3D DOOH Goes Local: How Brands Are Driving Store Visits Faster
3D DOOH is shifting from brand awareness to a measurable local performance channel. With faster production and built-in mobile retargeting, campaigns can now drive store visits and conversions at scale across locations.
Are we ready for 3D, “Pixar-quality” digital billboards? Big Happy thinks we are and have built a 3D DOOH platform that can scale these local brand executions in less than a month, compared to the previous time frame of up to three months and higher production costs.
Working with NHL franchise, the Washington Capitals, and brands such as Windstream and Celsius to bring this approach to market, Big Happy also uses mobile retargeting to connect viewer exposure to action.
CEO Jonathan Frohlinger discusses how Big Happy transformed itself into a creative performance lever.
What’s the best example of a 3D billboard execution from Big Happy and what were the results?
One of the strongest examples of 3D DOOH execution came from a retail campaign we ran during a peak shopping period, where the goal was to drive store visits at the local level.
The 3D creative was built to do what most billboards can’t, actually grab attention in real-world environments. We leaned into bold, high-impact visuals and paired that with QR functionality, so the experience didn’t end at awareness.
From there, we made sure that attention was showing up in the right places. We activated custom geofences around store locations and focused delivery across high-traffic environments where consumers were already primed to spend. At scale, that campaign outperformed all benchmarks, delivering a 64.59% uplift, and a 7% increase in incremental store visits.
You’re positioning creative as a performance lever. Can you provide proof points supporting that 3D billboards paired with mobile retargeting actually drive measurable local actions like store visits or conversions?
We can point to proof across each part of that system. On the creative side, Nielsen-backed testing shows our formats deliver 75% unaided recall and up to 7x higher mental engagement, which is what determines whether an ad actually gets noticed. On the DOOH side, we’ve seen high-impact creative drive measurable lift in brand and behavioral signals. In one campaign, a targeted DOOH activation outperformed established benchmarks by roughly 10% across key metrics like ad recall and purchase intent.
On the mobile side, retargeting turns that attention into action. In one recent campaign, retargeting engaged audiences drove over 2,000 ticket sales and delivered more than 10x ROAS. So while each piece is measured on its own, together they form a coordinated system. Creative captures attention, DOOH builds presence in the real world, and mobile provides a direct path to conversion.
How granular can campaigns get geographically?
To the screen outside your office. Very granular. We regularly plan campaigns at the DMA, ZIP code, and individual location level. We’ve geo-targeted specific store footprints, activated custom geofences around locations, and tailored delivery based on where action is most likely. That includes ZIP-code targeting in one campaign, DMA and control-store measurement in another, and store-level geofencing in DOOH. That level of precision allows us to move beyond broad regional reach and focus on high-intent environments.
How does a sub-15-day turnaround change how local marketers plan around tentpole moments, promotions, or seasonal demand?
It shifts OOH from something you plan months in advance to something you can actually use tactically. Local marketers can align campaigns with real business moments like promotions, product drops, or seasonal spikes instead of missing those windows. It also allows for more iteration, so you’re not locked into one creative approach for an entire campaign cycle. Another good example of this is when a client came to us in mid-December with a last minute Holiday blast idea they needed to deploy before year-end. Within 12 days, we had a 3D campaign live – helping them turn a time constraint into measurable results to drive sales over the holiday period.
Programmatic OOH is often criticized for prioritizing scale over creativity. How does Big Happy balance automation with truly high-quality, localized creative execution?
We don’t separate the two. Programmatic gives you the ability to scale and target efficiently, but creative is what determines whether the campaign actually works. We’ve built the model so creative production and media activation are tightly integrated, not treated as separate steps.
For a regional advertiser, how does the cost and ROI of a Big Happy campaign compare to more traditional local channels like paid social, search, or radio?
What we can say confidently is that traditional local channels often force a tradeoff. You either get broad reach without much measurement, or more precise targeting that gets harder to manage across multiple markets. What we offer is a more integrated approach. We combine high-impact DOOH, localized targeting, and measurable outcomes in one system, which makes campaigns easier to execute and easier to evaluate across multiple locations. Rather than treating OOH, mobile, and measurement as separate efforts, we coordinate them as part of the same campaign. That’s where the efficiency comes from.
Do you see this as a tool primarily for national brands activating locally, or is there a real opportunity for independent and SMB advertisers to adopt 3D, programmatic OOH at scale?
Historically, this kind of execution was limited to large national brands because of cost and complexity. By simplifying production, activation, and measurement, we’ve made it more accessible to smaller advertisers who want to compete at a higher level. In many cases, they benefit the most because they can drive strong local impact without needing national-scale budgets.
As 3D DOOH becomes faster to deploy and easier to measure, it’s moving from a creative outlier to a repeatable performance channel. One that lets a multi-location brand connect real-world attention to real-world outcomes at scale.
