Glossary A–ZLetter O
Out of home (OOH)
Out of home, or OOH for short, is the umbrella term for advertising that reaches people outside their homes: on the street, on the move or in places such as stations and shops.
It includes posters, advertising columns, transit advertising and digital screens. The digital form is called DOOH.
Traditional OOH advertising is printed and stays up for a fixed period, such as a large roadside billboard or a bus wrap. Digital screens are shared by several advertisers in a loop and can be planned by time of day. What all forms have in common is that they address people on the move and cannot be clicked away.
The term matters to network operators because media agencies plan their budgets by media category, and screen networks are often allocated to the OOH budget. Anyone talking to agencies should know the metrics used there, such as impressions and cost per thousand. Not every screen in a public place is OOH advertising: a screen that only shows departure times serves as information and is not an advertising medium.