Once your product is on shelf, out of home has one job: get people into the stores that stock you, in the weeks they can buy. Own the streets around those stores, add retail media at the shelf, follow up on mobile, and measure sell-through with the retailer.
Locking in retail distribution is a milestone. A major chemist chain, a supermarket, a spot inside a Westfield. It is also when out of home starts to earn its money, because a board on the path to purchase makes the purchase more immediate.
Our out-of-home advertising page covers how we plan any campaign. This is the playbook for launch week.
The brief changes when you are on shelf
Before distribution, out of home builds fame. People see you, remember you, maybe search for you later.
Once you are ranged, the question gets sharper. Did more people walk into those stores and pick you up? Footfall and sell-through are what the retailer will look at, so we plan backwards from the store.
Two to four weeks out: pick the stores, then the streets
Start with the store list. The media map comes second.
Ask your retailer which stores carry you, and where stock will be deepest in launch week. A board that sends people to an empty shelf is money gone.
Map the catchment around each store. Where do shoppers come from, and what do they pass on the way?
Choose the areas you can own. You will not afford every store. Pick a cluster and own the streets around it, rather than a thin layer across Sydney.
Clear the retailer's name early. "Now at" is the most useful line on a launch board, and most retailers have rules about how their name and logo appear.
For budget, what we typically see in 2026 in Sydney is $50,000 to $150,000 per four-week flight to own a local precinct, for the media alone. With flexible dates, one tightly targeted area can start from about $30,000. The Sydney cost guide has the detail.
Launch week: four layers, one shopper
Picture one shopper's week, from the commute to the checkout. Each layer meets them at a different moment.
Layer one: own the areas around the stores
Roadside, transit and shopping centre screens around your chosen stores, close enough to the door that the next step is obvious. Programmatic digital out of home can switch screens on at the hours people shop, at a higher cost.
Layer two: retail media at the point of purchase
This is the last-touch impulse buy. The big retailers now sell media inside their own stores.
Woolworths sells it through Cartology, its retail media business. In October 2025 Cartology added more than 1,600 screens at the entrance of Everyday Needs aisles.
Coles sells it through Coles 360, which runs digital screens at the front of its supermarkets.
Chemist chains sell it too, with in-store screens and printed displays.
Petrol stations and shopping centres carry screens where people are already about to spend.
Ask your retailer contact who handles their retail media, and start that conversation while ranging is still being settled.
Layer three: geofence the stores
Geofencing lets us run hyper-targeted mobile ads around the stores and the boards. Someone who passed your board that morning sees you again on their phone, with a store finder.
Layer four: mop up with digital
Then Meta and search pick up the people the boards have warmed up, in the same postcodes.
Out of home has an accumulator effect: it makes your other channels work harder while it runs. We would never run it alone.
After launch week: measure footfall and sell-through with the retailer
Out of home is harder to track than digital. A retail launch gives you an advantage: the retailer counts what sold.
Set a baseline. Before anything is booked, agree which store-level sales data the retailer will share, and how often.
Compare stores. Stores inside the areas you owned against similar stores outside them. It is the cleanest read you will get.
Use the retailer's reporting. Retail media networks report on their own campaigns. Coles 360 built Coles 360Impact to show suppliers whether a campaign added sales.
Track footfall where you can. Device IDs at activations, movement data where it exists, and survey questions about where people saw you.
Watch brand search in the postcodes you covered, and QR scans where it is safe to scan.
Bring those numbers to the buyer. They make the case for your next range review better than any deck.
FAQ
Is out of home advertising worth it for a retail launch?
Yes, once you are ranged and have the budget to own the areas around a cluster of stores. On the path to purchase, seeing the board makes the purchase more immediate. Without distribution, it builds fame but gives people nowhere to go.
What is retail media?
Advertising that retailers sell inside their own stores and channels, such as Cartology for Woolworths and Coles 360 for Coles. It reaches people at the shelf, which makes it the last nudge before they buy.
How do you measure foot traffic from out of home?
Compare store-level sales in the areas you covered against similar stores you did not, using data agreed with the retailer up front. Add device IDs at activations, survey questions and the lift in brand search.
Next step
If your ranging is locked in, see how we plan campaigns on our out-of-home advertising page, or get in touch with your store list and launch date.
Book a free Growth Plan. Thirty minutes with the person who would do the work. No deck, no pitch.