A German digital-out-of-home start-up that has steadily expanded across Europe is now entering the North American market. Berlin-based Framen has primarily grown within the indoor DooH sector by partnering with major gym, grocery, and co-working chains. Through a contract with WeWork, the young company now manages around 700 screens in co-working offices across the U.S. and Canada, in addition to a similar number in Europe.
Framen is a unique player in the DooH space. While they don’t own or install screens themselves, they run a CMS on existing screens. This allows screen owners to sell advertising space, sharing a portion of the revenue with Framen. The CMS also gives them access to a range of infotainment channels.
Framen’s parent company plays a key role here. A few years ago, the start-up was acquired by Axel Springer, Europe’s largest media group, which owns a variety of news and entertainment brands – including Business Insider and Politico in the U.S. Framen has also begun working with social media content creators to develop non-traditional programming and is investing heavily in AI-driven content generation, enabling smaller, local brands to create ad spots with just a few prompts.
Framen’s business model is centered on offering brands access to affluent, younger audiences in highly contextual environments. To validate this approach, the company collaborates with research firm Lumen on attention studies – reporting a 128% higher attention rate for indoor DooH compared to traditional formats.
Unlike most DooH companies, Framen’s model doesn’t require large upfront investments in hardware, making it highly scalable. However, it does come with trade-offs: screens may be outdated or poorly located, and performance depends on how effectively screen owners manage their inventory and ad sales.
Still, adding more than 700 screens to the network at once is a significant milestone, and Framen says even more are set to go live soon.