Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising in Canada is getting a long-awaited performance upgrade.
ABCS Insights and Neptune Retail Solutions have expanded their collaboration to introduce standardized, outcome-based measurement for DOOH campaigns in Canada. The move enables brands to quantify incremental sales lift and incremental return on ad spend (iROAS) tied directly to physical-world media exposure.
For a channel historically measured by impressions and reach, this represents a meaningful shift toward performance accountability.
Moving DOOH Beyond Reach Metrics
While DOOH has benefited from programmatic buying and improved audience targeting in recent years, measurement has lagged—particularly in Canada. Brands often lacked consistent ways to connect billboard or in-store screen exposure to actual purchase outcomes.
The ABCS–Neptune expansion aims to close that gap.
By bringing sales-lift and iROAS measurement to the Canadian market, the partnership allows advertisers and agencies to evaluate DOOH campaigns with the same rigor typically applied to digital, social, and retail media.
That alignment matters in an era when CMOs face mounting pressure to justify every media dollar.
“Media that isn’t measured is too often undervalued,” said Jerome Shimizu, CEO of ABCS Insights. He noted that Canadian brands have historically had limited visibility into what DOOH delivers beyond audience reach metrics.
The implication is clear: if DOOH can demonstrate incremental sales impact, it can compete more effectively for performance budgets—not just awareness allocations.
From Exposure to Shelf: Closing the Loop
Neptune Retail Solutions brings retail connectivity to the equation. The company’s In-Store x DOOH targeted media product—already deployed in the U.S.—connects out-of-store DOOH exposure to in-store purchase behavior.
In the U.S., the offering has focused on driving measurable foot traffic and sales by linking exposure data with transaction outcomes. According to Neptune CEO Bill Redmond, the collaboration with ABCS has delivered strong results south of the border in 2025, and expanding into Canada extends that model into a new market.
The approach attempts to solve a core omnichannel challenge: proving that upper-funnel, physical-world media can directly influence lower-funnel purchase behavior.
If successful, the framework gives Canadian advertisers the ability to:
- Quantify incremental sales lift tied to DOOH campaigns
- Measure iROAS with standardized methodologies
- Compare DOOH performance against digital and retail media channels
- Make more informed cross-channel budget decisions
Why This Matters Now
Retail media networks and performance marketing channels have steadily absorbed a larger share of media budgets because they offer closed-loop measurement. DOOH, by contrast, has often been perceived as less accountable—even as its digital infrastructure improved.
As omnichannel strategies mature, advertisers increasingly expect consistent measurement standards across every touchpoint. The lack of standardized outcome-based measurement in Canada has been a friction point for brands looking to integrate DOOH into performance-driven plans.
By introducing a sales-lift framework tailored to the Canadian market, ABCS Insights positions itself as a measurement bridge between digital media and physical retail outcomes.
ABCS provides a digital advertising and growth intelligence analytics platform designed specifically for Canadian advertisers, giving it local market expertise that global measurement vendors may lack.
Competitive and Market Implications
Globally, DOOH is undergoing a transformation. Programmatic pipes, improved audience data, and better attribution methodologies are gradually reframing the channel as a measurable performance driver rather than a pure branding play.
In the U.S., several vendors have introduced sales-lift studies tied to DOOH exposure, but Canada has seen slower adoption of standardized frameworks. This expansion signals that Canadian advertisers may soon evaluate DOOH using the same incremental metrics applied to search, social, and retail media.
That shift could:
- Elevate DOOH’s role in full-funnel media strategies
- Increase confidence in performance-driven allocations
- Encourage deeper integration between retail data and media exposure signals
It also raises competitive stakes among measurement providers. As attribution and incrementality become table stakes, vendors that can combine local data expertise with scalable analytics frameworks stand to gain share.
The Bottom Line
ABCS Insights and Neptune Retail Solutions are pushing DOOH in Canada toward a more accountable future.
By enabling incremental sales lift and iROAS measurement tied to physical-world exposure, the partnership reframes DOOH as a performance-evaluated channel rather than a reach-only medium.
In a market where measurable impact increasingly dictates media investment, bringing outcome-based rigor to DOOH could significantly reshape how Canadian brands allocate omnichannel budgets.
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