Jean-Christophe Conti, CEO at VIOOH, looks at the rise of programmatic DOOH in China - and how the region is making the most of the format…

For years, Chinese brands expanding internationally played the same game: performance marketing, tight return-on-investment (ROI) target, and conversion at all costs. It worked, until it didn't. Rising competition and climbing customer acquisition costs have made pure performance marketing unsustainable. At the same time, tariff pressures and the risk of over-reliance on single markets are pushing brands to diversify into new territories. 

In a recent conversation I had at the World Out-of-Home Organisation Annual Congress with Charles Shen, CEO of Meetsocial, we explored how these forces are driving a fundamental strategic shift from Chinese advertisers. Drawing on its work with brands across cross-border e-commerce, consumer, app and gaming sectors, Meetsocial has observed an evolution in how Chinese advertisers approach international growth. Brands that once measured everything in clicks and conversions are investing in something harder to quantify but more durable: global brand presence. And that shift is opening up a significant new opportunity for programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH).

Over the past two to three years, that re-orientation has become a clear strategic trend. Chinese brands are paying more attention to their values, their cultural identity, and the long-term impression they leave on consumers in markets far from home. Communication is shifting from chasing traffic to building trust. And building trust at scale, in the real world, is exactly what pDOOH delivers.

Tariffs as a forcing function

The global trade environment has accelerated this shift. Rising tariffs and the risk of over-dependence on a single market have pushed Chinese brands to diversify; not just their revenue streams, but their geographic footprint. Brands that once focused narrowly on one or two regions are now exploring emerging markets and building presence across multiple territories simultaneously.

This changes what they need from their media. A brand competing on price can rely on performance channels. A brand competing on value, which is increasingly the only sustainable position when tariffs squeeze margins, needs to build recognition, credibility, and emotional resonance. That's a brand-building brief which pDOOH is designed to deliver on.

Programmatic DOOH as the bridge

According to Charles Shen, this evolution is becoming increasingly visible across Meetsocial's international client base. More brands are no longer evaluating media purely through short-term ROI, but through their ability to build lasting visibility across multiple markets. As Chinese companies expand globally, coordinated brand experiences are becoming just as important as efficient customer acquisition.

What makes pDOOH particularly well suited to Chinese brands' international ambitions is its combination of scale, flexibility, and real-world impact. With strong, high-impact exposure from large digital screens, pDOOH can support the entire journey, from entering a new market to acquiring users, and shift from short-term performance marketing to long-term brand building. 

It supports scalable campaigns across multiple markets, helping brands efficiently expand into diverse global regions. Its flexibility and measurable data allows brands to respond quickly to changes in overseas markets and support stable, enduring global growth.

It also enables cross-market, automated delivery, helping brands cover multiple overseas markets efficiently, without the operational complexity that would otherwise make global campaigns prohibitive.

For example, a campaign for global home appliance brand, Haier during its Paris Saint-Germain partnership announcement synchronised landmark screens across 13 countries, including France, Japan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, during the New Year peak moment. The campaign ran alongside social and digital launches to create a unified global brand moment. 

It generated over 170 million pDOOH impressions and more than 360 hours of continuous exposure. That kind of simultaneous, multi-market physical presence is not achievable through digital channels alone. It's the difference between being seen and being felt.

Powering omnichannel and assistance from AI

Crucially, pDOOH isn't being used in isolation. Chinese brands are integrating it into omnichannel strategies alongside social, mobile, and connected TV (CTV). They’re using digital channels to drive targeted engagement, while pDOOH reinforces messaging by bringing it into the real world via physical screens, improving brand recall and trust in markets where that trust still needs to be earned.

Underpinning all of this is AI across planning, trading, creative, and measurement. The most sophisticated marketers are using AI to identify the right markets and audience segments, optimise channel selection, and budget allocation in real time, generate, and test creative at scale, and attribute results continuously. It's AI embedded across the full marketing cycle, making global campaigns both more ambitious and more efficient. Platforms such as Meetsocial are increasingly using AI to connect strategy, creative development, media execution, and measurement, enabling brands to manage complex global campaigns with greater speed and consistency.

Chinese brands are not experimenting with pDOOH. They're arriving with scale and strategy, reinforced by AI intelligence. The brands conquering digital screens globally right now are showing the rest of the world what's possible when performance discipline meets long-term brand ambition. 

What started as a shift in marketing philosophy, from short-term conversion to long-term brand building, is translating into real pDOOH investment. That's a trend worth paying attention to.

Jean-Christophe Conti is chief executive officer at VIOOH. For more information visit viooh.com