New Medium Shines Through the Gloom: OVAB’s Focus on Digital Out of Home

October 6th, 2008 Brian Dusho

Amid the gloom-and-doom economic news pouring on us daily from all the front- and home pages, it is reassuring to see that the leaders of digital out-of-home media are staying the course.

The OVAB Digital Media Summit will take place in NYC as planned, on October 29, and is widely anticipated to be an unprecedented, watershed event that will lay the groundwork for bridging the gap between the Madison Avenue establishment and DOOH advertising networks in the US.

The oficial press release says: “The event, being held October 29, 2008 at The Grand Hyatt in New York City, will bring together senior marketers and media agency professionals and is designed to educate the advertising community on the power and efficacy of the medium.”

…The goal of the Digital Media Summit is to present and address the major obstacles and challenges facing the digital out-of-home market so that attendees come away with a better understanding of the industry. The breakthrough forum is an opportunity for advertising and agency planners to get exposed, in a single day, to all the key issues and advancements that concern digital out-of-home.”

As advertising budgets are being cut, the Summit appears to be perfectly timed to attract media buyers’ attention to the targeted and accountable nature of DOOH, which is increasingly proving itself as a most pragmatic and cost-efficient way to spend one’s ad dollars. The announcements that digital signage companies are still getting funded and that DOOH revenues keep growing despite the recession are in sharp contrast with the rest of financial news.

The Audience Metrics Guidelines to be unveiled at the Summit will serve as a tool to overcome the ‘language barrier’ between the disparate, technology-rich digital signage networks and the mainstream media buyers. The collaborative approach to building the Guidelines and the fact that they have been reviewed by many reputable media and research experts leaves no doubt that the ‘rule book’ will be adopted by a broad majority of DOOH ad space owners.

We at BroadSign are proud to be part of the OVAB process and progress. We are looking forward to the October 29 Digital Media Summit: Focus on Digital OOH.

OVAB Press Release.

Digital Media Summit page on OVAB Web Site.

Entry Filed under: The Big Picture, Uncategorized