👋 Hello retail renegades and budget barons,

While you were busy debating whether QR codes on trolleys count as innovation, the big DSPs have been slipping their tech into your supermarkets faster than shrink-wrapped cucumbers on a Tuesday morning.

Google DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, Criteo—they’ve all quietly turned your local Tesco screen into the lovechild of a media network and Minority Report.

The question isn’t whether DOOH in retail matters anymore.

The question is whether you’re smart enough to stitch it into your omnichannel plan before your client’s boss sees their competitor’s cheese ad glowing in aisle five.

No more treating in-store screens like the awkward cousin of display. The heavyweights have folded DOOH into the same buying desks you use for video, retail media, native, and search. One login. One report. One less excuse for your activation team to “forget” the screens again.

For agencies, this means your “single customer journey” pitch slide actually has a chance of being true. Congratulations, you just saved yourself another sweaty QBR explanation.

Retailers finally realised their loyalty cards are worth more than half your CDP stack. DSPs now ingest that data to serve hyper-local creative—personalised, contextual, and creepily relevant.

Translation? If Margaret buys Pinot every Friday at 6pm, expect the screen above the Prosecco fridge to whisper sweet nothings about a chilled bottle of rosé instead. Real-time, store-level personalisation at scale. Tesco Clubcard meets Black Mirror.

Dynamic creative optimisation has crawled out of its display dungeon and onto DOOH. Ads now shift based on time, traffic flow, even stock levels. Imagine the smugness of serving “2-for-1 on bananas” just as the last bunch hits the shelf.

And yes, you can now A/B test aisle ads like you A/B test a YouTube bumper. That sound you hear? Every creative agency exec crying into their overpriced latte.

The attribution gap between “saw ad” and “bought product” is closing faster than a Pret at 5:01pm. DSPs now stitch impressions to purchase data, mobile location, and footfall. Foot traffic uplift, in-store conversion, closed-loop ROAS—all neatly packaged in a report your client’s CFO might actually read.

No more pretending awareness is enough. Now you can actually prove the screen by the frozen peas shifted frozen peas. Revolutionary.

Of course, the DSPs had to sprinkle some AI fairy dust on it. Predictive algorithms forecast when to hit certain screens, optimise bids in real-time, and rotate creative for max engagement. Ads fire when stock is high, shelves are full, and shopper density peaks. It’s not just programmatic anymore—it’s predictive retail puppeteering.

If Skynet ever launches a supermarket chain, this is exactly how it will start.

Retail DOOH isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s where omnichannel media, retail data, and programmatic efficiency collide—and your competitors are already selling it as “innovation.”

Here’s your cheat sheet:

Retail DOOH is about to become the client darling of 2025. Play it right and you’ll own the aisle. Play it wrong and you’ll be the one explaining why your cheese brand isn’t on the dairy screen while Aldi’s is.

And remember… if your big strategy idea still starts with “let’s try TikTok influencers,” don’t be surprised when the DOOH screen in aisle five gives your client the side-eye.