VIOOH and Arla Foods Release Whitepaper on Programmatic DOOH Performance in Norway

VIOOH and Arla Foods, one of the world's largest dairy companies, have released a joint whitepaper titled The Proof is Physical: How Arla Foods Delivered Performance with programmatic DOOH. The document examines how programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) can function as a measurable extension of digital campaigns. The analysis covers nine distinct campaigns executed across Arla's brand portfolio in Norway during 2025. Every campaign produced a positive uplift in store visitation compared with pre-campaign baselines, with the average interval between ad exposure and first store visit cited at less than two days.

What does the VIOOH and Arla Foods whitepaper cover?

The project was designed to test whether street-level digital screens, traded programmatically, could deliver accountable performance outcomes rather than simply building awareness. The document brings together results from nine campaign flights run throughout 2025 across multiple Arla brands in Norway. Arla Foods used the exercise to assess the format across different objectives, audiences and seasonal moments.

The paper positions pDOOH as a real-time, location-driven channel. Gavin Wilson, Global Chief Commercial Officer at VIOOH, is quoted as saying: "These results show that pDOOH has moved well beyond brand-building – it is now one of the most accountable, immediate performance channels available to marketers. Arla's willingness to test the format across nine campaigns and a full portfolio of brands gives the industry robust evidence base for what real-time, location-driven media can deliver." Annick Batamuliza Hillestad, Digital Media Specialist at Arla Foods – The Barn, said pDOOH proved flexible enough to serve different brand goals and that seeing consumers act within two days of exposure gave the team confidence in the channel as a performance driver.

The whitepaper also points to wider momentum behind the channel: digital ads primed by OOH exposure receive an average of 37% more attention, a dynamic contributing to 89% of Nordic marketers now reallocating budget from other digital channels toward pDOOH.

How was footfall performance measured in Norway?

Measurement was conducted with specialist Spotzi and out-of-home media owner JCDecaux, using Foot Traffic Attribution (FTA) studies. Virtual boundaries were placed around participating digital screens and around target retail stores. Anonymous mobile signals passing the screen geofences were categorized as exposed, and those devices were then tracked for subsequent store entries within an attribution window of around five days.

Exposed-device visitation was compared with a pre-campaign control group to estimate incremental footfall and percentage lift. The method relied on aggregated and anonymised location data rather than third-party cookies. The paper frames this approach as enabling a direct link between screen exposure and store visits within a short decision window.

What did the Starbucks Tripleshot campaigns achieve?

Starbucks Tripleshot, marketed within the Arla portfolio in Norway, was the focus of two separate pDOOH flights. The first, a launch campaign running in March and April and targeted at 18-44-year-olds near stockists, generated 145,301 incremental store visits at a 5% lift versus the pre-campaign baseline. A follow-up campaign in June and July achieved a 41% lift. The whitepaper links the stronger summer result to warmer weather driving on-the-go demand. Taken together, the two flights illustrate how the same brand and format can produce different performance levels by season and context, with proximity to points of sale cited as a targeting factor in the initial launch period.

How did Castello perform during gifting seasons?

Castello, Arla's premium cheese brand, was activated around gifting occasions. An April campaign built around premium gifting drove 438,999 incremental store visits. A separate Christmas activation running between November and December peaked at a 71% lift in store visitation. Nearly 50% of visitors engaged during the November to December period came from high-income households. The whitepaper presents this audience composition figure alongside the lift and volume metrics.

Why was Apetina paired with social video platforms?

For Apetina, the whitepaper describes a campaign built around recipe inspiration. The March flight was paired with Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube activity to create a priming effect. That March campaign achieved a 7% lift and 229,772 incremental visits. A follow-up campaign in the autumn achieved a 29% lift. The whitepaper lists the social platforms as part of the media mix for the initial Apetina flight and separately reports the two lift figures for spring and autumn.

What results did Arla Protein deliver near points of purchase?

Arla Protein, the portfolio's protein-focused brand, ran a campaign in March placed near points of purchase and high-traffic venues. The flight delivered a 23% lift and 297,745 incremental store visits. As with the other brands, the result is derived from the geofenced FTA comparison of exposed devices versus the pre-campaign control group.

The placement strategy is presented as intentionally close to retail environments and busy locations, consistent with the broader theme of reaching consumers already in a purchasing mindset. The whitepaper cites an average time to first store visit of less than two days across all nine campaigns as evidence of pDOOH operating as an immediate nudge.

What does programmatic DOOH offer advertisers according to the report?

Programmatic DOOH is presented as allowing advertisers to shift budgets instantly and to adjust creative in real time through dynamic creative optimisation (DCO). The document states that campaigns can run without third-party cookies and, in its wording, without advertising fraud, in brand-safe environments using aggregated, anonymised location data. It can also now be planned, activated and optimised alongside mobile, display and connected TV within a Demand-Side Platform (DSP). VIOOH is positioned as the supply-side partner enabling this workflow, while JCDecaux is identified as the OOH media owner and Spotzi as the measurement specialist. The full whitepaper, The Proof is Physical: How Arla Foods Delivered Performance with programmatic DOOH, is listed as available to download.