"A 42 per cent forecast increase in prDOOH investment, with 88 per cent of activity already sitting within digital and programmatic workflows, indicates that the region has moved through the early-adopter phase and is now scaling with intent." Image used for illustrative purposes only.VIOOH, a leading premium global digital out of home (DOOH) supply-side platform (SSP), has released its annual research into the prDOOH (programmatic digital-out-of-home) market, which includes inaugural findings for the Middle East.
The research reveals that prDOOH has rapidly established itself as a core media channel in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE with 34 per cent of campaigns featuring prDOOH over the past 18 months, aligned with the global average. Middle East marketers expect this to rise to 46 per cent over the next 18 months.
Planned investment forecast shows an increase by an average of 42 per cent, as the region moves from early adoption to scaled, sustained activity.
Among marketers who plan to increase prDOOH investment in the next 18 months, the majority (93 per cent) expect to do so by reallocating existing digital budgets, while 64 per cent expect to shift spend from traditional channels.
Encouragingly, 22 per cent expect entirely new budget to be added, rising to 27 per cent in Qatar, a positive signal that prDOOH is not simply redistributing existing spend but attracting incremental investment supporting overall category growth.
Jean-Christophe Conti, Chief Executive Officer, VIOOH, said, “The Middle East’s debut in VIOOH’s State of the Nation research confirms what we have been seeing on the ground: this is a market with serious momentum. A 42 per cent forecast increase in prDOOH investment, with 88 per cent of activity already sitting within digital and programmatic workflows, indicates that the region has moved through the early-adopter phase and is now scaling with intent.”
Conti added, “Marketers across Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are not just running more prDOOH advertising campaigns, they are planning with deeper data integration, more dynamic creative and tighter omni-channel alignment. The foundations are in place, and our focus is now on helping the industry capture every opportunity prDOOH unlocks.”
The prDOOH advantage
More than two thirds (67 per cent) Middle East marketers associate prDOOH with the ability to deliver flexibly when the right conditions are met, ahead of DOOH at 62 per cent.
The ability to pause, adjust and optimise campaigns based on time, location and audience signals is seen as a key advantage, helping reduce wasted impressions and direct spend towards the moments of highest potential impact.
Dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) is important to 66 per cent of marketers for delivering relevance and efficiency, supporting contextual creatives, enabling faster testing and learning, and strengthening both attention and effectiveness. This speaks to the channel’s reputation as an innovative, data-responsive format.
prDOOH also shows its largest advantage over DOOH when it comes to triggering a positive emotional response, with 62 per cent of Middle East marketers making this association compared to just 51 per cent for DOOH.
This is likely driven by prDOOH’s ability to deliver timely, contextually aligned messaging that feels relevant in the moment.
Social media is the channel most often paired with prDOOH across both performance (89 per cent) and brand (90 per cent) campaigns, pointing to a clear role for prDOOH within mobile-centric, digitally-led plans.
Cross-channel integration at the heart of regional growth
The Middle East is already planning prDOOH firmly within the digital and programmatic ecosystem, with 88 per cent of respondents stating they have typically planned prDOOH as part of wider digital or programmatic activity over the past 12 months.
More than two-thirds (67 per cent) of Middle East marketers are looking to integrate prDOOH more closely into multi-channel campaigns in the future, suggesting that it is increasingly a connective layer within broader campaign journeys, rather than a standalone placement.
Seven in ten (70 per cent) plan it as part of broader OOH activity, reflecting prDOOH’s ability to sit effectively in both ecosystems.
Social media is the channel most often paired with prDOOH across both performance (89 per cent) and brand (90 per cent) campaigns, pointing to a clear role for prDOOH within mobile-centric, digitally-led plans where OOH exposure can be connected to tangible, follow-on touchpoints.
Data sits at the centre of this ambition. Location targeting (60 per cent) and audience targeting (58 per cent) are both rated as important investment factors, with first-party data and product affinity data (both 49 per cent) identified as the most useful audience inputs for targeting prDOOH campaigns.
Campaigns are predominantly executed at a national level (51 per cent), with regional activity accounting for around a third (31 per cent) and globally run campaigns less common at 17 per cent.
The national-versus-regional split varies across markets: Saudi Arabia is most nationally weighted (56 per cent), Qatar leans more regional (47 per cent national and 34 per cent regional), and the UAE sits between the two, at 52 per cent national and 30 per cent regional.
This reinforces the need for market-by-market trading strategies, with agencies playing a central role in translating regional ambition into local execution.
Looking ahead, 68 per cent plan to invest in building their prDOOH expertise, 67 per cent plan to deepen multi-channel integration and two-thirds intend to increase their use of dynamic creative (66 per cent) and trigger-based buying (65 per cent).
Future prDOOH outlook
One of the most significant structural enablers for prDOOH growth in the Middle East is the emergence of curated marketplaces. With inventory spread across numerous media owners and supply pathways, achieving regional scale has traditionally required buyers to manage multiple deals across several partners, adding complexity and slowing activation.
Curated marketplaces will reduce that friction by enabling buyers to activate a single curated Deal ID, with the SSP managing routing across the most relevant screens. 58 per cent of Middle East marketers say they are likely to use a curated solution in the next 18 months, with interest highest in the UAE at 60 per cent.
This appetite aligns with the region’s strong preference for private marketplace (PMP)-style buying (52 per cent), and its orientation towards controlled, transparent access to premium inventory.
Looking ahead, 68 per cent plan to invest in building their prDOOH expertise, 67 per cent plan to deepen multi-channel integration and two-thirds intend to increase their use of dynamic creative (66 per cent) and trigger-based buying (65 per cent).
These priorities signal a market moving beyond initial adoption and into more sophisticated, performance-oriented activation.
