Colum Harmon, Marketing Director, PML Group, with this week’s Out \ Look on Out of Home
Out of Home has long excelled at delivering scale, building fame and creating mental availability through high-impact broadcast formats. But increasingly, the most effective campaigns are those that combine this proven foundation with the flexibility and precision of Dynamic, Programmatic and Innovative OOH. For today’s marketers, OOH is answering a familiar challenge: how to achieve broad reach while remaining relevant in the moments that matter most.
This principle has long shaped our approach at PML Group, supported by a wealth of evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. It’s not a question of replacing one format with another. Rather, it is about recognising the power of a layered approach to OOH planning, where each element plays a distinct role in delivering stronger business outcomes.
At its best, modern OOH is a form of sophisticated mass marketing. Classic and broadcast formats continue to provide the reach, visibility and consistency required to establish brand presence at scale. By classic and Broadcast, I’m referring to formats including large Billboards, Bus Shelter 6 Sheets and Bus T-Sides. Dynamic OOH adds contextual relevance, adapting creative to time, location, audience or real-world conditions.
Programmatic OOH introduces agility and efficiency, allowing brands to respond to changing consumer behaviours and prioritise moments of highest opportunity e.g. upweighting in response to preset criteria. Innovation creates standout, earning additional attention, memorability and conversation.
Together, these layers create something more powerful than any single element can achieve alone. The evidence is clear and increasingly compelling. PML Group’s IMPACT research consistently demonstrates that campaigns employing multiple OOH pillars deliver stronger results than those relying on a single format.
General, aggregated data is hugely significant for us when it comes to creating the link from advert to audience. But it always interesting to note and learn from more specific, best in class examples of OOH work.
Doing It Right
Sky Sports combined Broadcast, Dynamic, Programmatic and Innovative OOH to reinforce its position as the Home of Football ahead of the new Premier League season. Broadcast formats delivered reach and consistency, while dynamic countdown creative increased anticipation as kick-off approached. Research conducted through IMPACT showed Dynamic OOH delivered an 8% improvement in relevance and a remarkable 33% increase in excitement and anticipation compared with standard creative executions. Innovative formats and targeted programmatic activations added additional layers of attention and engagement.
In a different product category, belVita demonstrated how a connected OOH strategy can align with consumer behaviours throughout the day. Broadcast formats provided visibility across commuter and family journeys, Dynamic OOH adapted messaging to changing consumption occasions, and Programmatic OOH focused investment around retail environments and peak shopping periods. By combining scale, timing, context and shopper intelligence, the campaign maintained relevance from morning commute to point of purchase. IMPACT research highlighted strong levels of recall, relevance and consumer action, while dynamic messaging was proven to portray brand as relevant across multiple occasions during the day.
In 2025, a national broadcast OOH campaign established visibility and fame around Rockshore’s sponsorship of the League of Ireland. Large-format Classic OOH built awareness and credibility at scale, ensuring the brand was visible within communities across the country. Digital innovation then added a powerful second layer, with near-live League of Ireland match highlights delivered to Digital OOH screens within minutes of key moments occurring. The result was an experience that transformed sponsorship from something audiences simply saw into something they actively engaged with. The campaign delivered measurable improvements across brand and business metrics and was subsequently awarded Gold for Best Use of Digital OOH at the DMA Awards in recent weeks.
Strategic Thinking
What unites these campaigns is not the technology they used, but the strategic intent behind them. At PML Group, we believe that technology and data serve as powerful tools that amplify the strategy rather than define it.
This evolution reflects the direction of modern OOH. Brands no longer need to choose between scale and precision, reach and relevance, fame and activation. The most successful campaigns increasingly combine all of these strengths within a single connected strategy.
The future belongs to brands that embrace the full spectrum of OOH capabilities. By integrating Broadcast, Dynamic, Programmatic and Innovative formats into a cohesive plan, advertisers can create campaigns that not only reach audiences at scale but connect with them more meaningfully at every stage of their journey.
In a complex media landscape, that is the true power of a sophisticated, multi-format OOH strategy: building fame through scale while driving effectiveness through relevance, context and creativity.
Burger King Serves Up Marathon Support
With more than 22,500 runners preparing to tackle Sunday’s Irish Life Dublin Marathon, Burger King is putting its own spin on race-day encouragement with a multi-format Out of Home campaign and a series of post-race rewards.
The OOH campaign, planned by PML with dentsu, spans a mix of Classic and Digital formats reaching audiences across roadside and commuter environments.
The usual words of encouragement heard along the course have been given the Burger King treatment. ‘Eyes on the Fries’ swaps the prize for something more edible, while ‘Bun Forrest, Bun!’ puts a fast-food twist on one of cinema’s most recognisable running lines. ‘Legs on Fire? The Whopper Is Too’ completes the playful trio, alongside photography of medal-wearing runners wrapped in foil blankets and enjoying a well-earned Whopper.
The marathon’s 26.2-mile course provides a natural focus for the OOH plan. Using PML’s MAPS platform, the route can be matched against available OOH inventory to identify locations close to the action, with campaign sites in areas including Chapelizod, Crumlin Road and Merrion Road on the final approach to the finish. The spread also brings the campaign to commuters and supporters travelling across the city throughout marathon weekend, including those attending the Marathon Expo at the RDS on Friday and Saturday. A mobile DigiCube planned for the day-of taking the running-themed messages closer to the action at key points along the course.
Niamh O’Shaughnessy, account manager at denstu, noted; “What’s interesting about the Dublin Marathon is how far beyond the runners it reaches. You’ve got thousands of supporters travelling into the city, crowds gathering along the route and people going about their usual journeys. That’s where OOH works particularly well. We can plan around the course and the places people will be travelling through, while portable formats give us flexibility to get closer to the action on race day. Burger King’s take on the usual words of encouragement adds a bit of fun to the occasion, with a Whopper waiting at the finish line.”
Beyond the OOH campaign, Burger King is putting the post-race message into practice through its ‘A Whopper of a Finish’ promotion. Marathon finishers can claim a complimentary Whopper or Plant-based Whopper at participating Applegreen restaurants on Sunday, 25th October, by presenting their official finisher medal between midday and 8pm.
The brand has also partnered with Saunos Dublin in Ballsbridge to offer complimentary 45-minute sauna and cold plunge sessions following the race. Each booking accommodates two people, with sessions running from 1pm to 4.45pm on Sunday. Places are limited and must be booked in advance, with a complimentary shuttle service available from Sussex Road.
The celebrations continue into Bank Holiday Monday, with a Buy One Get One Free Whopper offer available to medal holders at selected Burger King restaurants.
