Decathlon, an international sporting goods retailer, launched a programmatic digital out-of-home campaign in the Netherlands in partnership with Talon NL and Broadsign to boost in-store footfall during the brand’s peak summer season.
Objective
The campaign’s primary objective was to drive immediate, measurable foot traffic to Decathlon stores in major Dutch cities. A key goal was to demonstrate the value and effectiveness of programmatic DOOH by measuring the tangible footfall uplift in campaign locations compared to a non-exposed control group. By doing so, they aimed to prove that pDOOH could be a powerful tool for converting ad exposure into real-world consumer action.
Strategy
Talon NL developed a high-impact, three-week pDOOH campaign using Broadsign’s OutMoove DSP to target high-traffic urban locations. Activating across 218 digital screens near Decathlon stores, the strategy was designed to maximize visibility and influence consumers close to the point of purchase.
The campaign included a strategic test-and-learn component: media pressure was systematically varied between cities to evaluate how different levels of share of voice impacted store visits. The campaign achieved broad market reach while simultaneously generating data-backed insights to optimize future campaign investment and clearly demonstrate the measurable power of pDOOH.
Results
Significant Incremental Footfall Lift: The campaign generated a substantial 46% footfall lift across all Decathlon stores in the campaign group. While a notable 38% lift was observed in the control group due to seasonality and the time of year, the incremental 8 percentage point increase can be directly attributed to the impact of the programmatic DOOH campaign.
Higher frequency locations drove greater lift: Media pressure was strategically varied across cities, which demonstrated a strong, direct correlation: higher campaign frequency and Share of Voice (SOV) resulted in greater foot traffic uplift. This validated the decision to invest more heavily in key markets:
- Amsterdam: With high media investment resulting in 19% of ad inventory across 86 screens, this location delivered a massive 59% lift in store visits.
- Rotterdam: With an average 12% share of voice across 77 screens, this location delivered a 48% overall lift in store visits.
- Den Haag: Conversely, a lower exposure, corresponding to 8% of ad inventory across 51 screens, yielded a 26% lift in store visits.
