Insider Insight: making out-of-home media your key to success
Occasional visitors may pay at the pump and never go in. Others may respond to an app that offers a bonus or a rebate, but not increase their basket size.
For years, out-of-home (OOH) advertising was categorized purely as an awareness channel. Marketers viewed billboards and static signs as top-of-funnel tactics designed to build general brand visibility, but rarely connected them to immediate consumer action.
A recent Angus Reid study turns that legacy view on its head: 39% of Canadians took direct action after seeing an out-of-home ad, with 22% searching online for more information.
In high-frequency environments like convenience stores and gas stations, digital out-of-home (DOOH) screens—placed right at the pump or near the cash register—are bridging the gap between passive viewing and an instant purchase.
Scott Mitchell, the managing director, for Vistar Canada talks with CSNC about how modern DOOH networks leverage context and non-intrusive formats to turn high-traffic retail visits into measurable retail sales. Mitchell expressed enthusiasm over the Angus Reid study, “We already knew that OOH was intrinsically part of so many people's lives that these [customer] actions are almost always happening afterwards, but now we actually have a study to actually look at how.” Mitchell adds “we know that when we're actually able to serve that right ad in the right space, we can capture that context and that moment of when that person is in and we can then help them drive that next action.”
Mitchell shares the two pillars that help move clients from a state of passive watching to buying.
1. Context meets mindset: non-intrusive engagement
Digital advertising online is facing record levels of friction. Data from the 2026 Angus Reid Poll shows that 61% of Canadians are frustrated by intrusive online ads like pop-ups and auto-playing videos that demand attention while interrupting content.
The first pillar is creating engagement without intrusion.
“DOOH operates differently. It integrates naturally into a consumer’s daily routine without disrupting it, says Mitchell.
"Out-of-home is part of your journey or your life," explains Mitchell. "It isn't interrupting you and it doesn't ask anything from you. It exists in the world we live in."
Throughout the day—whether commuting, heading to the gym or stopping to fuel up—a person's mindset shifts depending on the environment, Mitchell explains. At a gas pump or convenience store, consumers are open to relevant context. A dynamic ad displayed on a pump screen while someone fills their tank reaches them when their guard is down, offering value rather than an unwanted distraction.
2: Driving in-store conversion with dynamic triggers
Context creates the opportunity, but creative execution earns the attention. Modern OOH software allows brands to move beyond static, single-message campaigns to serve targeted, real-time creative using dynamic triggers.
Mitchell says it comes down to asking yourself, ‘which question makes sense?’ “You can actually change the message on these gas station pumps to align with what an offering may be. Maybe it's really hot out and it's like, ‘It's 35 degrees. Cool down. Come inside and get a cold beverage,’” he suggests. “There's lots of signals that can be taken in to make that message and that creative aspect really speak to that consumer to drive some of those metrics and to remind them of the mindset and the context that they're in.”
Screens can be programmed messages based on specific variables:
- Weather Triggers: Displaying a cold drink offer on a 35 C summer afternoon or promoting hot coffee when temperatures plunge to -30 C.
- Limited-Time Offers: Running time-sensitive deals (e.g., "Two Red Bulls for $5") to move drivers from the pump into the store for high-margin items like snacks, coffee and food service.
- Location-Based Promos: Alerting drivers to specific deals available at nearby locations just a kilometre down the road or of hyper-local goods that can only be found in a specific area.
Retargeting and measuring real-world lift
The shift from legacy software to modern programmatic networks has brought performance tracking to DOOH. Brands looking to justify ad spend can now leverage concrete attribution models:
“One of the biggest things that drove adoption in terms of what we're doing is automation, data and building retention measurement; helping our clients better understand the investments they're making into out-of-home,” says Mitchell. Three features that any OOH can offer are:
- Brand Lift Studies: Measuring changes in brand awareness and perception before and after a campaign.
- Foot Traffic Studies: Tracking anonymized movement to show how many consumers exposed to a pump-side ad subsequently walked into the store or visited a nearby business.
- Mobile Retargeting: Collecting exposed device IDs to deliver follow-up digital offers on a consumer's smartphone. For instance, following a gas station visit with a mobile coupon for windshield wiper fluid during a rainstorm.
“If we know that we have the right context, based on gas stations, convenience stores, we already kind of understand the mindset people are in. How do we actually grab their attention? So we've already created the opportunity through the contextual environment. I encourage operators to lean into utilizing the canvases with very specific messaging: Make them care, grab their attention, create the actual environment that it's in.”
Balancing precision with Canadian privacy standards
With strict provincial privacy legislation such as Quebec's Law 25, privacy compliance is top of mind for C-store media networks utilizing foot-traffic sensors or camera-based impression counting.
To remain compliant while delivering targeting precision, programmatic platforms operate under strict PII (personally identifiable information) guidelines. Hardware technology—such as cameras and sensors—is managed by media owners who ensure local legal compliance.
By combining non-intrusive placement, dynamic triggers and privacy-compliant data, dynamic out-of-home media is evolving from a passive branding tool into an active retail sales driver.