• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 24, 2025

Connecting the retail industry with out of home (OOH) could become one of the most ambitious projects the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) has attempted to tackle. It now has a new chief operating officer who spent time bringing programmatic into being. The key is making the technology work together.

Being part of the birth of programmatic advertising seems pretty exciting for someone in the industry who has seen the evolution of ads. Patrick Dolan, newly appointed COO for OAAA, had been involved with programmatic ad-serving concepts from the beginning.

He worked at Right Media, which originated from DoubleClick long before Google purchased the company in 2008 for $3.1 billion.

Dolan worked with Bill Wise and others when they took metadata from websites and used it to create audience segments. The ads were delivered on Sonar Network, which was known as remnant ad inventory.

“That was pretty exciting to see that,’ Dolan said. “And it’s sort of how it evolved into the whole programmatic part of the business.”

Dolan knew that the internet and advertising would change the world. He felt fortunate to find a role at DoubleClick working with brilliant people. They were ready to try just about anything, and the technology was evolving.

“I sort of see that with the out-of-home industry now,” Dolan said, adding he sees the same transition happening in DOOH today.

When asked to cite technology he believes will revolutionize OOH, he said the foundations are in place — measurements, data, privacy awareness, compliance and transparency. The focus is about learning how to take that technology and apply it in the physical world.

On the artistic side, it's important to make those visuals on the billboards come alive.

For Dolan, it’s all about solving problems. He believes there are technology and processes that the industry could use, and a trade association can fill in the gaps by bringing people together from various parts.

Getting retail media to work with OOH will mean developing standards and taxonomies.

Although it does not sound very exciting, he said, but it is critically important to educate the industry — another thing associations can do.

Identify and easing the friction to break down the walls.

“My focus now is on operational efficiencies, making sure that we have all the information internally to run the business,” Dolan said.

Dolan has a creative side, and he is an avid reader of fiction and nonfiction. The latest book he read was Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, a tale of two childhood friends who reconnect in college and decide to create a video game together. They explore the complexities of friendship, creative partnership, and the ups and downs of the gaming industry during a long period of time.

He led the IAB for 13 years, serving as chief financial officer and then as president of the group from 2017 to 2020. He also cofounded and served as chief operating officer for the startup FxM, where he led the company to streamline media operations and reduce advertising financing costs for clients.