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 35+ venue types.
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.