Glossary

DOOH verification glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms used across digital out-of-home ad verification, from playback logs to independent Proof-of-Display. Vojo-specific terms are marked and link back to the platform.

DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home)

Advertising and messaging shown on digital screens in public or semi-public places: forecourts, transit hubs, retail, gyms, roadside sites and shopping centres. Unlike static out-of-home, content on a DOOH screen can change by schedule, time of day or campaign, which is also what makes proving delivery harder than with a printed poster.

Proof-of-Display (PoD)

Independent evidence that a specific piece of content actually appeared on a physical screen, as opposed to evidence that it was merely scheduled or dispatched to a player. Proof-of-Display is produced by a system separate from the one doing the playback, which is what gives it evidentiary weight in a delivery dispute. An industry term; Vojo's implementation is backed by its patented method.

HarvesterVojo’s term

Vojo's independent Proof-of-Display sensor. It watches the screen itself, separately from the player driving it, fingerprints what actually displayed, and matches that back to the scheduled campaign, catching black screens, freezes, wrong content and downtime that a playback log alone would miss.

Proof of play

A record that a piece of content was played by a device, usually generated by the player itself and logged locally before being reported to a CMS. It's useful for operational monitoring, but because it's self-reported by the same system deciding what to play, it isn't independent evidence in the way Proof-of-Display is.

Playback log

The record a player keeps of what it opened, when, and for how long, including any errors it hit along the way. Playback logs are the raw material behind proof of play and are valuable for fleet health and diagnostics, but they describe player intent, not what was physically visible on the glass.

Creative wrapper (in-creative verification)

Measurement code that ships inside a creative itself, usually as part of an HTML5 ad tag, and reports playback signals from within the player's render on any network the ad runs on. Wrappers give advertisers and agencies a campaign record they own, independent of each operator's playback log, though they measure from the same side of the glass as the player and so cannot see panel power, signal faults or obstruction. Vojo's version is the Vojo Wrapper, its content-level verification product for the buy side.

Content fingerprinting

A technique for identifying a piece of video or image content from a short, unique signature derived from the content itself, rather than from metadata or a filename. In DOOH verification, fingerprinting lets an independent sensor recognise what's on screen and match it to the campaign that was scheduled, without needing the player to self-report anything.

Make-good

Compensation an operator gives an advertiser, typically free replacement plays or a credit, when a campaign under-delivered against what was booked. Make-goods are the direct cost of unverifiable delivery: without evidence either way, operators tend to concede the dispute rather than fight it.

Loop

The full sequence of content a screen cycles through before repeating, made up of individual spots (ads, filler, or both). Loop length and composition determine how often any given advertiser's spot plays within a given period, which underpins metrics like share of voice.

Share of voice (SOV)

The percentage of a loop, or of total plays in a period, allocated to a single advertiser's content. A 25% share of voice in a four-spot loop means that advertiser's spot plays roughly once every cycle. SOV is a planning and pricing figure: it describes what was scheduled, not what was verified to have played.

CPM (cost per mille)

The price an advertiser pays per thousand impressions or plays. In DOOH, an impression is typically modelled from estimated audience or footfall past a screen rather than measured directly, which is one reason independently verified delivery data is increasingly used to defend or justify a site's CPM.

Dwell time

The average length of time a person spends within view of a screen, for example queuing at a till or waiting at a platform. Longer dwell times generally support longer or more detailed creative, and are one of the factors used to model estimated impressions and set inventory pricing.

Ad verification

The general practice of confirming that an advertisement was actually delivered as booked. In DOOH, that means confirming a spot played, in full, on a screen that was powered on and visible. It spans a range of methods from self-reported playback logs through to independent sensor-based Proof-of-Display, each with different evidentiary weight.

Screen uptime

The proportion of scheduled operating hours during which a screen was actually powered on, connected and playing content, as opposed to being off, frozen, or showing a black or error screen. Uptime is a fleet-health metric; it doesn't by itself confirm which specific ads played during the time the screen was up.

Verified play

A single play of a piece of content that has been independently confirmed to have actually appeared on the screen and matched back to its scheduled campaign, as distinct from a play that was merely logged by the player itself. Verified plays are what advertiser-grade reporting is built on.