Programmatic out of home (OOH) is set to form a crucial part of US digital advertising strategy going forwards, according to the annual State of the Nation report from VIOOH, the programmatic OOH trading platform, which is released. The report found that US respondents forecast including programmatic OOH in 51% of all digital campaigns in 2021, up from 47% in 2019.

VIOOH’s report, which surveyed 600 executives from media agencies and advertisers across the US, UK and Germany during August 2020, proved that the flexibility of programmatic OOH was one of its biggest assets, with 93% of US executives expressly crediting flexibility as the reason they planned or bought programmatic OOH in the past 18 months.

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And, as the world continues to battle Covid, 81% of US respondents think programmatic advertising is more important to their business’ marketing success at a time of crisis.

The report is published on the same day that VIOOH, which is headquartered in the UK, announces its launch into the US market.

VIOOH is a world-leading supply side platform (SSP) automating the planning and trading of OOH inventory and enabling programmatic trading via partnerships with 30 demand-side platforms (DSPs) in the fast-growing programmatic OOH sector. It enables access to premium digital OOH inventory, including delivering 2.3bn monthly impressions via JCDecaux inventory in the US.

Already live across several European and Asia-Pacific markets, VIOOH is a best-in-class planning and trading platform for the OOH industry, providing a full stack for automated trading, data management, content serving and ad-exchange functionality.

VIOOH incorporates a variety of top level data sources and relies on machine learning algorithms to improve the targeting and the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns in a completely transparent and entirely fraud-free process.

VIOOH works with all media owners to provide programmatic trading across any of their premium digital screen inventory.

Despite the enthusiasm for programmatic OOH, which combines brand-focused benefits, such as awareness, with the advantages of more performance-focused media, such as flexibility, ROI, and targeting, in a brand-safe, premium environment, VIOOH’s report found its uptake is being prohibited globally by the absence of a consistent and robust measurement system, together with a lack of education among agency and advertiser executives.

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Significantly, nearly half (44%) of those surveyed admitted a lack in understanding of the benefits of programmatic OOH. This was particularly prevalent among more senior marketers, who may not be involved on a day to day basis with this emerging area within the channel. In the US 47% of executives would like training on the benefits of programmatic OOH advertising to learn more.

When asked about how they believe programmatic OOH campaigns should be measured, on average 56% of US respondents believe performance-based metrics should be used,   and 57% of respondents were looking for more information about cross-channel measurement and attribution.

Jean-Christophe Conti, CEO of VIOOH, said: “Today marks a landmark moment in VIOOH’s history as we expand into the US market. Our State of the Nation report found that 99% of US respondents are planning to increase their spend on programmatic OOH in 2021, making this an exciting time for us to establish our presence here.

“In such uncertain times, where marketers are looking to maximise the value of their advertising budgets, the agility, flexibility and trigger-based decisioning that programmatic OOH offers play a crucial role in the effectiveness of campaigns.The onus is now on us, as an industry, to ensure we are creating the best environment in which programmatic OOH can thrive.”

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