OpenRTB Working Group Launched By @YourOAAA

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

In an interesting move to say the least, The Out of Home Advertising Association of American (OAAA) has launched a working group charged with establishing standards for OpenRTB.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) is a platform and protocol that allows bidding as a method for transacting media, making it possible for ad impressions to go “up for auction” in real-time. This is accomplished through a programmatic exchange with the ability to serve ads to OOH screens directly based on demographic, psychographic, or behavioral audience profiles.

The working group is comprised of OAAA members representing OOH media companies, buyers, and tech platforms. The group is co-chaired by Ian Dallimore, VP of Digital Growth & GM Programmatic at Lamar Advertising and Leslie Lee, VP Marketing at Vistar Media.

Ian Dallimore told us “Programmatic OOH has become front and center for omnichannel Demand-Side Platforms (DSP’s) as they understand the importance of using data to target the consumer journey across all media types, including Digital OOH. OOH is a unique medium and more than just an impression which is why it’s imperative to build standards that fit DSPs but also focuses on the value proposition of our medium.”

Many industry stakeholders agree, now is the time to establish common standards as a way to ensure the OOH medium is part of omnichannel buying considerations.

Vistar Media Co-Founder and CEO Michael Provenzano supports the viewpoint and said “Programmatic OOH has reached a new phase of media-channel maturity, with most of the world’s largest omnichannel DSPs actively bidding in real-time on OOH inventory. This is enabled by OpenRTB integrations, and we expect these integrations to only keep proliferating. It’s important to build standards that put the unique value of OOH media front and center, and don’t try to simply mimic what has been built for other media channels.”

The new OpenRTB initiative comes on the heels of another important OAAA working group, focused on developing similar standards for OpenDirect trading. OpenDirect platforms automate straightforward media transactions between a buyer and seller.


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