Choosing DOOH Locations & Screens in Slovakia & Czechia

How to Choose the Best DOOH Locations and Screens for Your Campaign#

Choosing the optimal locations and screens for your digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaign is fundamental to its success. This guide will walk international advertisers through the strategic considerations for selecting locations and screens within the Lurity network in Slovakia and Czechia.

Understanding Your Campaign's Core Objectives

Before diving into specific locations, clearly define what you want your DOOH campaign to achieve. Are you aiming for broad brand awareness, driving traffic to a specific retail location, promoting a seasonal offer, or influencing purchasing decisions at the point of sale? Your objectives will dictate the ideal environments and screen placements.

What Makes a Location Work#

An effective DOOH location is one where your target audience is present, receptive, and in the right mindset for your message. It's not just about the number of people who pass by, but who those people are, what they are doing, and how they might interact with your advertisement.

Consider the typical journey of someone encountering a screen. Are they waiting, shopping, commuting, or relaxing? The context of their environment profoundly impacts their attention levels and receptiveness to advertising. For instance, a screen in a mall corridor might capture attention from shoppers actively looking for products, while a screen in a residential building's lobby might reach residents during a moment of routine, offering a different kind of engagement opportunity.

Audience Context Beats Raw Footfall#

While footfall data provides a baseline for potential reach, audience context offers critical insights into the quality of that reach. High footfall in an airport, for example, might be less valuable for a local grocery store advertisement than lower footfall in a neighborhood supermarket where the audience is already in a shopping mindset.

Lurity's network spans 2 countries, Slovakia and Czechia, covering 207 cities with 735 screens across 339 venues. This diversity allows for highly targeted campaigns based on audience profiles. Instead of chasing the highest raw footfall, consider:

Demographics: Is the location frequented by your target age group, income bracket, or lifestyle segment? Mindset: Are people in a purchasing mindset, a leisure mindset, a commuting mindset, or a waiting mindset? Engagement Opportunity: Does the screen placement allow for sufficient viewing time? Is it in a high-dwell area? Proximity to Point of Interest: Is the screen close to where your audience can take action, such as a store, restaurant, or event venue?

By prioritizing audience context, you ensure your message is seen by the right people, at the right time, in the right place, maximizing the efficiency of your DOOH investment.

Environment Types and What They Are Good For#

Different venue environments offer distinct advantages for various campaign goals. Lurity's network includes a diverse range of environments, each suited to particular advertising strategies.

* Retail/Mall (279 screens in 52 venues): These environments are ideal for reaching active shoppers. Screens in malls or large retail centers can promote specific products, direct foot traffic to stores, or build brand awareness for consumer goods. The audience here is often in a purchasing mindset, making these locations highly effective for conversion-focused campaigns. For example, promoting a fashion brand within a shopping mall like those in Bratislava or Praha targets an engaged audience.

* Residential (120 screens in 118 venues): Screens in residential buildings, such as apartment lobbies, reach residents daily in a highly localized context. This environment is excellent for services, local businesses, utilities, or community-focused messages. Campaigns here can build trust and familiarity over time, addressing the daily needs of residents.

* Retail (standalone, 103 screens in 81 venues): These screens are typically found in individual stores or smaller retail chains, offering a more direct connection to point-of-purchase decisions. They are perfect for promoting in-store specials, loyalty programs, or brand messages directly at the shelf or checkout area.

* Other (195 screens in 75 venues): This category encompasses a variety of unique locations, including health facilities, sports centers, or local community hubs. These diverse settings allow for highly niche targeting, reaching specific interest groups or communities with tailored messages.

* Transit (25 screens in 7 venues): Located in places like bus stations or public transport hubs, these screens reach commuters and travelers. They are effective for broad awareness campaigns, entertainment promotion, or services targeting people on the go. Short, impactful messages work best here due to typical dwell times.

* Entertainment (8 screens in 4 venues): Found in cinemas, theaters, or event venues, these screens capture audiences in a relaxed, receptive mood, often seeking leisure or experiences. They are well-suited for promoting events, lifestyle brands, or complementary entertainment offerings.

* Office (5 screens in 2 venues): Screens in office buildings target professionals during their workday. These are effective for B2B services, executive-focused products, or high-value consumer goods, reaching an audience with specific professional interests and purchasing power.

When using the Lurity self-serve platform, you can filter locations by these environment types to strategically match your campaign to the most suitable contexts. This allows you to specifically target, for instance, the 279 screens in retail.mall venues or the 120 screens located in residential buildings across the network.

Coverage vs. Concentration#

Deciding between broad coverage and concentrated impact is a key strategic choice in DOOH planning. Both approaches have their merits, depending on your campaign goals and budget.

Broad Coverage

Choosing broad coverage means spreading your campaign across many cities or regions to maximize overall reach and brand visibility. This is suitable for national campaigns, new product launches, or general brand awareness initiatives. For example, with Lurity's network spanning 207 cities in Slovakia and Czechia, a broad coverage strategy could involve selecting screens in smaller cities like Liptovský Mikuláš (16 screens) or Poprad (9 screens) in addition to major hubs.

Concentrated Impact

Concentrated impact involves focusing your campaign on a smaller number of key cities or even specific venues within a city to achieve higher frequency and deeper engagement with a localized audience. This approach is ideal for driving traffic to specific retail outlets, promoting local events, or saturating a target market.

Consider concentrating your efforts in major cities within the Lurity network:

Bratislava: With 100 screens across 34 venues, Bratislava offers significant opportunity for concentrated impact in Slovakia's capital. Košice: As a major Eastern Slovakian city, Košice provides 81 screens in 23 venues for focused campaigns. Praha: In Czechia, Praha features 49 screens across 12 venues, excellent for targeting the capital's diverse population. Brno: A significant urban center in Czechia, Brno has 26 screens in 9 venues for regional saturation.

Smaller cities also allow for concentration. For instance, focusing on Banská Bystrica (26 screens in 5 venues) or Trenčín (15 screens in 3 venues) can create a strong local presence without stretching resources too thinly. This strategy is particularly effective for reaching a localized audience with specific calls to action.

Your budget and campaign timeline will heavily influence this decision. A good strategy might involve a mix: broad coverage for initial awareness, followed by concentrated impact in key regions to drive specific actions. When you plan a DOOH campaign step by step, these considerations are among the first to address.

Reading a Screen Listing#

When browsing available screens on the Lurity platform, understanding the information provided is key to making informed decisions. Each screen listing offers crucial details that impact its suitability for your campaign.

Key Information to Look For:

1. Location Details: This includes the specific address, city, and venue name (e.g., "Mall Aupark Bratislava"). Pay attention to the exact placement within the venue (e.g., "food court entrance," "by escalators"). Lurity's network includes 382 screens in Slovakia and 353 screens in Czechia, distributed across 141 and 198 venues, respectively. You can explore city and venue inventory listings to see the range.

1. Environment Type: As discussed, the categorisation (e.g., retail.mall, residential, transit) provides immediate context about the audience mindset and potential reach.

1. Screen Specifications:

Resolution: This is critical for creative design. The Lurity network primarily uses 1920x1080 (411 screens) and 1080x1920 (326 screens) resolutions. Other resolutions like 2160x1080, 1560x624, 2016x672, and 1024x640 are also in use. Ensure your creative assets are designed to match the screen's resolution to avoid distortion. More details can be found in our guide on DOOH advertising formats. Orientation (Landscape/Portrait): Every screen in the Lurity network is a digital display, with both landscape (16:9) and portrait (9:16) canvases available. This directly impacts your creative approach. A portrait screen (e.g., 1080x1920) is ideal for vertical videos or mobile-first content, while landscape (e.g., 1920x1080) is better for broader visuals.

1. Availability: Lurity's screen inventory is synchronised from the Lurity Exchange, meaning listed screens and venues reflect live availability. This allows for real-time planning and booking.

1. Pricing Indicators: While actual prices are calculated in the planner, listings may show indicative information that helps you understand the cost drivers. For a detailed explanation, refer to how DOOH advertising pricing works.

By carefully reviewing each screen listing, you can build a selection that precisely matches your technical and strategic requirements.

Building a City Plan#

Once you've decided on your overall strategy (coverage vs. concentration) and understood the different environment types, it's time to build a detailed city plan. This involves selecting specific screens to maximize your campaign's impact within a chosen urban area.

Step-by-Step City Planning:

1. Identify Key Cities: Start by identifying the cities most relevant to your target audience. For instance, if your primary market is Slovakia's capital, Bratislava offers 100 screens across 34 venues. If you're targeting Czechia, Praha has 49 screens in 12 venues, and Brno has 26 screens in 9 venues.

1. Map Out Your Audience Journey: Within each city, consider where your target audience lives, works, shops, and spends leisure time. Do they commute through specific transit hubs? Do they frequent certain shopping centers? Košice, for example, has 81 screens in 23 venues, allowing for comprehensive coverage if your audience is concentrated there.

1. Mix Environment Types Strategically: Combine different environment types to reach your audience at various touchpoints throughout their day. For a product launch, you might use retail.mall screens for active shoppers, residential screens for daily reinforcement, and transit screens for broad awareness.

1. Prioritize High-Impact Locations: Within your chosen environments, look for screens with optimal placement (e.g., high-traffic areas within a mall, strategic points in residential lobbies). The Lurity planner allows you to visually inspect screen locations.

1. Consider Screen Orientation and Resolution: Ensure your creative strategy aligns with the available screen types. If you have vertical video assets, prioritize the 326 screens with 1080x1920 portrait resolution. If your creative is landscape, the 411 screens with 1920x1080 resolution will be your primary choice.

1. Use the Lurity Planner: Leverage the Lurity self-serve booking platform to experiment with different selections. You can pick locations and dates in the online planner and see the price for that selection before committing. This iterative process allows you to refine your plan based on reach, impact, and budget.

1. Review and Optimize: Once you have a preliminary selection, review the total number of screens, venue types, and geographical spread. Ensure it aligns with your campaign objectives. For example, if you aim for broad reach in a specific region, ensure you've covered key cities like Prešov (21 screens) or Žilina (11 screens) in Slovakia, or Havířov (14 screens) and Kladno (13 screens) in Czechia.

Common Location Mistakes#

Even experienced advertisers can make missteps when selecting DOOH locations. Being aware of these common errors can help optimize your campaign strategy.

1. Over-reliance on Raw Footfall: As discussed, high footfall doesn't automatically translate to high impact. A screen in a busy transit hub might have millions of impressions, but if the audience is rushing and not receptive to your message, its value diminishes. Focus on contextual relevance over sheer volume.

1. Ignoring Audience Mindset: Placing an advertisement for a luxury product in an environment primarily frequented by budget-conscious consumers, or a complex informational ad in a fast-paced transit environment, are examples of misaligning with audience mindset. Match the message to the mood of the location.

1. Neglecting Screen Orientation and Resolution: Sending a landscape creative to a portrait screen, or a low-resolution image to a high-resolution display, results in a poor visual experience. Always verify screen specifications and prepare your DOOH advertising formats accordingly.

1. Lack of Geographical Focus: Spreading a limited budget too thinly across too many disparate locations can dilute impact. It's often more effective to concentrate your efforts in a smaller, strategically chosen area to achieve higher frequency and recall.

1. Underestimating Dwell Time: For complex messages or calls to action, screens in high-dwell time environments (e.g., waiting areas, food courts) are more effective than those in fast-moving corridors. Conversely, simple branding messages work well in short-dwell areas.

1. Not Leveraging the Planner: Failing to use the Lurity online planner to test different location selections and immediately see the estimated reach and cost can lead to suboptimal choices. The planner is designed to provide transparent information for your decision-making.

Location Selection Checklist#

Use this checklist to ensure you've covered all critical aspects when choosing DOOH locations and screens for your campaign in Slovakia and Czechia.

Define Objectives: Have you clearly identified your campaign goals (e.g., brand awareness, sales, traffic)? Target Audience Profile: Do you have a clear understanding of who you want to reach (demographics, interests, behaviors)? Audience Context: Does the chosen location align with your audience's mindset at that specific time (e.g., shopping, commuting, waiting)? Environment Type Match: Have you selected venue environments (retail.mall, residential, transit, etc.) that best suit your campaign message and audience? Geographical Strategy: Have you decided between broad coverage across multiple cities (e.g., Bratislava, Košice, Praha, Brno, Banská Bystrica, Prešov, Liptovský Mikuláš, Trenčín, Havířov, Kladno, Žilina, Poprad) or concentrated impact in specific areas? Screen Specifications: Are your creative assets designed for the correct screen resolutions and orientations (e.g., 1920x1080 landscape or 1080x1920 portrait)? Dwell Time Alignment: Does the expected dwell time in the location support the complexity of your message? Proximity to Action: Is the screen close to a point where the audience can take the desired action (e.g., nearby store, website call-to-action)? Availability Confirmed: Have you verified screen availability using the live synchronised inventory in the Lurity planner? Budget Alignment: Does your selected combination of locations and screens fit within your campaign budget, visible before commitment in the online planner? Reporting Considerations: Will the selected locations provide useful data for DOOH measurement and future optimization? Creative Relevance: Is the advertisement highly relevant and engaging for the specific audience in each chosen location?.

By diligently following this checklist, you can make strategic and data-informed decisions to maximize the effectiveness of your DOOH advertising campaigns on the Lurity network in Slovakia and Czechia. Remember, campaign delivery reporting is part of every campaign, offering valuable insights for future planning.