DOOH Advertising Formats & Creative Specifications

Understanding DOOH Advertising Formats and Creative Specifications#

This guide outlines the essential DOOH advertising formats and creative specifications you need to know to successfully plan and execute campaigns across Lurity's network in Slovakia and Czechia. By understanding these guidelines, you can ensure your advertisements are displayed optimally and effectively reach your target audience.

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising leverages digital screens in public spaces to deliver dynamic content. The effectiveness of your campaign heavily relies on understanding the technical specifications and creative considerations for these diverse screen types. From bustling retail malls to quieter residential areas, each screen environment presents unique opportunities and demands specific creative approaches.

Lurity offers a self-serve booking platform where advertisers can select specific screens, upload their creative, and manage campaigns. Understanding the requirements upfront streamlines this process, which you can learn more about in our guide on how booking a campaign with Lurity works.

The Main DOOH Format Families#

DOOH advertising formats are broadly categorised by their physical characteristics and display capabilities. Unlike traditional print OOH, digital screens offer flexibility in content, allowing for both static images and dynamic video. The primary distinction among DOOH formats lies in their orientation and size, which directly impacts creative design.

Standard Digital Displays

These are the most common DOOH screens, resembling large televisions or monitors. They are found in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. Their aspect ratio is typically 16:9 (landscape) or 9:16 (portrait), and they are designed for viewing from moderate distances. Lurity's network predominantly features these types of screens.

Large-Format Digital Billboards (LED)

While less common indoors, large-format LED screens are prominent outdoor features, offering high visibility due to their size and brightness. These screens often have unique resolutions and aspect ratios tailored to their specific locations and viewing distances. They demand bold, simple creatives that can be grasped quickly by passing audiences.

Interactive and Experiential Displays

Although not the primary focus of standard DOOH campaigns, some networks offer interactive screens that allow for touch, gesture, or even mobile device interaction. These are advanced formats that require specialised creative development beyond typical video or static image specifications. Lurity's network focuses on standard digital displays for broad reach and ease of use.

Landscape and Portrait Screens#

The orientation of a digital screen—landscape or portrait—is a fundamental aspect that dictates creative design. Lurity's network offers both options, providing versatility for various campaign objectives and creative assets.

Landscape (Horizontal) Screens

Landscape screens are wider than they are tall, with an aspect ratio typically around 16:9. This is the standard for television and computer monitors, making it a familiar format for video content. In DOOH, landscape screens are often found in areas where audiences have a moment to pause and view, such as waiting areas, retail entrances, or communal spaces.

Creative Considerations for Landscape: Storytelling: The wider canvas is well-suited for narratives or scenes with multiple elements. Readability: Text should be large enough to be legible across the full width without requiring eye movement that is too broad. * Layout: Utilise the horizontal space for imagery and place key messages centrally or in easily scannable zones.

Portrait (Vertical) Screens

Portrait screens are taller than they are wide, with an aspect ratio typically around 9:16. These screens emulate the layout of a smartphone screen and are increasingly common in high-traffic pedestrian areas, transit hubs, and retail environments where people naturally scan vertically. Their vertical orientation can feel more immersive or attention-grabbing in certain contexts.

Creative Considerations for Portrait: Single Focus: Ideal for highlighting a single product, person, or concise message. Vertical Flow: Design elements should guide the eye naturally from top to bottom. * Conciseness: Due to often-faster viewing times, messages should be brief and impactful.

Lurity's network currently includes 411 screens with a 1920x1080 resolution (landscape) and 326 screens with a 1080x1920 resolution (portrait), providing ample choice for your preferred orientation.

Indoor Retail and Mall Screens#

Retail and mall environments are prime locations for DOOH advertising, offering captive audiences with a commercial mindset. Lurity's network features 279 screens in 52 retail mall venues across Slovakia and Czechia, making this a significant category for advertisers.

Characteristics of Retail/Mall DOOH

Proximity to Point of Sale: Ads can directly influence purchasing decisions. Dwelling Time: Shoppers often have short waiting or browsing times, allowing for slightly longer or more detailed messages than roadside screens. Ambient Light: Generally well-lit environments, requiring creatives with good contrast and colour vibrancy. Sound: Often silent or low-volume, meaning visuals must convey the message effectively without audio cues.

Creative Strategies for Retail/Mall

Product-focused: Showcase products clearly, highlighting features or benefits. Promotional: Announce special offers, discounts, or new arrivals. Directional: Guide shoppers to specific stores or departments within the venue. Brand Building: Reinforce brand identity with appealing visuals.

Lurity's inventory also includes 103 screens in 81 dedicated retail venues (non-mall), and 120 screens in 118 residential venues, offering diverse options for reaching consumers within their daily routines. You can explore these and other locations by visiting our city and venue inventory listings.

Transit and Public Space Screens#

DOOH screens in transit hubs and public spaces capture audiences on the move. These environments typically involve shorter viewing times and higher foot traffic, demanding immediate impact from creatives.

Characteristics of Transit/Public Space DOOH

High Impressions: Large volumes of people pass through these areas. Short Viewing Time: Commuters are often focused on their journey, requiring very concise messaging. Diverse Audience: Reaches a broad demographic, necessitating universally appealing content. Varied Light Conditions: Screens can be indoors (train stations, airports) or outdoors (bus stops, city squares), affecting brightness and contrast needs.

Creative Strategies for Transit/Public Space

Strong Visuals: Images and animations should be dominant and instantly recognisable. Minimal Text: Keep headlines short and to the point, with large, clear fonts. Brand Recognition: Focus on quick brand recall with logos and distinct visual elements. Call to Action: If applicable, make it simple and memorable (e.g., a website URL or social media handle).

Lurity currently operates 25 screens across 7 transit venues, predominantly in Slovakia and Czechia's major cities, including Bratislava and Praha. There are also 195 screens in 75 'other' venues, which could include various public spaces.

Large-Format LED#

While Lurity's network is primarily composed of standard digital displays, understanding large-format LED screens is beneficial for a comprehensive view of DOOH. These screens are typically much larger and often used for prominent outdoor advertising.

Key Differences from Standard Displays

Construction: Composed of individual LED modules, leading to potentially lower pixel density but much higher brightness. Viewing Distance: Designed for very long viewing distances, often tens or hundreds of metres. Brightness: Capable of extreme brightness to contend with direct sunlight and outdoor conditions. Resolutions: Can vary significantly, often non-standard aspect ratios, requiring custom creative scaling.

Creative Considerations for Large-Format LED

Simplicity is Key: Complex details are lost at a distance. Focus on bold graphics and minimal text. Contrast: High contrast ensures legibility in varying light conditions. Animation: Simple animations or scene changes can be very effective in capturing attention from a distance. No Fine Print: Avoid small text entirely. The message must be immediately digestible.

Within Lurity's network, all screens are digital displays, meaning they are purpose-built for commercial display, offering consistent quality for your campaigns. The listed screen resolutions, such as 2160x1080 (3 screens) and 2016x672 (2 screens), cater to a variety of applications and aspect ratios, though the dominant formats are 1920x1080 and 1080x1920.

Resolutions and Aspect Ratios in the Lurity Network#

Understanding the technical specifications of screens is paramount for creative production. The resolution (number of pixels) and aspect ratio (proportional relationship between width and height) directly influence how your content appears.

Common Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

Lurity's network features a range of resolutions, ensuring broad coverage for standard creative dimensions. The most prevalent are:

1920x1080 pixels (Full HD Landscape): This resolution is found on 411 screens. It corresponds to a 16:9 aspect ratio, ideal for widescreen video and image content. 1080x1920 pixels (Full HD Portrait): This resolution is found on 326 screens. It's the inverse of Full HD landscape, corresponding to a 9:16 aspect ratio, perfect for vertical video and imagery.

While these are the dominant resolutions, a small number of screens also feature other specific resolutions, including:

2160x1080 pixels (3 screens) 1560x624 pixels (2 screens) 2016x672 pixels (2 screens) 1024x640 pixels (1 screen)

These variations highlight the importance of designing creatives with flexibility or preparing specific versions for each required resolution. Lurity's self-serve platform manages the synchronisation of screen inventory from the Lurity Exchange, reflecting live availability and precise specifications for selection. When you select locations in the online planner, you will be presented with the exact specifications for each chosen screen.

The Importance of Correct Aspect Ratio

Delivering creative that matches the screen's aspect ratio prevents distortion, cropping, or the appearance of black bars (letterboxing or pillarboxing). For instance, a 16:9 creative displayed on a 9:16 screen will appear stretched, squashed, or significantly cropped. Always design your assets to fit the native aspect ratio of the target screen. This attention to detail contributes to a professional and impactful campaign.

Creative Rules That Work on Screen#

Effective DOOH creative goes beyond technical specifications; it embraces the unique characteristics of the medium and the viewing environment. Here are key principles for designing impactful DOOH advertisements.

Keep it Simple and Clear

DOOH is a glance medium. Viewers are often in transit or multitasking. Complex messages, busy backgrounds, or intricate details will be lost. Focus on one core message, one striking visual, and minimal text. Think about how a person would perceive your ad while walking past at a normal pace or driving by.

High Contrast and Legibility

Ensure high contrast between text and background colours. Use large, bold, sans-serif fonts that are easy to read from a distance. Avoid overly ornate or thin typefaces. Consider the viewing environment—bright outdoor screens may require brighter colours and greater contrast than indoor screens.

Strong Call to Action (if applicable)

If you want viewers to take an action, make it brief, clear, and easy to remember. A short web address, a QR code (for static screens where dwell time allows), or a simple instruction works best. Avoid lengthy URLs or multiple calls to action.

Brand Integration

Your brand logo should be prominent but not overwhelming. It should be easily identifiable and consistently placed across all creatives. The goal is instant brand recognition.

Contextual Relevance

Tailoring content to the specific venue or time of day can significantly boost effectiveness. For example, a coffee advertisement near a café in the morning or a cinema ad near an entertainment venue. While Lurity's platform allows you to choose specific locations, integrating creative that leverages this context is a strategic decision for advertisers.

Consider linking to our guide on how to choose DOOH locations and screens for more insights into audience and environment matching.

Static vs Motion Creative#

DOOH offers the flexibility of both static images and motion videos. The choice between these formats often depends on your message, target audience, and the screen environment.

Static Imagery

Best Use Cases: Concise Messages: Ideal for simple product showcases, brand awareness, or short promotional announcements. High-Speed Environments: When viewers have very little time to absorb information (e.g., roadside billboards), a static image with a clear message can be more effective than a video that might be partially missed. * Cost-Effective Production: Generally less expensive to produce than video.

Creative Tips: High-resolution images are crucial. Focus on one central visual element. Keep text minimal and impactful. Ensure brand presence is clear.

Motion Video

Best Use Cases: Storytelling: Allows for more complex narratives, product demonstrations, or emotional appeals. Increased Engagement: Movement naturally attracts the eye and can hold attention longer than a static image, especially in environments with some dwell time. * Product Demos: Effectively showcases product features or how a service works.

Creative Tips: Short Duration: Aim for videos between 6-15 seconds. Longer videos risk losing attention. No Sound Reliance: Assume videos will play without audio. Visuals must convey the entire message. Fast Pacing: Keep cuts and scene changes relatively quick to maintain engagement. Looping: Design videos to loop seamlessly for continuous playback.

Lurity supports both static image and short video content. The decision between them should align with your campaign's objectives and the nature of the selected screen locations. All digital displays in Lurity's network support both images and video, ensuring your chosen format plays back reliably.

File Formats and Delivery#

Adhering to correct file formats and specifications is crucial for seamless campaign delivery and optimal display quality. Lurity's platform is designed to make this process straightforward.

Accepted File Formats

Images: JPG (JPEG) and PNG are standard. PNG is preferred for graphics requiring transparency. Videos: MP4 is the universally accepted video format for DOOH. Ensure your video codec is H.264.

Resolution and Aspect Ratio Matching

Always export your creative to the exact pixel dimensions and aspect ratio of the target screen. For example, for a 1920x1080 screen, your image or video should be precisely 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. Do not rely on the platform to scale or crop your creative, as this can lead to undesirable results. Prepare distinct versions for landscape (e.g., 1920x1080) and portrait (e.g., 1080x1920) screens if your campaign includes both.

File Size and Duration

Images: Aim for optimised file sizes. High-resolution images should be compressed without significant loss of quality to ensure quick loading and smooth playback. Videos: Keep video duration between 6-15 seconds. This generally aligns with typical ad loop durations and viewer attention spans in DOOH environments. Shorter videos also mean smaller file sizes, which is beneficial for uploading and streaming. File size limits will be communicated within the Lurity platform during the upload process.

Colour Space

* Use RGB colour space for all digital creative, as screens display colours in RGB. Avoid CMYK, which is for print.

Creative Upload Process

Lurity's self-serve platform simplifies the creative delivery process. Once you have selected your desired locations and dates, you will upload your creative directly through the interface. The system will guide you through the requirements for each chosen screen type. Campaign delivery reporting is part of every campaign, confirming your ads are running as planned.

Format Selection Checklist#

Choosing the right DOOH format and preparing appropriate creative involves several considerations. Use this checklist to guide your decision-making process.

Campaign Objective: What do you want to achieve? (e.g., brand awareness, drive traffic, promote an offer). Decision: Does my objective favour static clarity or dynamic engagement?

Target Audience: Who are you trying to reach? Decision: What are their likely dwelling times and viewing habits in the chosen venues?

Venue Environment: Where will your ads be displayed? Lurity Inventory: Retail malls (279 screens), Residential (120 screens), Retail (103 screens), Transit (25 screens), Other (195 screens), Entertainment (8 screens), Office (5 screens). Decision:* Does the environment favour quick, simple messages (e.g., transit) or more detailed content (e.g., mall waiting areas)?

Screen Orientation: Landscape (16:9) or Portrait (9:16)? Lurity Inventory: 411 screens 1920x1080 (landscape), 326 screens 1080x1920 (portrait). Decision:* Does my core visual asset naturally fit a horizontal or vertical layout? Am I prepared to create both versions?

Resolution and Aspect Ratio: Does my creative match the exact pixel dimensions of the selected screens? Lurity Inventory: Dominant are 1920x1080 and 1080x1920. Minor variations exist. Decision:* Have I exported separate creatives for each unique resolution required, or at least for the two main orientations?

Content Type: Static image or video? Decision: Is my message best conveyed through a single powerful image or through a short, attention-grabbing animation/video?

Message Clarity: Is the core message immediately understandable in a glance? Decision: Is text minimal, large, and high-contrast? Is the brand logo prominent?

File Specifications: Are my files in the correct format (JPG/PNG for images, MP4 for video), within duration limits (for video), and optimized for size? Decision: Have I reviewed Lurity's specific upload guidelines in the platform?

By systematically working through this checklist, you can ensure your DOOH creative is technically sound and strategically aligned with the unique characteristics of the Lurity network in Slovakia and Czechia. For information on campaign pricing, which varies based on selection, please consult our dedicated guide on how DOOH advertising pricing works or use the online planner to see real-time costs for your specific selections.

To dive deeper into planning your entire DOOH advertising journey, we recommend exploring our comprehensive guide on how to plan a DOOH campaign step by step. This will provide a holistic view from objective setting to post-campaign analysis.