Weekly

Billboard: Digital in the Polar Region

Reykjavik | Most visitors come to Iceland for the breathtaking nature – from glaciers to volcanoes to the Northern Lights. In the capital region of Reykjavik, however, you will find 500 artificial lights – DooH screens at bus stops and 50 large LED billboards.

The Icelandic capital region, with 250,000 inhabitants, is the economic center of the northern European island state. In winter, daylight is limited to a few hours, and the wind whips the rain vertically through the streets. The influencer paradise of Iceland shows its rough side, while invidis is inspecting its digital signage landscape.

Noone driving through Reykjavik can miss the hundreds of roadside DooH screens. Reykjavik is one of the smallest European capitals, but is at the forefront when it comes to DooH. The dominant DooH provider is Billboard Iceland with around 50 large DooH billboards and 400 DooH screens at bus stops. Digital dominates – static billboards have almost been fully replaced with LED.

The preference for digital is not only due to the liberal DooH approval practices but also due to the geographical location. In winter, it is dark for a long time – currently there are only 4 to 5 hours of daylight – and frequent rain falls affect visibility even in the bright summer season.

Bus departure times meet DooH

In Reykjavik, as in Montreal and other Northern cities, the focus is on integrating transit information into DooH screens. Instead of a separate digital signage display infrastructure, the DooH provider integrates public transit departure information into the DooH program. DooH media owner Billboard reserves a few pixels at the top of the display for departure times of the next buses.

Largest telco with big OoH plans

At the beginning of 2024, Iceland’s largest telecommunications provider Siminn acquired Iceland’s largest out-of-home media owner, Billboard, for the equivalent of 36 million euros.

With this acquisition, Siminn – “the telephone” in Icelandic – is further expanding its own digital advertising activities (mobile, CTV), driven by programmatic and first-party data – telcos with access to user and movement data can offer more precise targeting and achieve higher CPMs in DooH marketing.

The data lever appears to be fueling the interest of telcos and financial investors, as the latest deals involving Clear Channel / Bauer Media, Vistar Media / T-Mobile and the open investor search at Ströer show. With the acquisition of Billboard, which has invested considerable sums in the DooH infrastructure in recent years, Siminn also gets access to the roadside installations and ground connections for future mobile radio stations. The DooH media network is currently being expanded to 900 locations, 600 of which are digital.