Glossary of terms
We take the VOODOO out of OOH DOOH!
A
- Ad Inventory: The total amount of advertising space available for sale across media platforms, including OOH and digital experiences like VR and AR environments.
- Advertising Space: The physical or digital location where advertisements are displayed, such as billboards, AR overlays, or VR environments.
- Augmented Reality (AR): A technology that overlays digital content, such as images, sounds, and other data, onto the real world using devices like smartphones, AR glasses, or tablets.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Advanced computational systems that simulate human intelligence, enabling machines to learn, reason, and perform cognitive tasks across various domains.
- AI Personalisation: Intelligent algorithmic techniques that customise user experiences by dynamically adapting content, recommendations, and interactions based on individual preferences.
- AI NPC (Artificial Intelligence Non-Player Character): Dynamically intelligent virtual characters in games, simulations, and interactive environments that use advanced AI algorithms to generate autonomous, context-aware behaviors, responses, and interactions without direct human control.
B
- Beacon: A small device that uses Bluetooth technology to send targeted messages to smartphones within a specific proximity. Used in both OOH and AR activations.
- Billboard: A large, static or digital OOH advertising structure designed to capture attention, often enhanced with AR QR code interactions or motion-activated content.
- Bulletin: A large, high-visibility billboard typically located on major highways or streets, often used for impactful OOH campaigns.
C
- Campaign Impressions: The total number of views an ad receives, whether in OOH spaces, VR simulations, or AR overlays.
- Computer Vision: The technology that enables devices to interpret and interact with visual data, critical for AR, VR, and MR applications.
- Copy: The text or messaging content used in an advertisement.
- Coverage: The geographic area reached by an OOH campaign.
- Creative Technology Solutions: Innovative technological approaches that merge artistic creativity with technical capabilities to solve complex design and communication challenges.
D
- Daily Effective Circulation (DEC): The average number of people passing and potentially seeing an OOH ad per day.
- DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home): Digitally displayed advertisements in public spaces, often integrated with AR experiences or interactive XR elements.
- Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO): A process of personalising ad content in real time based on viewer data. Used extensively in programmatic DOOH and VR environments.
E
- Extended Reality (XR): An umbrella term encompassing all immersive technologies, including VR, AR, and MR, used in advertising and interactive campaigns.
- Experiential Marketing: A marketing strategy focused on creating engaging, real-world or virtual experiences for consumers, often leveraging XR.
- Exposure: The opportunity for an audience to see an advertisement.
- Enterprise Training Solutions: Technology-driven learning platforms that deliver scalable, standardised professional development and skill acquisition programs within organisational contexts.
F
- First-Person View (FPV): A perspective commonly used in VR and AR applications, allowing users to experience content as if they were seeing it through their own eyes.
- Frequency: The average number of times an individual is exposed to an advertisement across OOH, VR, or AR platforms.
- FOOH: Future or also known as fake out of home, where vertical mixed reality video is used to blur the lines of what is real and the virtual world.
- Foveated Rendering: Advanced rendering technique that leverages eye-tracking technology to apply maximum visual detail only where the user is directly looking, reducing computational load by rendering peripheral areas with lower resolution and detail.
G
- Gamification: The application of game-design elements in non-gaming contexts, such as interactive AR campaigns or VR advertising.
- Geofencing: A location-based technology used to trigger ads or content delivery in a defined area, relevant to both OOH and AR activations.
- Gross Impressions: The total number of times an ad is seen by individuals, including repeat views.
H
- Head-Mounted Display (HMD): A wearable device, such as VR goggles or AR glasses, that immerses the user in virtual or augmented environments.
- Holographic Display: A technology that projects 3D visuals into physical space, often used in cutting-edge OOH campaigns.
I
- Immersive Advertising: Ads designed to fully engage users through technologies like VR, AR, or MR.
- Immersive Experiences: Interactive digital environments that engage multiple sensory inputs, creating deeply engaging and realistic simulated interactions.
- Interactive OOH (iOOH): OOH advertising that enables interaction, often through touchscreens, motion sensors, or AR applications.
- Impressions: The total number of times an ad is seen by potential viewers.
J
- Journey Mapping: The process of visualising the customer journey across touch points, including OOH, XR, and digital interactions.
K
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Metrics used to measure the success of advertising campaigns, whether in OOH, AR, or VR settings.
L
- Location-Based Advertising: Ad delivery tailored to a user’s location, a strategy that overlaps between OOH and AR campaigns.
- Lightfield Display: A technology that creates holographic-like imagery for VR and AR without requiring wearables.
- Line of Sight: The clear visibility of an OOH advertisement from a specific viewing location.
M
- Machine Learning (ML): A subset of AI focusing on algorithms that allow computer systems to automatically improve performance and learn from data without explicit programming.
- Mixed Reality (MR): A hybrid of real and virtual worlds where digital and physical objects interact in real time. MR is commonly used in immersive storytelling and advertising.
- Motion Capture (MoCap): Technology used to record and replicate human movements, enhancing realism in VR and MR applications.
- Media Buyer: A professional responsible for purchasing advertising space, including OOH, VR, and AR inventory.
- Marketing and Advertising Technology: Sophisticated digital ecosystems leveraging data analytics, automation, and targeting mechanisms to optimise communication strategies.
- Mobile App Development: Software engineering discipline focused on creating applications for smartphones and portable digital devices across various platforms.
N
- Native Advertising: Ads designed to blend seamlessly into the content environment, applicable to both OOH and immersive XR experiences.
- Near Field Communication (NFC): A technology enabling short-range communication between devices, used in OOH for interactive and AR campaigns.
- Net Reach: The number of unique individuals exposed to an advertisement.
O
- Out-of-Home (OOH): Advertising that reaches consumers in public spaces, including traditional billboards and digital formats enhanced with AR/VR technology.
- Optics Tracking: A method used in AR and VR to accurately track user movement and interaction with virtual elements.
- Overlay: Digital content superimposed onto a real-world environment in AR campaigns.
P
- Programmatic Advertising: The automated buying and selling of ad inventory, applied across DOOH, AR, and VR platforms.
- Projection Mapping: A technology that transforms surfaces, such as buildings, into dynamic visual displays, often augmented with AR.
- Point of Interest (POI): A specific location used to target OOH or AR ads for relevance.
Q
- QR Codes in Advertising: Two-dimensional barcodes enabling rapid digital information transfer in marketing campaigns, allowing consumers to instantly access websites, promotional content, product details, or special offers by scanning with mobile devices.
- Quantum Dot Display: A type of screen technology that enhances colour accuracy, often used in AR glasses and VR headsets.
R
- Reach: The total number of unique viewers exposed to an advertisement, across OOH, VR, AR, and XR platforms.
- Retargeting: The practice of re-engaging users who have interacted with ads, applicable in digital, OOH, and XR campaigns.
- Roadside Billboard: A billboard located along streets or highways, often used for high-visibility OOH campaigns.
S
- Spatial Audio: 3D sound technology that enhances immersion in VR, AR, and MR experiences.
- Spatial Computing: Spatial computing is a term Apple used when it launched their Vision Pro headset in 2024. They use this term instead of the industry recognised XR term (extended reality) to separate themselves from the competition. Apple uses a codebase called visionOS.
- Screen-Based OOH: Digital screens in public spaces used for advertisements, increasingly integrated with interactive AR content.
- Share of Voice (SOV): The percentage of advertising presence in a given medium or market.
- Social Augmented Reality (Social AR): Interactive digital overlays integrated with social media platforms, enabling shared immersive experiences and enhanced digital communication.
- Sales Enablement Tools: Digital technologies that streamline sales processes, providing representatives with insights, resources, and analytics to optimise customer interactions and performance.
T
- Traffic Count: The number of people passing by an OOH ad location, which can also be used to gauge AR engagement in the area.
- Tracking Pixels: Small code snippets used to monitor ad performance, including AR and XR campaigns.
- Transit Advertising: Advertising displayed on public transportation or in transit stations, often integrated with AR or DOOH technology.
- Three.js (3.js): JavaScript library for creating 3D computer graphics in web browsers, providing simplified WebGL rendering with powerful tools for rendering, animation, and interactive 3D visualisations across multiple platforms.
- 2D Mobile Games: Digital interactive entertainment applications designed for mobile devices, featuring two-dimensional graphics, simplified gameplay mechanics, and touch-based controls optimised for smartphones and tablets.
- 3DOOH: Anamorphic (curved) billboards that gives the elusion that objects or people can come out of the screen.
- 3D Modelling and Animation: Digital design processes creating three-dimensional representations and dynamic visual narratives using specialised software and rendering techniques.
U
- User Experience (UX): The overall experience a user has while interacting with ads, whether in OOH, AR, or VR environments.
- User Interface (UI): The consumer facing navigation of a mobile app, device, or anything we come into contact with in the digital world.
- Ultra-Wide Field of View (FoV): A feature of advanced VR headsets that offers an expansive view, enhancing user immersion.
- Urban Panels: Street-level advertising units typically placed in high-traffic urban areas.
V
- Virtual Reality (VR): A fully immersive digital experience where users interact with a computer-generated environment, often used in advertising to create memorable brand experiences.
- View-ability: A measure of whether an ad was visible to its audience, applicable in OOH, AR, and VR contexts.
- Vehicle Wraps: Ads applied directly to vehicles, blending traditional OOH with potential AR integrations.
- Volumetric Scanning: Advanced 3D imaging technology capturing precise spatial measurements and comprehensive geometric data of physical objects or environments.
W
- WebGL Development: Web-based graphics programming technique enabling high-performance 3D and 2D rendering directly in web browsers using JavaScript and GPU acceleration.
- Wearables: Devices like AR glasses, VR headsets or even wearable wristbands (like Apple Watch) used to deliver immersive advertising experiences. Also think Apple Vision Pro!
- Way-finding: Interactive maps or guides, often integrated into AR apps or XR environments, to assist navigation.
X
- XR (Extended Reality): The collective term for AR, VR, and MR technologies used to create immersive experiences.
- XR Advertising: Marketing that leverages extended reality platforms or technology to create engaging and interactive campaigns, think 3DOOH etc.
Y
- Yield Management: The practice of optimising pricing and inventory allocation for ad spaces, applicable across OOH and XR platforms.
Z
- Zero Latency: A critical feature in XR applications ensuring seamless interaction between users and virtual environments.
