Ghent chooses Bauer Media Outdoor : a key contract driving its DOOH growth in Belgium

Following Saint-Trond, Hove, and Aalst, Bauer Media Outdoor has secured the renewal of its contract with the City of Ghent for a 20-year period. This latest success marks a major milestone in Bauer Media Outdoor's acceleration across Flanders: for the first time, Ghent is opening its streets to Digital Out Of Home (DOOH), accompanied by a significant digitalization of existing displays. This new strategic expansion, following the recent rollout in Blankenberge, significantly strengthens Bauer Media Outdoor's DOOH coverage both in Flanders and nationwide, while expanding its overall OOH footprint across digital and classic media. In total, the Bauer Media Outdoor OOH network now reaches 84 percent of the Belgian population and 82 percent of the Flemish population¹ .

‍A partner to the City of Ghent since 2000, Bauer Media Outdoor sees a historic collaboration renewed for another two decades. Beyond the renewal, this contract fundamentally transforms the media landscape in the city by also opening Ghent to programmatic advertising (pDOOH).

DOOH makes its entrance in Ghent

As the capital of East Flanders and the second-largest city in Flanders, Ghent is the second most populous municipality in Belgium, with nearly 275,000 residents and over 450,000 in its urban area. It is also the country's largest student city, home to more than 87,000 students. Its cultural and tourism appeal is equally remarkable, notably featuring the Gentse Feesten, which ranks among Europe's largest public festivals with nearly 2 million visitors annually. Ghent boasts an attractive socioeconomic profile and high purchasing power, offering advertisers a high-quality, highly engaged audience.

With a digital deployment evenly distributed throughout the city and present at several iconic locations, Ghent becomes a strategic DOOH hub in Flanders. This coverage will allow advertisers to reach up to 89%  of the urban area's residents each week.

These new displays will also enable programmatic campaign activation (pDOOH), providing advertisers with greater flexibility, real-time optimization, and precise message contextualization.

A strategic, hard-to-reach audience

Ghent residents are characterized by localized mobility and strong urban habits, making them a high-value audience that is traditionally harder to reach through conventional media. Thanks to an even, strategic footprint across the city, Bauer Media Outdoor guarantees powerful, efficient coverage of this urban demographic.

This citywide presence is highly complementary to Bauer Media Outdoor's network at Ghent-Sint-Pieters railway station. Combining both environments allows advertisers to reach locals on their daily³ commutes as well as daily travellers, strengthening overall coverage across the metro area. With 83,000 passengers daily  at Ghent-Sint-Pieters station, the combined city and station network enables BMO to cover 99%⁴ of the Ghent audience.

Modernization and sustainability

The new agreement also includes the modernization of existing infrastructure. The digital screens installed in Ghent incorporate market-leading energy-efficiency technologies, ranking among the most sustainable DOOH displays available, featuring optimized power consumption and a reduced carbon footprint.

Jan De Moor, Managing Director of Bauer Media Outdoor, concluded: "With our contract wins in Ghent, Sint-Truiden, Hove, Aalst, and Blankenberge, Bauer Media Outdoor cements its leadership in Flanders and accelerates the rollout of an innovative, high-performing and sustainable DOOH network, delivering an increasingly powerful national reach for advertisers."

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Sources:

¹CIM-OOH 2026-2 R19, 18-54.

²CIM-OOH 2026-2 R19, Gent population 18-54.^‍

³SNCB 2024.

⁴CIM-OOH 2026-2 R19, Gent population 18-54.