Programmatic DOOH Location Creative Drives Sonic Beverage Visits

Digital out-of-home advertising is shifting from big-idea awareness to directing people to act at a nearby location. The piece looks at how programmatic DOOH creative that includes store-locator details can be paired with product strategies like Sonic Drive-In’s beverage customization. It creates new, measurable reasons for customers to visit. It draws on research showing creative placement and simple visual cues change intent. It also draws on industry data showing specialty drinks can drive traffic across the day.

Where location details change what a screen can do

Programmatic DOOH that shows where to buy an item can move a passerby from noticing an ad to planning a visit. Research from Vistar Media, Omnicom Media and Annalect compared ads with and without store-locator information and found concrete uplifts: for consumer packaged goods, putting location information at the top of the creative produced a 20% lift in purchase intent compared with the control. Showing where to act increases intent to visit or buy.

That same research found different categories respond to different placements. Retail and quick-service restaurant campaigns saw the best result when the store locator appeared at the bottom, generating a 9% lift in visit intent. For impulse CPG items such as sweets and chocolate, placing location information correctly increased purchase intent by more than 110%. These are not small effects; they point to creative design as a conversion lever rather than a mere branding touch.

Location information placement changed consumer intent in measurable ways. Simple visual cues produced double-digit lifts.

How beverage customization creates more reasons to visit

Specialty beverages are becoming standalone reasons to stop by a restaurant. The U.S. nonalcoholic foodservice beverage market generated $264.1 billion in 2025, that is approximately 23% of industry revenue, and case volume for “dirty sodas” has increased 318% over two years, according to data cited by Circana. Sonic leverages this trend across its network of more than 3,400 restaurants, turning customization into a traffic-driving product strategy rather than a seasonal stunt.

Customization creates occasions outside typical meal cycles: afternoon trips, after-school visits and repeat visits to try new mixes. Marion Campbell, Sonic’s vice president of integrated marketing and communications, frames customization as part of the operating model. She says customers combine sodas, slushes, lemonades, teas and add-ins. Custom drinks can make the beverage the primary reason to visit. That shifts marketing goals away from one-time transactions toward frequent, occasion-driven footfall.

Where programmatic screens and Sonic’s strategy intersect

Pairing dynamic DOOH that shows the nearest location with a product that invites experimentation creates direct local opportunities. Vistar’s platforms can identify the nearest store and distance, letting a national buy present location-specific creative without managing 1,000 separate campaigns. Meanwhile, Sonic’s beverage catalog, varied flavors, creams and toppings, supplies the reason to act when a person sees which nearby restaurant offers the flavor they want. Dynamic creative bridges national scale and local execution.

Design choices on the screen matter to beverage-driven visits. Vistar’s research showed that using a recognizable map pin increased visit intent by 16%. Stronger visual contrast for the location information generated a 10% lift in visit or purchase intent. For Sonic, timing and regional relevance matter as well: the “Hotumn” campaign pairs fall flavors with cold drinks in Southern markets that remain warm, aligning the message with local conditions rather than a single national calendar. When message timing, visual cues and product relevance align, an ad on a street screen can be the nudge. It converts desire into a quick trip.

What local operators must reconcile to make it work

The promise of beverage-led visits and locative DOOH depends on consistent execution at the restaurant level. Every additional flavor or topping increases inventory, preparation tasks and training needs. Sonic’s model shows customization can scale, but it can also create friction: inconsistent preparation, missing ingredients or slower service will undo the marketing uplift quickly. Measurement therefore must look beyond impressions and intent; it must track whether campaigns generate incremental visits and increased spending without unacceptable operating costs.

Brands sold through other retailers face another tradeoff. Vistar’s research found that when a store locator prominently displayed the retailer brand, attention could be divided between the product brand and the reseller. For CPG brands and distributed concepts, the choice becomes strategic. Identify a nearby retailer to make the ad actionable, or emphasize the product brand to preserve recognition. Local attribution and on-premise execution determine whether intent becomes sales.

Sonic and programmatic DOOH point to a practical next step. They recommend using simple, local signals on dynamic creative and aligning them with product moments that invite trial. Measurement that ties exposure to verified visits and purchases remains open. Operational systems that let each location deliver the promise the ad makes also remain open. The path forward is clear in outline. Design creative to show where to act, build products that create reasons to act, and make sure local operations can close the loop.

Sources:

• DOOH Is Becoming a Local Conversion Channel | streetfightmag.com
• Sonic Turns Drink Customization Into Traffic Strategy | streetfightmag.com