Moving Walls: Building the Global Infrastructure for Connected, Measurable Out-of-Home Media.
As part of the DPAA member profile series, Digital Signage Pulse spoke with co-founder of Moving Walls Mehul Mandalia, about the evolution of out-of-home advertising, the role of programmatic and audience intelligence, and what it takes to make OOH a truly connected global media channel.
co-founder of Moving Walls Mehul Mandalia
What does Moving Walls do, and how would you describe your role in the evolution of OOH?
Moving Walls is a global connected media and programmatic out-of-home company focused on making physical media more measurable, intelligent and scalable. Our technology connects audience intelligence, media planning, activation, measurement and optimisation across the OOH ecosystem.
The fundamental challenge we are addressing is fragmentation. The immediate villain is that media owners are drowning in manual spreadsheets and slow proposal drafting, making it impossible to scale or capture ad-hoc digital budgets OOH inventory is spread across thousands of media owners, formats, cities and countries, each with different operating models and data sources. We provide the technology infrastructure that allows these pieces to work together while still respecting the realities of individual markets.
Our philosophy is that OOH should not have to become another closed ecosystem to become more digital. Instead, it should become more connected and interoperable.
How has the role of programmatic changed the OOH industry?
Programmatic has changed the conversation from simply buying locations or screens to buying audiences, outcomes and opportunities.
But programmatic OOH is not just about automating the transaction. Automation is the foundation. The greater opportunity is connecting that automation to better audience intelligence, contextual signals, measurement and optimisation.
The industry is now moving toward a model where a campaign can be planned around a target audience, activated across relevant physical environments, adjusted according to changing conditions and measured against real-world outcomes.
That is a much broader proposition than simply making the media-buying process faster.
The US is one of the most mature programmatic OOH markets. What can other markets learn from the US?
The US has played an important role in demonstrating how programmatic can bring OOH into broader digital media planning. It has also shown the importance of interoperability between media owners, SSPs, DSPs, data providers and measurement companies.
However, we don’t believe there should be a single blueprint for every market.
One of the biggest lessons from operating globally is that OOH is inherently local. Audience behaviour, mobility patterns, media formats, regulation, data availability and even how inventory is sold can vary dramatically between markets.
The US can provide valuable lessons around scale and integration, while markets in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere offer their own innovations. The future will come from connecting these ecosystems rather than forcing them into one model.
What does “connected media” mean in practical terms for OOH?
Connected media means that the different stages of the media lifecycle are no longer isolated.
A brand should be able to understand where its audience is, identify the environments where that audience is most relevant, plan and activate media, verify delivery, and then understand whether the exposure contributed to a meaningful outcome.
This multi-layered intelligence allows marketers to justify physical ad spend to CFOs by directly linking real-world exposure to digital-style business outcomes.
Our modular infrastructure acts as an Agnostic OS, integrating seamlessly with a client’s existing tech stack rather than forcing a closed ecosystem.
Measurement has become one of the biggest priorities in OOH. What needs to change?
We must dismantle the “Black Box” of OOH measurement, moving publishers and brands away from soft estimates toward real-time, multi-source data ingestion. This is particularly important as OOH increasingly competes for budgets alongside highly measurable digital channels.
Our measurement model, proven by media owners around the world, operates across four distinct layers: Impressions, Reach & Frequency, Engagement, and Sales/Outcomes
The objective is not to pretend that OOH can be measured exactly like a browser impression. It is to create measurement that reflects the strengths of the physical environment while giving marketers the accountability they expect from modern media.
How important is local intelligence when campaigns are increasingly global?
It is essential.
A global brand may want one campaign strategy across 20 countries, but consumers do not move through those markets in the same way. A shopping district in Tokyo, a transit hub in Singapore, a highway in Australia and a retail environment in the US all have different audience dynamics.
This is why we talk about global scale combined with local intelligence. Technology should make it easier to standardise planning, activation and measurement, while still allowing campaigns to respond to local audiences and environments.
For us, globalization is not about making every market identical. It is about making different markets easier to connect.
Where do you see the biggest opportunity for OOH over the next few years?
The biggest opportunity is for OOH to become a genuine part of the connected media ecosystem rather than being treated as a separate channel.
We see enormous potential in the convergence of OOH with retail media, mobile, CTV, commerce and other digital channels. The physical world provides something digital channels cannot replicate: the ability to reach people in real environments and influence them close to moments of consideration and action.
AI will accelerate this evolution. The opportunity is not simply to use AI to automate tasks, but to use intelligence across the entire media lifecycle, identifying audiences, predicting opportunities, optimising campaigns and helping marketers understand what actually drives results.
Ultimately, we believe the future of OOH is not about more screens. It is about making every screen more intelligent, measurable and connected.
What is the long-term vision for Moving Walls?
Our vision is to help create the operating infrastructure for a more connected OOH ecosystem.
We want brands and agencies to be able to think globally, plan intelligently, activate efficiently and measure consistently, while giving media owners the technology to unlock more value from their inventory.
OOH has always had the ability to reach people at scale. The next stage is giving that reach intelligence, connectivity and accountability.
That is the opportunity we see for Moving Walls, helping transform OOH from a collection of physical media assets into a connected, measurable global media network.
