Digital Out of Home integration into openRTB

The OAAA (Out of Home Advertising Association of America) and Outsmart (Out of Home Advertising Association of United Kingdom) announced that they have collaborated with IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standard-setting body, to publish a comprehensive document and technical resources to support standardized Real Time Bidding in DOOH.

The two OOH trade organizations brought together global Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) and OOH Media Owners to establish a common implementation of IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB methodology.

Clear Channel is one of the organisations that contributed to this work alongside other key DSP, SSP and media owner partners including Broadsign, Centro, Global, Hivestack, JCDecaux, Lamar, Ocean Outdoor, Place Exchange, TheTradeDesk, Triton, Vistar Media, VIOOH, and Yahoo.

Until now, implementations of OpenRTB in OOH advertising had resulted in many custom implementations, adding complexity to omnichannel consideration of the medium.

The new OpenRTB implementation guide for OOH:

• Details the unique differences between trading the online world of digital display and the real-world aspects of outdoor display.

• Describes the OpenRTB extensions and conventions required to bring OOH to the OpenRTB marketplace in a standardized way.

• Shows the implementation of the OOH recommendations in bid request and bid response scenarios with a standardized schema.

This work is now part of the IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB standard, allowing OOH to be properly described and traded alongside the established digital media channels of online display, mobile, audio and CTV.

Tim Lumb, Director of Outsmart comments, “The benefits of international collaboration across advertising associations, publishers and Adtech companies are clear to see. IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB now handles Digital Out of Home inventory too, making it even easier for brands to embrace the medium."

"Having OOH specs in OpenRTB is a massive step forward to unifying standards across digital channels and out of home media – providing transparency and efficiencies which are sure to drive greater spend in DOOH," said Jeff Jan, Head of Industry Initiatives, OAAA. "We reached this milestone in collaboration with IAB Tech Lab, Outsmart, and the tireless efforts of our members."

“The DOOH medium has grown over the past decade to provide a critical volume of connected screens to the physical world,” said Hillary Slattery, Director of Programmatic, Product, IAB Tech Lab. “As a growing number of advertisers integrate the OOH medium into the digital display omnichannel of online, mobile, audio, and CTV advertising, the importance of working with stakeholders across the programmatic ecosystem to establish a living, common language with standard definitions cannot be overstated. IAB Tech Lab is proud to collaborate with global DSPs, SSPs, Media Owners, and OOH trade organizations like the OAAA and Outsmart to establish a common implementation of IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB methodology.”

The documentation and technical resources to support standardized Real Time Bidding in OOH are available free of charge and can be found here.

Find out more about Clear Channel's programmatic offering here.