Digital Out of Home is often sold on large traffic numbers. A motorway screen may be presented as reaching 250,000 weekly passers, known as Opportunity To See. But research shows that OTS is only the starting point. After visibility adjustments, conscious viewing and recall filters, the actual brand memories are a fraction of that number.
When advertisers evaluate Digital Out of Home they are often presented with headline figures. A motorway screen may claim 250,000 weekly passers, also called Opportunity To See. But as Route in the UK and Geopath in the US emphasize, OTS is not the same as actual exposure.
The first correction is visibility. According to Route, only a share of passers are in the right line of sight based on distance, angle, and speed. Geopath applies a similar correction called Visibility Adjusted Contacts. For static billboards this is typically 30 to 50 percent, and for DOOH often higher at 40 to 60 percent because of brightness and motion.
Visibility Adjusted Contacts (VAC) represent the portion of OTS that had a realistic chance of seeing the ad, based on validated models from Route and Geopath.
Even when an ad is visible, not all viewers process it. Nielsen and the OAAA report that only 25 to 40 percent of visible contacts become conscious viewers. From this group, 20 to 40 percent later recall the brand.
This means that for a motorway DOOH screen with 250,000 weekly passers and four advertisers rotating, each advertiser starts with about 62,500 OTS. After applying visibility (40 to 60 percent), conscious viewing (25 to 40 percent), and recall (20 to 40 percent), the final outcome is between 1,000 and 6,000 brand memories.
From 250,000 weekly passers on a motorway DOOH screen, only 1,000 to 6,000 may later recall the brand, according to studies by Route, Geopath, Nielsen and OAAA.
This dramatic reduction highlights the importance of design quality. Nielsen research shows that strong creatives with clear branding and bold visuals can double recall compared to weak designs with long text and poor contrast. OAAA studies confirm that design quality is the single most important lever in moving toward the higher end of recall ranges.
The financial implications are significant. With media costs for premium motorway DOOH screens often around $10,000 per week, weak creative may result in $10 per brand recall while strong creative can lower this to $2. To reduce risk, advertisers increasingly test their creative with real human audiences. These tests are already possible from as little as $1,250, offering a data driven way to validate design before committing to large budgets.
“Route, Geopath, Nielsen and OAAA all show the same picture: OTS is not impact. From 250,000 weekly passers only a few thousand brand memories remain, and design quality decides where you land.”
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Arno is the founder of Brandpulse, where he’s on a mission to help creative teams make smarter decisions with real human insight. With a background in marketing and a sharp eye for what makes brands stand out, he created Brandpulse to close the gap between great ideas and actual audience attention. Arno believes that when creatives see how people really respond, they unlock their most impactful work.
