Asia's digital billboards outperform western rivals

The analysis combines estimated daily footfall, screen visibility and advertising costs to assess how efficiently different locations deliver audience attention

A new global benchmark from DSA Signage has found significant differences in the cost efficiency of major digital billboard locations worldwide, highlighting how audience attention can vary dramatically between advertising environments.

Released ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Global Signage Attention Benchmark compares ten major digital out-of-home advertising locations across the US, UK and Asia using a standardised cost-per-1,000-viewers (CPM) metric.

Study examines audience attention efficiency

The analysis combines estimated daily footfall, screen visibility and advertising costs to assess how efficiently different locations deliver audience attention.

According to the benchmark, the cost of reaching 1,000 viewers varies by more than 60 times across the locations analysed. London's Piccadilly Lights recorded the highest estimated CPM at $788.16, while Tokyo's Cross Shinjuku Vision delivered the lowest estimated CPM at $12.50.

The findings suggest that iconic advertising locations do not always provide the most efficient audience reach.

Competition impacts attention capture

New York's Times Square Spectacular Face recorded an estimated CPM of $212.12. While the location benefits from high pedestrian traffic, the study argues that intense competition from surrounding screens can dilute audience attention.

By comparison, several locations in Asia ranked more favourably due to a combination of high footfall and lower levels of visual competition, allowing individual displays to capture a larger share of viewer attention.

Asian markets lead efficiency rankings

Tokyo's Cross Shinjuku Vision emerged as the most cost-efficient location in the study, making it nearly 17 times less expensive per viewer than Times Square.

Other locations in Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Seoul also ranked strongly. The benchmark found that Seoul's K-POP Square Media Wall achieved the highest estimated media share among all locations analysed, which the study attributes to relatively low visual clutter in the surrounding environment.

Shanghai, despite recording the highest estimated foot traffic in the benchmark, ranked among the least efficient locations, suggesting that audience concentration may be more important than overall volume.

3D displays gain attention advantages

The report also highlights the performance of large-scale naked-eye 3D displays, which have become increasingly common across parts of Asia.

According to the analysis, these formats were among the most cost-efficient billboard types assessed, indicating that immersive display technology may improve attention capture in busy urban environments.

Industry focus shifts beyond impressions

The benchmark arrives as advertisers increasingly look beyond traditional reach and impression metrics to evaluate media effectiveness through attention and outcomes.

Shokouh Shafiei, CEO of DSA Signage: "As the industry gathers in Cannes to debate attention metrics, AI-driven measurement, and how to prove real ROI, our benchmark puts a number on a question advertisers have been asking for years: does an iconic location actually mean an efficient one? In this case, the answer is a 63x gap between the most and least efficient screens we measured. Visibility and attention are not the same thing, and some of the world's most famous advertising districts are actually among the least efficient at converting exposure into real audience attention."

The report aims to provide advertisers with a framework for comparing billboard performance across international markets as digital out-of-home spending continues to grow and attention measurement becomes a larger consideration in media planning.

The full report can be accessed here

www.dsasignage.com

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