In this month’s Across The Desk feature in The Drum, we’re spotlighting Deborah Hall, CEO of DIVE Billboards. She shares what excites her about OOH today, why brands should be leveraging creator-led content, and how DOOH can turn real-time cultural moments into powerful shared experiences.
Read Debroah’s Q&A here.
What excites you about OOH right now?
Everyday when I wake up, I get excited about working in the OOH space. OOH’s ability to serve up new opportunities for brand discovery is invaluable. At DIVE, we made a bet on the creator space over 10 years ago, delivering dynamic digital content from platforms to new screens in the out of home environment.
Creator and UGC content are both crucial to modern digital media. Pairing on-platform (social media) and off-platform (DOOH) content creation with creators unlocks new avenues for discovery and engagement. DIVE’s ‘Billboard Famous’ program exemplifies this, highlighting creators’ desire for DOOH amplification to boost their brand and credibility, extending their influence beyond digital platforms
What message do you have for brands that haven’t bought OOH before?
For brands that haven’t invested in OOH before, today is the perfect time to start. A 2024 OAAA study found that consumers prefer and take action from Digital Out of Home more than from other media channels.
At DIVE, we make this easy by taking the best-performing content from creator-led platforms like TikTok and seamlessly bringing it to billboards and CTV screens. Think of billboards (OOH) as your physical-world ad unit — the possibilities for boosting your brand’s performance are endless.
OOH isn’t just an awareness play anymore; it’s a high-impact channel for driving real engagement and measurable results. By putting your brand’s content where it can’t be skipped or scrolled past, bring it out in the world where people live, move, and pay attention.
What’s the next big thing for OOH?
Authenticity has been a major theme we’ve seen emerge and rise to center stage over the last three years. Creators are transforming how products are discovered, purchased, and used. Brands are now using OOH in new and exciting ways — from retail screens where brand-safe platform content helps convert browsers into buyers, to large-scale activations that amplify UGC globally.
Global brands can tap into the wealth of user-generated content created on platforms and bring it to screens, unlocking new audience discovery. By learning from their creators, brands discover what inspires real engagement — and these moments can be featured on OOH screens in real time.
In a recent global campaign we collaborated with Goli and TikTok’s Out of Phone program to broadcast creators associated with the Goli brand across New York. For OOH, this is the next big thing — bringing new budgets from brands having a moment on platforms and centering campaigns around creator ‘moments.’
As the lines between digital and physical worlds continue to blur, OOH stands ready to deliver authentic, unmissable moments that connect brands, creators, and communities in ways no other channel can.
What makes DOOH uniquely powerful in turning real-time social and cultural moments into shared public experiences, and how can advertisers better harness that?
Cultural moments are unfolding every day on platforms around the world, and we now have more content on our mobile devices than ever before. Advertisers can harness this by ensuring the content they amplify is brand-safe and that they have appropriate consent from platforms and creators. Relevance to the location and audience is also crucial — using data to pinpoint when and where a brand’s audience is present ensures that content appears on billboards at the right moment, maximizing campaign performance.
By staging the lead-up to an event with a carefully crafted countdown and momentum-building campaign, advertisers can extend engagement even further — using live comments and repurposing event footage back on platforms long after the moment has passed. With no shortage of compelling content, creative teams with a global presence can bring brands to billboards in a coordinated and highly impactful way.
For global brands, emerging markets present huge opportunities for creator-led initiatives. For example, TikTok Africa’s #LevelUpAfrica campaign is raising awareness of creator-led businesses across the continent. These programs are perfect opportunities for brands to create moments that bring platform content to billboards, CTV, and in-store screens — transforming everyday cultural moments into unmissable experiences
Published: July 9, 2025