A DigiVan is exactly what it sounds like: a van with a large LED digital screen mounted on the side, driving a planned route through a city. It sounds simple. The results it delivers are not.
When we ran DigiVans for Charli XCX's BRAT release alongside fixed DOOH screens, the DigiVans generated a disproportionate share of the organic social content from the campaign. People photographed them. They posted them. The van moving through Soho created moments in a way that a fixed screen on a building wall does not.
That is the central insight about DigiVans: they are not just a media format. They are a content machine.
What DigiVans do that fixed formats cannot
Fixed OOH sites — however well-placed — are passive. They stand in one location and wait for the audience to come to them. A DigiVan goes to the audience. You can direct it to a specific venue, a specific postcode, a specific event. You can put it in front of a queue outside a concert venue twenty minutes before doors open. You can drive it through the streets of a new city on the day you are launching there.
That targeting precision is impossible with any fixed format. A 48-sheet reaches the people who pass that site. A DigiVan reaches the people you choose to drive past.
The second advantage is live activation. DigiVans can change creative in real time. If there is breaking news, a live moment or a campaign pivot, the screen updates immediately. A tour announcement, a chart entry, an award win — the van can carry that message within the hour.
When DigiVans are the right choice
There are four campaign types where DigiVans consistently deliver outsized results:
- Music releases. Album drops and single launches benefit from the street-level cultural moment DigiVans create. Fans encounter the campaign in the real world, photograph it, share it. The organic amplification extends the paid reach significantly.
- Event activation. Pre-event, day-of and post-event windows. Drive past the venue, the surrounding area, the transport hubs fans are using. Timing is everything and DigiVans can be positioned to the hour.
- Geographic launches. Entering a new city or market. A DigiVan can establish brand presence across a new location in a single day — covering routes and neighbourhoods that a static media plan would take weeks to achieve.
- Reactive campaigns. Brands responding to live cultural moments. DigiVans can be deployed fast and the creative can change in real time. No print deadlines, no site availability waiting lists.
How to plan a DigiVan route
Route planning is where DigiVan campaigns win or lose. A van driving random streets generates impressions. A van on a well-planned route generates moments.
We plan routes around three variables: footfall density, audience concentration and dwell time. High footfall alone is not enough — Oxford Street at 9am is densely populated but everyone is moving fast and looking at their phone. A pedestrianised market area on a Saturday afternoon has slower movement, more ambient attention, more chance of the van being noticed and photographed.
For music campaigns, we route around music venues, record shops, the areas where the artist's fan base concentrates based on streaming data and social listening. For brand campaigns, we route around the retail environments, transit hubs and commercial areas where the target audience indexes highly.
Creative considerations
DigiVan creative needs to work at speed. Unlike a fixed billboard where the viewer can dwell, a DigiVan is passing. The message needs to land in under three seconds. That means a single strong visual, a clear brand mark, and minimal text.
The most effective DigiVan campaigns use a single image with the brand or artist name. The BRAT green with Charli XCX's name. A strong album cover. A product shot with no headline. Simplicity is not laziness — it is the format requirement.
DigiVans alongside fixed formats
DigiVans work best as part of a wider OOH plan, not as a standalone format. The fixed sites provide consistent frequency — the campaign the audience sees on their regular commute. The DigiVans create the events — the moments that people stop and notice and share.
Think of fixed OOH as the consistent brand presence and DigiVans as the punctuation. Together they cover both the slow-build awareness and the sharp activation moment that make OOH campaigns land.