The OOH industry posted record revenue in 2025, but most campaigns are still measured by immediate impressions. That measurement misses the point. When a billboard sits along a marathon route, shows up in a runner's finish-line photo, circulates on social media, and then follows attendees home through programmatic retargeting, the campaign has already outlived the impression count by weeks. The brands getting the most out of OOH right now are the ones designing for the full consumer journey around cultural and community events.
Jessica Durbin, Director of Client Partnerships at Wilkins Media, specializes in OOH media planning, programmatic digital out-of-home, and place-based advertising across transit, airports, and street-level formats. Before Wilkins, she spent nearly three years at OUTFRONT Media and held senior sales roles in radio and media. Her work focuses on mapping full consumer journeys around events and high-dwell-time environments.
"People want to know how many impressions a billboard gives them, but you have to think beyond that. Out-of-home advertising can live on through photos, social media, earned media, and retargeting. The value goes far beyond that first impression," says Durbin.
Durbin points to the Boston Marathon as a textbook case. The race draws a massive live audience with built-in dwell time, high emotional intensity, and heavy social media activity. Sponsors placed along the route appear not only to spectators on race day but in broadcast footage, runner photos, and social posts that circulate for weeks.
"When you show up in these moments of really high emotions, they last in people's photo albums and memories forever," Durbin says. "My father used to run marathons, and we used to sit on the sidelines. I have pictures of his marathons, and those sponsors are still in those photos."
But the strategy is not limited to marquee national events. Durbin describes building campaigns around the Buffalo Wing Festival, the Durham Fair in Connecticut, and local community gatherings that draw tens of thousands of attendees. For an early learning center looking to reach families, her team identifies regional fairs and festivals with dense attendance in the client's target geography. "These types of events are happening all the time, all across the country. They're a great opportunity to reach people when they're in a receptive mindset."
Durbin argues that standard creative, when dropped into an event environment, falls flat. The ad has to match the moment. "When advertisers use the context of what people are feeling during the event and make ads that are contextual to it, that's what works. You can't just place what you'd normally run for a regular branding campaign."
She also flags the risk of brands appearing to parachute into an event without genuine relevance. "People are very savvy to advertising now. They realize when they're being sold. It's really important that brands show up authentically and offer something the audience would actually benefit from."
The real value of event-tied OOH emerges after the event ends. Durbin describes how Wilkins extends campaigns through programmatic retargeting, capturing device IDs from attendees and following them across mobile, social media, connected TV, and place-based media at gas stations, gyms, and transit stops. "We can capture IDs from the event. We can figure out their pathway to and from it. And then we follow that consumer's journey so it's not a one-and-done."
Durbin stresses that a single exposure rarely drives action. The goal is to build frequency across touchpoints until the brand becomes familiar enough to influence a decision. She offers a personal example: her husband, who insists advertising does not work on him, starts eating Taco Bell after repeated exposure across billboards, phone ads, and TV. "He always tells me advertising doesn't work, but I've watched it happen. Technology has allowed us to find people and deliver frequency, which is key in helping people make that decision."
The measurement infrastructure has also caught up. Real-time interactive maps now show where programmatic placements are running, and reporting gives advertisers visibility into how campaigns perform across formats. "Years ago, we could never show people an interactive map of where their programmatic ads were playing. We can do that today in real time."
No campaign can guarantee a viral moment, but Durbin argues that brands can increase their chances with a straightforward formula: strong creative that matches the emotional context, authentic relevance to the audience, and enough frequency to keep the brand present after the initial encounter fades.
"You can buy all the media you want, but if your creative is not good, you're not going to get the moment you're looking for. It's about context, knowing who the audience is, and having the creative match that moment."
