Check out some of our favourite digital signage in Amsterdam

February 4, 2019Rob Côté

Amsterdam’s got extensive canals, beautiful architecture, and some of the tallest people you’ll ever meet. When it comes to digital signage, it’s also home to some of the most forward-thinking networks around.
From impressive installations to early adoption and exploitation of programmatic DOOH transactions, there’s a lot to admire in the way Amsterdam, and the Netherlands more generally, has adopted DOOH.

With everyone headed to Amsterdam to take part in ISE this week, we thought we’d take the occasion to share some of our favourite examples here.

Some of the installations we love

Amsterdam Central Station screens (Exterion Media)

About 250,000 people pass through Amsterdam Central station every day, making use of one of the city’s many trams, buses, ferries, or trains to get around the city. If you find yourself passing through this location, keep your eye out for some of Exterion Media’s screens.

About 70” in size, these screens put big, bright advertising right at eye level throughout the station. Supporting full motion, they’re top targets for brands hoping to connect with the huge number of passengers the station sees each day.

A man walking by an Exterion screen in Amsterdam Central Station. The screen is playing an ad for Jurassic World.
Exterion’s screens offer a flashy welcome to travelers in Amsterdam’s Central Station.

Highway billboards (Interbest)

Amsterdam is probably best known for its trams, bikes, and ferries, but if you’re the kind of person who drives into the city, you might admire some of the cool roadside billboards along its highways. Geeks that we are, we’re fans of the aspect ratio on the Interbest screens, and North American visitors might also be struck by the low height of the screens as compared to billboards back home.

A busy highway. In the background is a square-shaped billboard displaying an ad for Chocomel.
We like the format and the height of the Interbest billboards, along with the great ads they display.

The IJ “Giant Flow” screen, Amsterdam Central Station (Ngage Media)

We’re double-dipping on Central Station, but we think there’s good reason for that. The station’s main entrance, known as IJ Hall, is home to a massive and extremely impressive screen operated by Ngage Media. Here, viewers can see a mix of advertising and beautiful images of city sights. It’s an impressive welcome for new arrivals to the city, and one of our favourite DOOH installations in Amsterdam.

A giant digital screen in a train station lobby. On the screen is an ad for Sony PlayStation and Sony phones.
We love the impact that this giant screen makes in Amsterdam’s Central Station.

Public transportation screens (CS Digital Media)

Digital signage and public transportation are frequently paired, but not always this beautifully. CS Digital Media’s screens, which can be found in Amsterdam’s metro system and, yes, also in Central Station, are bright and bring ads to stunning life the way good screens should. That’s not the main reason we love them, though. Where so many screens look generically screenish, these ones have a beautiful, simple design that makes them stand out all on their own, never mind what they’re playing. It’s rare that smaller screens catch our eye quite like these ones do.

An empty metro station entrance. Side-by-side on the wall are three sleek screens showing an ad.
We love the design of the CS Digital Media screens in Amsterdam’s transportation network.

Some of our favourite programmatic campaigns from the Netherlands

For a little while now, we’ve been noticing that the Netherlands has been ahead of the pack when it comes to programmatic DOOH. Networks are throwing their support behind it, creative teams are coming up with great programmatic campaigns, and we can’t get enough. Here are a few of our favourite programmatic DOOH campaigns from the Netherlands.

The Pepsi MAX Challenge

Multiple people walking past a digital screen. The screen is displaying an ad from the Pepsi Max programmatic campaign.

Pepsi wanted to reinvent its Pepsi challenge for 2018 and extend the reach of its campaign beyond the head-to-head soda showdown between Pepsi Max and its biggest rival. The solution: Pepsi incorporated programmatic DOOH to retarget participants with ads later on. The campaign was a hit, and allowed PepsiCo to maximize results without their having to spend huge amounts.

Read the full case study here

XITE’s Multichannel DOOH & Mobile Festival Campaign

Two people walking by the XITE programmatic DOOH ad.

XITE is the Netherlands’ home for music videos and the people who love them, and it wanted to build on that connection by reaching music festival attendees across the country. With programmatic DOOH and mobile, the brand was able to effectively and affordably deliver a multichannel campaign that reached 250,000 festival-goers over the course of the summer.

Read the full case study here

Peugeot drove stronger sales with roadside billboards

A busy highway with cars blurring by. On a billboard in the background is the Peugeot programmatic DOOH ad.

One of the great strengths of programmatic DOOH is the way it helps target media spend to those moments where each dollar will have the biggest effect. In 2018, Peugeot ran a programmatic campaign in the Netherlands that exemplified that idea. It delivered DOOH ads for corporate minivans only when small and medium-sized business owners were most likely to be on the road. It was a flexible, intelligent solution that helped the company reach more of its audience than it would have with a typical DOOH campaign.

Read the full case study here

If you’ll be in Amsterdam for ISE this week, be sure to stop by booth #8-G280 to meet the Broadsign team and talk DOOH and digital signage!

Rob Côté
Rob Côté

Demand Generation Manager