With help from Ogilvy & Mather and Monster Media, IBM is launching an environmentally minded ad campaign on the theme of "Smarter Cities," including a large interactive display at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The marketplace for digital out-of-home directories and aggregation services just got a little bit more crowded with the launch of DOfind, a subscription Web-based tool created by DOmedia that allows agencies and advertisers to search over 200,000 out-of-home media properties.

Digital out-of-home video is growing by leaps and bounds, but digital advertising and media agencies are still coming to grips with its capabilities, according to a new report and forecast from Adcentricity -- a company that aggregates DO networks to make it easier for media buyers to achieve scale through a single interface.

A new report from Juniper Research forecasts big increases in electronic payments via mobile devices -- and that's good news above all for the burgeoning digital out-of-home medium, which stands to be the prime beneficiary of the accompanying increase in place-based marketing.

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If you were so moved by "Avatar" that you want to run away and join the Na'vi, or you just fancy being blue, you should check out the new interactive, digital out-of-home installation from Fox Studios and InWindow Outdoor, together with Zenith Media, to promote the upcoming DVD and Blue-ray release of "Avatar" at The Grove mall in Los Angeles. Even if you're not a fan, the promotional stunt is a pretty compelling example of new and emerging capabilities in the DO arena.

It's that time of year, when the days get longer, the sun shines brighter, and a young person's thoughts naturally turn to digital out-of-home advertising. MediaPost's Digital Out-of-Home Forum is coming up on May 13 (check it out here ) -- with panels on nifty topics like measurement with mobile devices and billboards that use facial recognition software, and of course an awards ceremony and dinner to recognize the pioneers and innovators who are driving the creative expansion of this burgeoning medium.

This week brought another big tie-up in the digital out-of-home arena, with the announcement that Sunoco Inc. has selected Gas Station TV as the exclusive provider of digital video displays showing news, entertainment, and advertising.

California, vying for the title of brokest state in the Union, is getting a boost for its lottery promotion from Outcast and PumpTop TV, which are helping reach consumers at one of the main points of purchase for lotto tickets -- gas stations. The new product, Lotto Live, is promoting the Mega Millions lotto with new technology that allows the DO network to deliver real-time updates on the lotto jackpot.

As the digital out-of-home medium continues to grow dramatically, a number of companies have introduced business strategies and services intended to simplify DO for advertisers, making it easier to aggregate networks and scale up advertising buys to reach more consumers on the go. Now the trend is expanding to include content creation, with a new service from X20 Media that promises to help advertisers and network operators produce slick-looking ads with a minimum of effort.