How Proof-of-Play Works in DOOH Campaigns

What Is Proof-of-Play?

Proof-of-play is an automated log entry generated by the player device each time an ad or content item displays on a digital signage screen. It is created by software running on the device at the moment of display — not estimated, sampled, or reported by a human. Each POP record is a time-stamped, device-specific event that can be independently verified against ad decision records.

In traditional out-of-home advertising, a billboard owner tells you your ad was displayed and invoices you — with no independent verification. Print publishers provide circulation numbers, not per-issue delivery records. Radio stations provide listenership estimates. DOOH with proper POP implementation is the first OOH medium that produces a per-impression, machine-generated delivery record analogous to what digital advertising provides through impression pixels and server logs.

What Each POP Record Contains

On the YAXI TV network, every POP record captures:

• Screen ID: The unique identifier of the specific physical device that displayed the ad. This makes the impression traceable to a specific location.
• Creative ID: Which specific ad creative displayed. Allows reconciliation against campaign creative assignments.
• Campaign and line item ID: Which advertiser campaign and specific flight the ad belongs to, enabling per-campaign delivery reporting.
• Timestamp: The exact date, time, and time zone when the ad began playing — accurate to the second. Allows daypart-level delivery analysis.
• Duration: How many seconds the ad displayed. Confirms completion for full-duration creatives.
• Venue metadata: Venue type (bar, gym, restaurant, etc.) and geographic region. Allows audience-context analysis for the delivered impressions.

How POP Is Generated and Stored

The YAXI TV player app generates a POP record locally on the device at the completion of each ad display event. The record is then transmitted to the YAXI TV cloud infrastructure in near real time (typically within seconds of the event, subject to network connectivity). Records are stored with a minimum 12-month retention window.

POP records are reconciled against ad decision records (the ad server's log of which creative was assigned to which slot) to surface any discrepancies. A slot where the ad server decided an ad should play but no POP was received would appear as a delivery gap in the reconciliation — flagging a potential device, connectivity, or playback issue for investigation.

This reconciliation process is what makes DOOH billing more accountable than traditional OOH: delivery claims are backed by event logs from both the decisioning system (what should have played) and the player device (what actually played).

What POP Means for Advertisers

For advertisers, POP provides:

• Delivery verification: Confirm that your ad actually ran — and that delivery matched your plan. If the campaign called for 50,000 impressions in Chicago gyms on weekday evenings, POP shows you how many were actually delivered on which screens at which times.
• Campaign reporting: Real-time dashboard showing impression counts, delivery pace, and breakdown by venue type and market. Exportable as a CSV at campaign end.
• Make-good basis: If a campaign delivered fewer impressions than committed, POP records provide the factual basis for a make-good (additional delivery or credit).

Important caveat: POP confirms that the ad displayed on the screen for the logged duration. It does not verify that anyone was looking at the screen at that moment. Viewership (the number of people who saw the ad) is estimated from venue traffic data, not measured from POP records alone.

What POP Means for Venues

For venue partners, POP is the basis of revenue calculation:

• Monthly payouts are calculated from verified POP impression counts — not estimated or averaged
• Venues can review their own POP data in the dashboard to understand what ran on their screens and when
• Screens that are offline (not generating POP records) don't contribute to monthly revenue — which is why uptime management directly affects earnings

POP also provides transparency: venue partners are not simply told "you earned X this month" — the underlying impression logs that support that calculation are accessible and exportable.

POP vs Viewership: Understanding the Difference

A common misconception is that POP confirms that people actually watched the ad. It does not. Here is the precise distinction:

• POP confirms: The ad creative displayed on a specific screen for a specific duration at a specific timestamp.
• POP does not confirm: How many people were in the venue at that moment, whether they were looking at the screen, or whether they noticed and recalled the ad.

Viewership is estimated — typically using venue traffic data (foot traffic counts, historical averages, or third-party location intelligence) applied to the impression timestamps. This is an estimate, not a direct measurement, and it should be clearly distinguished from the machine-generated POP record.

Understanding this distinction helps set accurate expectations for campaign measurement. DOOH is an accountable channel for delivery verification — POP is a solid foundation. But it is not equivalent to individual viewer tracking available in digital display advertising.