• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 24, 2021

Two trade associations this week announced a collaborative task force to support out-of-home media and its digital counterparts across programmatic and through omnichannel strategies.

The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the national trade association for OOH and DOOH media, announced a collaboration between the OAAA Programmatic and Automation Committee and IAB Tech Lab. The idea is to integrate digital out-of-home into OpenRTB specifications.

The IAB Tech Lab oversees OpenRTB, the global best practices for transacting programmatically. “We believe updates are required to better support digital out of home,” said Amit Shetty, vice president of programmatic standards and partnerships at IAB Tech Lab. “The collaboration with OAAA will help us better understand the use cases that need to be supported, and gather requirements to improve OpenRTB.”

Bringing DOOH into the fold increases the value of OpenRTB, Shetty said. Anna Bager, president and CEO of the OAAA, believes the partnership will ensure that “OOH is well-situated to be a key part of omnichannel planning.”

Harris Poll data shows OOH drives awareness when people are out and about at concerts, sporting events and other activities, with 69% of respondents saying they became aware of these events after seeing OOH ads.

The data also found those in the U.S. continue to notice OOH more than at pre-COVID levels, with 60% of urban dwellers taking more notice of OOH ads.

Out-of-home ads also drive half of all consumers to search online about brands. Earlier this year, the OAAA conducted work to align its members on an OpenRTB Bid Response. With that work completed, the new task force plans to advance the specs and develop extensions for the Bid Request.

The two trade organizations expect to jointly publish finalized specs before year end.