Provantage CEO Jacques du Preez gives five key OOH / DOOH trends to watch in 2026 (Image supplied)
- Programmatic DOOH goes mainstream
Programmatic buying will continue to scale, with automation, real-time bidding and DSP integrations becoming more standard in South Africa.
In 2026, more premium and previously difficult-to-access DOOH inventory in airports, high-traffic transit nodes, freeway digital sites and major mall environments will become available programmatically for the first time.
Our projections are that programmatic DOOH in South Africa is set to grow significantly from approximately five percent (5%) of total DOOH today to 20% within the next two years, driven by agency demand for automation, measurability and audience-based planning.
The next shift is therefore that OOH becomes a measurable performance channel inside digital media plans, rather than a stand-alone line item.
South Africa is already beginning the move from site selling to audience selling, and DOOH will increasingly be integrated into the omnichannel ecosystem.
DOOH will also be more deeply integrated with mobile, social, and digital channels, combining large-format OOH for awareness with mobile retargeting, QR-driven commerce, sequential storytelling and geofenced messaging.
Advertisers will run seamless campaigns across digital, OOH and online platforms, leveraging OOH for reach, impact and brand salience.
New cross-media planning tools and unified dashboards will make it easier to plan, buy and measure across channels.
A key local driver will be the rise of retail media and place-based networks, which will unlock more programmatic inventory across high-dwell environments such as forecourts, malls, commuter hubs and retailers.
- AI-driven & contextual creative
AI will increasingly be used to adapt creatives dynamically for OOH campaigns, adjusting messaging based on weather, traffic, time of day, audience movement patterns or even real-time triggers such as sports scores and stock levels.
OOH media owners in South Africa are beginning to work with global technology partners whose platforms already include generative AI, dynamic templates, 3D visualisation tools and automated creative optimisation.
As these capabilities become locally enabled, advertisers will increasingly be able to produce more creative variations at scale and lower cost.
At the same time, South African creative agencies and production studios are rapidly adopting AI tools for DOOH concepting, including 3D modelling, AR layers, rapid mock-ups and language-localised variations across multiple South African languages.
This will allow brands to generate, adapt and personalise OOH creative faster than ever before, supporting dynamic DOOH schedules and giving media owners a steady pipeline of content designed for contextual delivery and programmatic triggers.
- Greater attribution and measurement
New measurement systems, aligned to global or regional standards, will help unify how DOOH results are reported and benchmarked.
Globally, OOH has been professionalising measurement for years with Visually Adjusted Contacts (VAC) and audited systems.
Regulators and industry bodies are tightening standards for what counts as an “audience impression”, requiring stronger evidence of actual viewing rather than simple traffic or footfall counts.
Global attention studies are showing that OOH impressions are often of higher quality, offering longer viewability, stronger attention and higher natural frequency than online and social media.
In South Africa, OOH audience measurement is now available for billboards, airports, transit Nodes and malls, aligned with global standards.
This VAC data, now accessible for DOOH, will accelerate the adoption and growth of programmatic DOOH locally.
Tech platforms are introducing attribution tools that tie OOH exposure to web visits, app installs, store traffic and even sales, leveraging mobility data, matched panels and predictive modelling.
The growing role of first-party data is especially valuable in enhancing attribution accuracy and enables advertisers to measure real business outcomes more confidently.
With the rise of major retail media networks, we will see closed-loop attribution become more common in South Africa, linking OOH exposure to aisle behaviour, basket composition and ultimately the till slip.
- Sustainability measurement, ESG alignment and green technology
Clients will increasingly demand ESG (environmental, social, governance) metrics from their OOH partners. OOH companies will compete on sustainability credentials, including energy efficiency, recyclability of materials, carbon impact and operational waste reduction.
OOH Media owners will place greater emphasis on sustainability metrics, highlighting how OOH and DOOH often have a lower environmental footprint per impression compared to other media channels.
South African OOH companies are already investing in greener operations such as LED upgrades, recycled material fabrications, solar-assisted infrastructure, local manufacturing innovation and sustainability certifications, driven by both regulators and global brand expectations.
There will be a rise in low-energy or hybrid-powered DOOH screens to reduce carbon footprint, along with AI-enabled energy management systems that optimise screen brightness, operating times and power consumption based on audience behaviour.
Municipal tenders, RFPs and client pitches are increasingly including environmental scoring, making sustainability a key competitive differentiator.
At the same time, OOH continues to support local communities by improving public spaces, enhancing commuter environments and contributing to the development of the areas where the medium operates.
- Social-Native OOH
OOH advertising will more frequently be designed to look, feel and behave like social media content. This approach will grow in popularity because it transforms OOH placements into shareable creative moments that drive online amplification.
The billboard effectively becomes a “content studio” that produces viral clips. AR add-ons, QR codes, lenses or Web-based Augmented Reality (webAR) layers allow audiences to unlock extra content, mini-games or shoppable experiences from the physical asset.
The smart innovation is to treat these sites as PR engines, where every large-format, 3D or AR execution is supported with its own earned-media and social amplification plan.
With South Africa’s high mobile penetration, growing creator economy and increasing access to affordable data and fibre connectivity, campaigns that extend OOH into social storytelling are gaining strong traction, particularly among youth and urban commuters, while traditional OOH continues to deliver its proven reach and impact.
