Audience segmentation – or “audience segmentation” in English, a term often used even in Swedish – is about defining target groups based on behaviours, locations and movement patterns, not just demographics. In out‑of‑home advertising, age and gender are rarely enough. What really matters is when, where and how people move through the city, and in which situations you encounter them. This is where environments in out‑of‑home and traffic flows become core building blocks.

Major agency groups such as GroupM describe the evolution of DOOH in exactly these terms: as a more audience‑based, data‑driven channel where campaigns are planned around audience behaviour, location and time, rather than purely socio‑demographics (see GroupM/Kinetic Sightline and the launch of Journeys). For context, GroupM’s Journeys platform is a tool for data‑driven DOOH planning, where campaigns are built around people’s real‑world journeys and touchpoints in everyday life, rather than just around individual out‑of‑home units and exposures.

Everyday patterns: Commuters, locals, visitors, shoppers

The first level is segmenting by everyday patterns. Commuters, locals, visitors and shoppers move in different corridors and at different times. Out‑of‑home networks are chosen to mirror these flows:

• Bus shelters and transit advertising along commuting routes capture work‑bound audiences.
• Street furniture and stand‑alone units in city centres capture people moving between offices, retail and services.
• Large billboards along arterial roads can focus on car‑driving segments.

Starting from where people actually move, rather than only who they are, is also the foundation in international overviews of location‑based OOH/DOOH planning, where geodata and movement patterns are used to identify the right environments and corridors (see Factori on location intelligence in OOH/DOOH and AI Digital on geo‑targeted advertising).

Context and location: When the customer is close to purchase

The next level is context and situation. Select units (which can be bought directly or programmatically) around grocery stores, shopping centres or transport hubs are used when the aim is to reach people close to the moment of purchase. Placement of (D)OOH becomes more important than traditional demographics. Two people with different backgrounds may have similar propensity to buy when they are in the same situation.

In practice, OOH audience segmentation often relies on place‑ and situation‑based data rather than individual profiles, which aligns with how leading DOOH players and agencies describe modern audience targeting: focused on location, real‑time triggers and behavioural signals (see, for example, the Perion/GroupM case on more precise audience targeting in programmatic DOOH).

DOOH and prDOOH: Deeper segmentation with time and data

With DOOH and prDOOH, segmentation can be taken further. By controlling when the ads run, you can target messages towards, for example:

• Morning commuters
• Lunchtime flows
• Evening activities
• Weekend shoppers
• After‑work traffic to restaurants and bars
• School and daycare drop‑off/pick‑up
• Late‑evening and night‑time traffic
• Visitors attending major events, matches or concerts

The same screen in a bus shelter can therefore address several different segments across the day. This allows you to combine broad reach with high relevance, without changing the physical infrastructure. The campaign setup, combined with the right timing, becomes the winning recipe for reaching the target segment.

This approach is clearly reflected in GroupM and Kinetic’s DOOH platforms, where the goal is to enable audience‑based DOOH campaigns driven by location, time of day and behavioural data, integrated with other programmatic channels (see Sightline and Mumbrella’s article on data‑driven DOOH planning via Journeys). WPP/GroupM also emphasise in their Nordic overview that data, AI and audience analysis are becoming increasingly important in (D)OOH planning.

Creative OOH solutions for strategic segments

Creative OOH solutions / special builds are used more selectively within the segments that are most strategically important. A 3D outdoor execution or a semi‑takeover campaign around a central location can be designed to reach a priority behavioural segment. There are countless such segments – to give a few examples:

• Tech‑interested city commuters
• Families on their way to retail parks
• Evening visitors in restaurant and entertainment districts
• Early‑morning commuters to industrial and logistics areas
• Students moving between campus, public transport and city
• Gym‑goers before and after work
• Big‑basket shoppers heading to out‑of‑town retail areas
• Tourists in city centres and around attractions

Impact is amplified when these hero executions are surrounded by a broader network that builds reach before and after contact with the main unit.

In international competitions such as the OAAA OOH Media Plan Awards, campaign planning is highlighted as particularly effective when it is “grounded in audience understanding” and uses budget smartly to reach the right people in the right environments. This confirms the value of audience‑driven planning even for more unusual or spectacular (D)OOH activations.

Data + everyday life = better audience segmentation in (D)OOH

To find the best formats for reach within a given segment, you need to combine:

• Data on traffic flows and placements
• A clear picture of the audience’s everyday life and situations

Key questions therefore become:

About the audience & situations

• How does weekday behaviour differ from weekends for this audience?
• What are their travel habits (car, public transport, bike, on foot)?
• Which places are shared by most in the segment (work areas, schools, malls)?
• Are there clear micro‑segments with distinct movement patterns (e.g. parents of young children vs young singles)?

About purchase context & decision journey

• Where is the audience just before purchase (physically and mentally)?
• What role should OOH play: driving store traffic now or building preference for later?
• Which triggers influence them most: price, convenience, novelty, status?
• How long is the gap between exposure and the opportunity to act (store/web)?

About environments & touchpoints

• Which environments do we want to dominate, and where is it enough just to be present?
• Where is competitive noise highest – and where can we own attention?
• In which environments is mobile usage strongest (as a complement to DOOH/OOH)?
• Are there specific “high‑value” locations tied to the category (gyms for sport, grocery for FMCG, airports for premium/brand)?

About formats & creative requirements

• Do we need motion (DOOH) to explain the message, or is static sufficient?
• Where is high frequency (many smaller units) needed vs high impact per contact (iconic units)?
• Does the message need to adapt by place/time (e.g. different message for inbound vs outbound commuters)?
• Which formats integrate best with the rest of the media mix (social, search, TV)?

About measurement & learning

• What is most important to optimise: reach, frequency, footfall, online behaviour?
• Which units can be linked to store/place visits (footfall attribution, geo‑data)?
• Which hypotheses do we want to test between formats/placements in the campaign?
• How will we use learnings from this campaign for the next wave (always‑on or bursts)?

Audience segmentation for out‑of‑home thus becomes a way of working, not just a booking method. You start from movement and situation, and let units, formats, networks and buying logic be shaped accordingly.

This shift – from simple demographics to more advanced, data‑based audience planning in OOH/DOOH – mirrors the development driven by large media agency groups through their own DOOH solutions and recommendations (GroupM/Kinetic Sightline, WPP/GroupM Nordic) and OAAA’s focus on audience‑based planning.