India’s OOH advertising industry is poised for a digital transformation, with Digital Out-of-Home expected to command 17% of the sector’s total revenues by 2027, according to EY’s latest report ‘A Studio Called India’.
Currently, India is home to approximately 1,85,000 DOOH screens, with 16% of them being large-format displays of 60 inches or more. This growth is being fuelled by the premiumisation of inventory, digital integration across urban infrastructure, and the increasing appetite for more immersive and measurable brand storytelling.
Industry leaders are aligned with this outlook. Sanjeev Goyle, CEO- OOH & Rural of IPG Mediabrands, pointed to the combined impact of rapid urbanisation and rising tech penetration in both metros and emerging Tier-2 cities. He noted that DOOH enables sharper targeting through dynamic content formats that combine motion, storytelling, and contextual messaging, making it especially appealing in high-dwell environments like airports, malls, metro stations, and premium retail hubs.
“DOOH screens at high-traffic areas allow for multiple ad exposures in one sitting, leading to higher recall and engagement,” said Goyle. He added that the medium’s ability to deliver contextual creatives, such as weather-based ads, live sports updates, or social trend integrations, offers advertisers a new kind of experiential impact.
Echoing this sentiment, Haresh Nayak, CEO of Connect Network, underlined that DOOH is no longer a future possibility but a current reality transforming the outdoor medium.
“The forecasted 17% share by 2027 reflects a broader shift we’re all witnessing: a move from static, location-based advertising to smarter, more immersive, tech-led brand experiences,” said Nayak.
He noted that this change is driven by the rapid digitisation of Indian cities, the demand for flexible and accountable advertising formats, and a new breed of marketers seeking relevance over just reach.
Adding another perspective, Raminder Singh, Co-founder of Orango Solutions, stressed that DOOH’s real power lies in its ability to emotionally engage audiences through design and storytelling. “The growth of DOOH is inevitable. There’s no barrier that can stop it now,” he said.
Potential challenges on the way
However, leaders also acknowledged that several structural challenges could hamper this momentum.
Goyle pointed out that many Indian cities continue to enforce restrictive outdoor advertising norms, often barring or heavily regulating video content on DOOH screens due to concerns over driver distraction, energy consumption, or aesthetic considerations.
“In Mumbai, for instance, video ads on DOOH are restricted by municipal bodies, which makes long-term investment a risky proposition,” he said.
Goyle also flagged the nascent state of India’s programmatic DOOH ecosystem and the lack of standardisation across formats, screen sizes, and metrics, which limits scalability and measurability. He further noted that shared-screen environments—where multiple brands rotate ad slots—often discourage advertisers who are used to the exclusivity of static formats.
Singh said that while India has made some progress, innovation in screen formats still lags behind global benchmarks. “Most of our displays are still standard rectangular screens. Internationally, you see vertical displays, curved formats, and LEDs integrated into architectural designs. In India, apart from a few experiments with shape-based displays, like elephant-shaped LEDs, we’ve barely scratched the surface,” he noted.
He emphasised that innovation must be backed by skilled manpower, particularly for specialised content like anamorphic 3D visuals. “We need designers who can craft immersive content. Unfortunately, this talent pool is extremely limited outside major metros,” he said.
Despite the appetite for innovation among clients, Singh argued that infrastructure and design limitations often hold back execution. He added that large-format digital screens are still rare in India, unlike in global markets like Dubai or the U.S., where LED displays can span hundreds of feet. “Indian advertisers are willing to invest in bold, eye-catching formats, but the market needs to offer them more.”
Ways to drive this growth
All players, be it big, small or medium, are loosening their purse strings only to accelerate the adoption rate of DOOH in India.
Connect Network is investing heavily in its proprietary AdTech platform, IMMERSIVE, which now powers real-time campaign management across a network of over one million digital screens in India and abroad.
Goyle suggests using contextual creatives (e.g., weather-based ads, live scores, countdowns, social trends) to make DOOH more experiential. Further, offering Programmatic DOOH by building tech stacks or partnering with adtech firms to allow automated and measurable DOOH ad buying is another way.
Road ahead
Despite the hurdles, there is a growing consensus that digital out-of-home is no longer an add-on to traditional outdoor media—it is becoming its defining feature. Significantly, the share of digital OOH within this segment is projected to rise to 17% by 2027, growing at a robust CAGR of 24%, as per the report.
Orango’s Singh highlighted a strategic opportunity for India in the global DOOH supply chain. With strained U.S.-China trade relations, India could emerge as a new hub for digital display manufacturing, especially if Chinese suppliers look to the Indian market for expansion. This could help reduce hardware costs and accelerate nationwide deployment of advanced digital screens.
“The next 4 to 5 years will bring further development, largely dominated by familiar formats: rectangular displays and shape-based LEDs.”
According to Nayak, the future of OOH lies in moving from location-based buying to intent-based targeting, integrating programmatic capabilities and dynamic creative tools that allow brands to engage with consumers at the right time, in the right place, with precise relevance. He summed it up, “Our vision is clear: to make OOH a medium that doesn’t just deliver impressions but leaves an impression—one that’s dynamic, data-led, and deeply integrated into the modern marketing mix.”
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