Vistar Media’s Kevin Smyth: Singapore’s Shopping Frenzy Needs Smarter Screens
By Kevin Smyth, Commercial Director, Southeast Asia, Vistar Media.
Singapore’s year-end shopping season has transformed into a high-stakes retail marathon. Flash sales like Black Friday have become a month-long wave of promotions, discounts and brand battles across every channel. As digital platforms fill with ads and competition intensifies, many marketers are overlooking the channel that can have the biggest real world impact: out-of-home (OOH).
OOH has long been proven to drive brand recall and influence in-store decisions. During major shopping events such as Black Friday, that power becomes even more valuable. Shoppers are already primed to buy, and decisions happen in moments rather than days. OOH reaches them in those final stages of the purchase journey, close to the stores, malls and transport routes where action takes place. Yet the medium remains underused compared with digital channels that are often oversaturated and expensive during peak retail periods.
Driving In Store Momentum
While these events are often seen as online phenomena, Singapore’s retail culture is still defined by its malls. From Orchard Road to VivoCity and Jewel Changi, consumers may browse online but they buy in person. OOH is the bridge between those worlds, catching attention in the real world and directing it toward physical retail destinations.
Too many brands continue to spend disproportionately online, missing the chance to influence shoppers as they make their way to stores. This season, marketers can rebalance by locking in their core OOH placements and using programmatic to turn up the intensity during high traffic weeks. Programmatic OOH allows budgets to flex by 20, 30 or even 40 per cent when competition for attention peaks. It is a way to make OOH perform like a dynamic digital channel, one that drives footfall rather than just impressions.
Adapting in Real Time
Traditional OOH campaigns are typically booked in fixed monthly cycles. That structure offers predictability but lacks the agility modern marketers need. Programmatic OOH breaks that limitation by enabling campaigns to be activated, paused or adjusted in real time based on live data such as weather, store inventory or competitor activity.
This flexibility is critical in a market as fast moving as Singapore, where consumer behaviour can shift within hours. Programmatic OOH ensures brands can respond instantly, keeping messages relevant and budgets efficient. Imagine dynamic screens near ION Orchard or Raffles City promoting limited time offers or updating creative based on product availability. These responsive campaigns do not just create awareness, they drive urgency and action.
Making the Season Work Smarter
Programmatic OOH is not a replacement for digital channels but a force multiplier. It connects the agility of digital advertising with the credibility and visibility of real world media. By combining traditional placements that sustain awareness with programmatic bursts that capitalise on key shopping moments, marketers can build strategies that balance consistency with performance.
The year-end sales season is when every brand wants to be seen and every message is fighting to be heard. Programmatic OOH gives marketers a smarter, more flexible way to stand out. It enables them to adjust in the moment, maximise spend where it matters most, and bridge the gap between digital discovery and in-store purchase.
As Singapore heads into another busy retail season, the smartest move is not to spend more online. It is to lock in your traditional OOH and blitz the biggest shopping events of the year with programmatic. That is how to make this retail marathon work even harder, from screen to store.