It’s no secret that Out-of-Home (OOH) is a significant medium within the MENA region. Still, the rapid digitisation and automation of OOH screens in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar are transformative.

IAB MENA estimates that Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) spending was around $350m in 2023 and on a growth trajectory that could reach $700m by 2029—driven both by new inventory availability and the ability of DOOH to marry the best of mass reach and targeted, measurable delivery.

As the market for DOOH grows, we will also see an increase in programmatic buying and selling. This is still a fraction of the overall Digital OOH market in MENA, with many barriers to overcome. Still, the benefits of superior audience targeting, flighting flexibility and real-time optimisation will likely increase demand and adoption over the coming years.

IAB MENA DOOH Taskforce‍

The IAB MENA DOOH Taskforce, comprising 21 people from 15 member companies, released a series of papers and videos in 2023 covering the DOOH market, including a perspective on the available inventory, glossaries to set standard terminologies and a detailed whitepaper. This year, based on our members’ potential in Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home (PrDOOH), we are delving more specifically into this area.

We see a positive upside for both advertisers and media owners. For advertisers, amongst other things, the opportunity to target and optimise campaigns in real-time to specific consumers using data across different networks is a considerable effectiveness boost. For publishers, the ability to maximise revenue opportunity through optimising inventory, leveraging different audience values and real-time measurement alongside the operational efficiencies created suggests it needs to be part of any successful offering.

The development of PrDOOH suits both buyers and sellers, making it an essential contributor to a vibrant MENA advertising ecosystem. Over the coming months, we aim to collectively and collaboratively develop resources that help the broader market fully understand the opportunity that PrDOOH brings, the routes to overcome challenges, and the practical steps to create and implement it.

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