Digital out-of-home (DOOH) popularity among marketers is surging in the UK, with programmatic DOOH (prDOOH) advertising spend expected to jump by almost a third (31%) over the next 18 months.

The survey conducted by global digital DOOH supply-side platform VIOOH reveals that the future of programmatic DOOH remains strong, as its medium popularity surges in comparison to other traditional channels.

The findings showed that a third of advertisers (33%) are moving budgets from other digital channels, 24% – from other traditional channels, and more than one in 10 (15%) are creating new budgets to grow programmatic DOOH.

The data also highlights that while only 4% of main out-of-home teams are likely to be accessing new budget for programmatic DOOH when buying is diversified, this increases to 25% when bought through a dedicated programmatic DOOH team, and 28% when bought through programmatic or digital teams.

In addition, the figures exposed how awareness of the distinctive advantages rises in proportion to the UK advertisers adopting programmatic DOOH.

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Such advantages include hyper-targeting, which 64% now acknowledge, increased brand awareness (64%), high-quality viewability (59%), and generating ROI (57%).

Overall, seven out of ten of the UK advertisers surveyed plan to prioritise integrating programmatic DOOH more closely in multi-channel campaigns.

To complement these campaigns, the majority would buy display and digital alongside, as part of a performance-led activation, while for brand-based campaigns, the survey showed advertisers would rather use display and social.

“Programmatic DOOH is becoming mainstream and is now a must-have on every media plan,” said VIOOH chief executive officer, Jean-Christophe Conti.

“This year’s State of the Nation report shows not only that advertising budgets continue to be reallocated for increased prDOOH spend year-on-year, but the opportunities from highly targeted activations to trigger-based buying are giving advertisers a raft of flexible high-value tools which complement both brand and performance ad campaigns.

“With programmatic DOOH becoming more mature, media professionals are also increasingly integrating prDOOH into multi-channel strategies, often using it alongside social media and display advertising,” Conti added.

The survey follows in the wake of a recent WARC report that revealed global ad spend is to top $1 trillion for the first time next year.