• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, August 20, 2010

With digital out-of-home continuing to expand at a breakneck pace, a number of big media agencies have launched new services helping advertisers create and execute DO campaigns. Here's a quick roundup of these resources (there are sure to be more, so stay tuned for updates).

In July Posterscope USA's Hyperspace unit unveiled a new "Screengallery" Web site along with its digital "Creative Optimization Guide." The Web site features promotional videos and photography for digital out-of-home screen networks, allowing advertisers to see various DO networks in action. The networks are broken down into categories including travel, retail, roadside and digital spectaculars, medical and fitness, office and education, leisure, and "other."

Posterscope's Creative Optimization Guide is an interactive application designed to help advertisers familiarize themselves with different screen "environments" - that is, the venue contexts in which screens operate. This in turn should allow them to determine which kind of creative content is best suited for specific audiences, environments and formats.

Also in July BroadSign International, which creates digital signage software, unveiled its partnership with with rVue, Inc., which operates a demand-side platform for buying DO media. The partners are integrating their systems, allowing users of rVue's Web-based planning service to find advertising inventory on 21 DO networks that use BroadSign software. The rVue service also lets them negotiate rates, create insertion orders and follow campaign execution through the same interface.

Not long after, rVue announced an alliance with TracyLocke, an Omnicom agency, which is using rVue to create customized DO campaigns for its clients. Tracy Locke also asked its vendors to develop network profiles on rVue's platform for consideration in its DO media planning.

Last but not least, MediaVest has introduced a new proprietary planning tool for advertising clients that ranks 33 out-of-home channels (including DO networks) as platforms for different brand categories and reaching specific demographics. In addition to ranking the platforms, the MediaVest application helps media buyers determine the optimal mix of out-of-home channels to achieve brand and audience targeting goals.