(Editor's Note: Posterscope denies it is backing ADstruc. A Clarification has been published here.)
While
it’s not quite the out-of-home equivalent of the online industry’s real-time trading systems, outdoor media just took another step in that direction. In a move that’s starting to
look like a horse race between two automated media planning and buying systems, one of the world’s biggest buyers of out-of-home media, Posterscope, is backing ADstruc, a system that enables
planners and buyers to purchase out-of-home media electronically from a central platform. In a deal being announced this morning, ADstruc is also being integrated with Mediaocean’s media-buying
data processing systems, which serve the majority of Madison Avenue.
The deal comes as one of the other biggest buyers of out-of-home media, WPP’s tenthavenue and
Spafax units, are backing Vistar, a startup with digital DNA that is trying to replicate the online industry’s programmatic trading and bidding systems for the out-of-home industry.
But unlike Vistar, which is primarily automating trading for digital out-of-home media networks, the new deal between ADstruc and Mediaocean will facilitate planning and buying
for all out-of-home media, including analogue billboards, etc., for the suppliers who participate in it.
Ray Rotolo, COO of Posterscope, a division of Aegis Media, which
is now a division of Japanese holding company Dentsu, calls the deal a “first step toward automating transactional processes.
“It enables us to draw
meaningful insights that help us provide value in terms most relevant to our clients. I'm most excited because this paves the way for us to leverage data as an organizational asset. By allowing us to
deliver fully informed operational excellence and business intelligence, it complements our superior understanding of consumers and the OOH space.”
ADstruc has
already been working directly with some of Madison Avenue’s agency trading desks, notably MDC Partners’ Varick Media Management. While it’s not a true programmatic trading system the
way Vistar is, it enables agencies and trading desks to automatically post requests for proposals for out-of-home media, and for media suppliers to respond automatically, offering bids for planners
and buyers to filter based on their campaign and targeting specifications.
ADstruc currently claims more than 1,000 out-of-home media suppliers in its system,
representing about 80% of U.S. out-of-home inventory, including both digital and conventional display ads.
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