allowing DOOH media planning to be optimized not only for reach and efficiency, but also for environmental impact and energy efficiency of digital screens.

Simplification and scalability in DOOH: toward a more efficient ecosystem

As discussed throughout this article, the DOOH advertising ecosystem continues to grow steadily, and with that growth comes increased operational complexity.

The expansion of inventory, with more digital screens, more OOH  operators, a wider range of formats, and growing volumes of data, introduces new challenges for the management, activation, and optimization of DOOH campaigns.
In response, the market has moved toward simplified buying and activation models, based on unified and controlled environments, accelerating the adoption of curated deals, marketplaces that aggregate DOOH inventory, unified reporting dashboards, and the use of common identifiers for data and audience activation.

These models reduce operational friction, improve context and inventory quality control, and enable DOOH campaign execution with an experience comparable to other programmatic digital channels, both in planning and in measurement and optimization.

For brands and agencies, the ability to scale investment in digital out of home advertising without adding operational complexity will be critical heading into 2026, reinforcing DOOH’s role as a fully integrated channel within digital and omnichannel strategies.

Platform capabilities: omnichannel execution raises the bar for DOOH

Overall, programmatic buying platforms have evolved significantly in their ability to manage digital out of home advertising.

Large omnichannel DSPs are expanding their reach and sophistication, driving deeper integration of DOOH within the broader digital media ecosystem. This evolution is reflected in stronger integrations with SSPs and out of home networks, greater interoperability between DOOH and other digital channels such as mobile, CTV, and display, and notable improvements in the activation of audiences, contextual signals, and first and third-party data.

In addition, advances in cross-media reporting and attribution are providing a more holistic view of campaign performance. At the same time, platform evolution introduces new operational challenges, requiring brands and agencies to review configurations, naming conventions, and activation rules to maintain consistency across reporting, optimization, and decision making in DOOH campaigns.

2026: the consolidation of DOOH

2026 marks the consolidation of digital out of home advertising.

While challenges such as measurement, sustainability, and operational complexity remain, the industry is moving toward shared standards, more responsible media planning, and a less fragmented, more interoperable ecosystem.
The result is a more measurable, more integrated DOOH, better aligned with omnichannel marketing, and ready to play a strategic role within the digital media mix.

If operational complexity in DOOH is a challenge for your team, we can help.
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