Value-Driven Sophistication of pDOOH in the Chinese Market, State of the Nation 2025
- 30% of the surveyed companies have deployed pDOOH over the past year, and this figure is expected to reach 32% in the coming year, with the continuous rise of the acceptance of pDOOH in the Chinese market;
- 42% of respondents plan to allocate a dedicated advertising budget for pDOOH, and 64% of them purchased pDOOH through digital/programmatic teams. Both figures are significantly higher than those of 2023 (33% and 27%) respectively. In addition, pDOOH has been incorporated into the omni-channel programmatic strategy of those advertisers;
- pDOOH has gradually become integral to digital campaigns, typically deployed alongside social media, digital audio, mobile ads, and CTV;
- pDOOH demonstrates five distinctive benefits that are particularly recognised in the Chinese market: generating return on investment, increasing performance, real-time flexibility, ability to activate last-minute media buys, and ensuring brand safety;
- Although DCO technology is still in its early stages of development, more than 40% of respondents who have placed pDOOH in the past year said they would consider using DCO in the future, which indicates a vast room for creative efficiency.
To provide a more comprehensive picture of the current landscape and future potential of pDOOH in the Chinese market, VIOOH partnered with Morketing Research to release the State of the Nation 2025 – Mainland China Report, which presents the key changes in today’s pDOOH industry in the Chinese market based on an in-depth survey of 150 marketing budget decision makers from advertisers and agencies.
pDOOH Moving from the Trial Stage to the Growth Stage with a Rising Adoption Rate
While social media remains the first-tier player in the Chinese advertising market, three offline media formats (traditional OOH, digital OOH, and pDOOH) now dominate the 2nd to 4th spots in the media placement expectations for 2025. pDOOH is a pioneering force in the “digitisation of offline media”, endowed with the benefits of connecting scenarios, immersing users, and driving efficiency. It is emerging as a new pivot point for advertisers to restructure their media strategies.
The percentage of the advertisers in the China who have deployed pDOOH ads over the past year reached 30%, increasing by 6% compared to 2023. In the next 12 months, respondents who plan to deploy pDOOH will further increase to 32%, and pDOOH is expected to rank the 4th among 14 major media channels. Various signs indicate that pDOOH has moved from the “exploration and trial” stage to the “standard configuration” stage. Meanwhile, advertisers have rapidly formed a clear understanding of the refined advertising capabilities and the value of digital synergy of pDOOH.
Collaborating with Mainstream Media at High Frequency as a “Standard Configuration” for Omni-channel Marketing
Today, pDOOH has evolved into one of the regular marketing channels in the omni-channel marketing strategy rather than a “supplementary medium”. According to the data unveiled in the survey, advertisers generally prefer pairing pDOOH with the following top four media: social media ads, digital audio, mobile ads, and CTV, demonstrating the high integration and strategic synergy of pDOOH with online media.
64% of advertisers purchase pDOOH through digital/programmatic teams, significantly higher than in 2023 (27%). Such an increase indicates that the purchasing decisions on pDOOH have shifted from the OOH Department to the Digital Department and also implies that advertisers increasingly prefer incorporating pDOOH into their digital programmatic advertising portfolio for the unified management and collaborative optimisation of technologies, budgets and data.
Five Distinctive Benefits: Flexibility and Ensuring Brand Safety
According to the survey, pDOOH demonstrates superior values that are particularly recognised among the Chinese marketing professionals in five aspects: “Generating return on investment (52%)”, “Increasing sales/performance (48%)”, “Flexibility/efficiency to display when the right conditions are met (48%)”, “Ability to activate last minute media buys (45%)”, “Ensuring brand safety including lack of bot/click fraud (39%)”.
DCO Technology-driven Growth – In-depth Integration between Creativity and Scenarios
According to the survey, among the respondents who have placed pDOOH, 42% said they would consider integrating DCO technology in the future to achieve a greater timeliness, adaptability, and relevance of their creative contents.
DCO can be an important means for them to achieve large-scale and precise expression in offline domains.
Co-existence of Opportunities and Challenges – New Paths for pDOOH to Expand Brand Marketing
The report also indicates that pDOOH is still facing several bottlenecks in its development process, although it has entered a rapid growth phase in the Chinese market. First, the market lacks replicable benchmark cases, leading to insufficient understanding of brands about the effects and applicable scenarios of pDOOH; Second, the industry lacks a unified attribution and evaluation mechanism, which in turn further increases the uncertainty for advertisers in their post-campaign evaluation. Furthermore, the data chain between platforms and media has not yet been fully established, which hinders the construction of a data loop in the advertising campaign process.
On the other hand, however, we can see opportunities. pDOOH has attracted more budget allocation in a market context where offline scenarios are recovering and the cost of online reach is high. In addition, the integration of emerging technologies, such as DCO and AI, is accelerating the creative efficiency and strategic execution capabilities of pDOOH.
Currently, pDOOH is transforming from a simple media format into a strategic puzzle that aids brands in developing cognitive assets, broadening conversion paths, and achieving strategic cycles propelled by the measurable, collaborative, and creative aspects of pDOOH.
“Advertisers in China have wholeheartedly adopted pDOOH. Our second State of the Nation research report for the country demonstrates that it’s regularly included within omni-channel marketing strategies and continues to attract more budget allocation. With 40% of respondents planning to allocate a dedicated advertising budget this year and pDOOH ranked as the fourth most popular media channel. VIOOH enables real-time, data-driven programmatic trading to engage brands with target audiences and we hope advertisers and media owners, both within China as well as overseas advertisers, will maximise this new growing opportunity to thrive in China,” said Calvin Chan, Chief Executive Officer (China) at VIOOH.
The full report can be found at: viooh.com/sotn
About VIOOH:
VIOOH is a leading premium global digital out of home supply-side platform.
Launched in 2018 and with headquarters in London, VIOOH’s platform connects buyers and sellers in a premium marketplace, making OOH easily accessible.
Led by a team of digital OOH and programmatic tech experts, VIOOH is pioneering the transformation of the OOH sector, championing its role in enhancing omni-channel digital campaigns through the use of programmatic capabilities and data. VIOOH currently trades programmatically in 33 markets and drives demand through partnerships with +50 DSPs globally, with more to follow.
For more information about VIOOH, please visit www.viooh.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
