Venue type is the most important targeting decision in place-based DOOH. The venue tells you audience mindset, dwell time, and what they're about to do. Here's what you need to know about each of the 36 available environments.
Retail
Grocery — 15–25 min dwell. Primary household shoppers in a purchase-intent environment. The closest DOOH gets to the cash register — shoppers are actively making brand decisions as they walk past screens.
Convenience Stores — 3–5 min dwell. Broad demographic, 2–3 visits per week average. High transaction frequency makes c-stores one of the most efficient DOOH environments for CPG and beverage brands.
Gas Stations — 3–5 min dwell. Phone-down captive audience. Broadest reach per dollar in DOOH. Proximity to convenience stores creates a direct path to purchase.
Pharmacies — 8–15 min dwell. Health-aware adults 35+, high purchase intent. The pharmacy wait creates a captive window in a buying-mode environment.
Malls — 60–90 min dwell. Active shoppers, skews female 25–54. Food court, corridor, and anchor-adjacent placements each serve different campaign objectives.
Liquor Stores — 5–10 min dwell. Adult 21+, direct purchase context. Alcohol brands have the most direct contextual match of any venue-vertical combination.
Dispensaries — 10–20 min dwell including wait. Adult 21+, purchase-mode audience. One of the few venue types with direct contextual match for cannabis brands. Most programmatic platforms won't run cannabis advertising — DOOH is often the only scalable digital option.
7-Eleven — 3–5 min dwell. Consistent national screen network across thousands of locations. High-frequency convenience shoppers.
Food & Drink
Bars — 60–120 min dwell. Highest indoor dwell in DOOH. Social audience 21–45, actively deciding what to drink and eat. Motion creative outperforms static significantly in this environment.
Casual Dining — 45–75 min dwell. Co-viewing groups in a relaxed, receptive environment. Tabletop and wall-mounted screens reach diners during extended meals.
Cafes — 20–60 min dwell. Professional and lifestyle mix. Remote workers and students create a high-dwell, digitally engaged audience.
Health
Gyms — 45–75 min dwell. Active adults 18–49, HHI 15% above market average. Motion outperforms static 3:1 in cardio areas — movement in the ad matches the movement of the viewer.
Salons — 45–90 min dwell. Female-skewing 25–54, high receptivity. Extended service time creates deep engagement with screen content.
Doctor's Offices — 18+ min average wait. Highest dwell-per-impression of any venue type. Few competing stimuli — screen content is consumed with genuine attention. Information-dense creative works here where it would fail on every other format.
Transit
Airports — 45–90 min dwell. Frequent travelers HHI $125K+. Gate screens have deeper processing than corridor screens — plan accordingly. One of few venues where static and motion perform nearly equally.
Bus Shelters — 5–15 min dwell. Broad urban demographic. Street-level screens in high-footfall areas provide mass reach at pedestrian eye level.
Subway Stations — 3–10 min platform dwell. Urban, educated, diverse audience. Platform screens reach commuters during a brief but focused attention window.
Train Stations — 10–30 min dwell. Commuter and intercity mix. Longer dwell than subway allows for slightly more complex messaging.
Buses Interior — 5–45 min route-dependent. Captive seated audience with repeated daily exposure on commuter routes.
Rideshare Top — Moving. Impression only, simple messaging. Reaches pedestrians and drivers in high-traffic urban areas. No complex copy.
Rideshare TV — 8–35 min dwell. Captive in-vehicle audience. One of the most captive digital OOH environments available — passenger has nowhere else to look.
Entertainment
Movie Theaters — 15–20 min pre-show lobby dwell. Audience 21–45, entertainment-oriented. Pre-show screens (not in-theater) deliver high attention in a relaxed setting.
Stadiums — Event-specific, massive per-event reach. Demographics vary sharply by sport — NFL skews male 25–54, WNBA skews female 25–44, MLB skews 35+.
Sports Entertainment — Variable dwell. Alcohol and QSR perform well. Active recreation participants in a spending mindset.
Spectaculars — Times Square and equivalents. Brand statements only, direct-buy only. Massive visual impact but limited targeting precision.
Professional
Office Buildings — Elevator 45–90 sec per ride × 4–6 rides = 3–9 min daily cumulative. Highest-income DOOH audience at scale. Promotional creative underperforms — brand and thought leadership outperform.
Hotels — Lobby and elevator placement. Business and leisure traveler mix. Variable dwell depending on placement location.
Colleges & Universities — High on-campus dwell. 18–24 audience. High lifetime value for financial services, tech, and recruitment brands.
DMVs — 30–90 min dwell. Captive audience with minimal competing stimuli. Best for insurance, automotive, and legal services.
Directory Screens — Wayfinding context. Functional engagement — users actively interacting with the screen creates deeper brand exposure during the interaction.
Emerging
EV Charging Stations — 20–45 min dwell. Fastest-growing venue type. HHI $100K+. Highest focused attention of any format — the screen is often the only stimulus in the environment. CPMs will increase as network grows; early buyers have pricing advantage.
Urban Panels — Street-level pedestrian screens. High frequency urban core coverage. Programmatic activation enables real-time targeting by time, weather, and audience.
FBOs — 15–30 min dwell. Smallest audience in DOOH, highest average income. Private aviation passengers — ultra-high-net-worth targeting.
Trucks Mobile — Moving. Geographic routing enables launch and event campaigns. Broad coverage across designated routes.
Bus Side Exterior — Moving. Broad geographic coverage. Mass-market brand building across entire transit routes.