• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 12, 2014

Dentsu Aegis Network’s out-of-home agency Posterscope this morning unveiled what it claims to be the “first real-time trading platform for digital billboards.” The platform is being powered by digital-out-of-home technology and data company Vistar Media and has already received trading commitments from big out-of-home media suppliers, including Outfront Media (formerly CBS Outdoor) and Lamar.

The platform, which will begin beta trading during the first quarter of 2015, will give Posterscope and its clients the ability to reach more than 2,800 billboards from the two charter suppliers, with more inventory likely to come as it taps into other out-of-home media companies.

Posterscope said it is utilizing Vistar’s real-time buying platform to access inventory and target audiences. The agency described the platform as enabling a “private marketplace” trading “premium quality” inventory that combines “audience-based targeting with location-based intelligence.

“Being able to trade premium inventory in real-time at scale allows brands to maximize relevance, engagement and targeting which is essential for the growth of OOH,” Posterscope Chief Strategy Officer James Davies stated, adding: “This highly collaborative and innovative initiative delivers a major step change in the medium, creating value for both advertisers and stakeholders in the OOH industry.”

“We will bring the power of online techniques to the real world, in real-time, in a fully automated way,” added Posterscope USA CEO Helma Larkin. “In today’s era of convergence where the lines between the digital and physical worlds continue to blur, OOH is an increasingly important component of the media mix for how we most effectively reach the consumer in their daily journey. Through this initiative, we will now be able to offer our clients a more nimble and dynamic means of reaching their target audience.”

In a related initiative, Posterscope and Vistar said they are working together on the application of location-based mobile data to optimize both traditional and digital OOH planning and buying, utilizing a variety of sources including Airsage, which aggregates location data from two of the largest U.S. mobile carriers.