Last month Vistar Media announced a milestone in expanding the programmatic out-of-home ecosystem through direct integrations with leading omnichannel DSPs (Verizon Media, MediaMath, Amobee and Adelphic). The entrance of these global platforms into DOOH presents enormous opportunity for media owners that have adopted programmatic as part of their own sales strategies. But you shouldn’t just take our word for it.

We reached out to three partners and leaders in the space to get their perspective on how the industry is evolving. Read below for commentary from Ian Dallimore, Director of Digital Growth at Lamar Advertising; David Kovall, VP of Digital Partnerships at GSTV; and Wade Rifkin, SVP of Programmatic at Clear Channel Outdoor.

 How will these omnichannel DSPs embracing OOH impact the industry?

Dallimore: “We are excited about the omnichannel DSPs embracing OOH as we are part of any consumer’s natural daily journey. This will introduce new brands who in the past might have not used OOH or perhaps most effectively as our medium is more powerful when combined with other media types.”

Kovall: “The entrance of multiple omnichannel DSPs puts DOOH on the same playing field as other video channels. Brands searching for broader distribution of their video creative in brand safe, fraud-free environments can now include GSTV’s premium video inventory in the mix to reach real people at relevant moments when we have their attention. The added scale to a video campaign is massive as we entertain over 90 million consumers a month.”

Rifkin: “Omnichannel DSPs unify capabilities across the media landscape & provide streamlined activation for their buyers, so ultimately, this will make OOH easier & more effective to buy programmatically. With DSPs being the spend aggregation point on the buy-side, this is good for OOH media owners to be able to make the case for increasing share, but equally good for buyers to be able to flexibly allocate & optimize spend across more partners & channels.”

How do you anticipate the role of programmatic in out-of-home developing over the next 6 months? The next 2 years?

Kovall: “The concept of separate media “channels” will start to become irrelevant as advertisers don’t buy channels, they buy audiences. These new DSPs will allow advertisers to buy audiences at scale, across all media including OOH.”

Dallimore: “We are seeing more DSPs embrace OOH as a media mix.  At Lamar Advertising we continue to help build out technology that will make it easier for SSPs/DSPs to access our inventory in real time.”

Rifkin: “Simply put, programmatic OOH’s role will continue to solidify & grow. We’re already seeing a host of advertisers & verticals moving from an innovation / testing phase to a more ongoing, and in some cases evergreen, approach to programmatic OOH. With omnichannel DSPs entering the space, it gives advertisers & buyers more of a reason to invest in our traditional-gone-emerging channel.”

What is something you wish more brands and advertisers knew about out-of-home?

Rifkin: “That it’s truly programmatic in a real time, biddable sense; that this RTB approach scales today across media owners, platforms & audiences, and it works. We’ve done a good job socializing that programmatic OOH is here & real. However, the efficacy angle is one we need to continue to raise awareness around – we’ve come so far in linking OOH impressions to awareness, engagement & even action. The business outcomes are measurable, and they’re strong, so we need that story to be told more broadly.”

Dallimore: “The true power of OOH and the ability to target consumers throughout their journey. OOH is a true media mix with +40% of consumers having searched for a brand online after seeing an OOH ad and +66% taking some type of action on their device.”

For more information on these new DSP partnerships, read the blog post from the Vistar Media CEO.