Verizon Media to sell JCDecaux inventory as outdoor interest increases

Media and tech firm Verizon Media has partnered with digital out of home (OOH) marketplace, VIOOH, to bring the digital billboard and screen inventory of JCDecaux onto its ad marketplace (demand-side platform).

Verizon did not confirm how many screens were being added to its inventory but in adding the stock of the largest out of home company in the world, it confirmed with The Drum that it was adding 25 million impressions per hour or 570 million per day in the UK, and more across its European holdings.

Verizon Media owns and operates a substantial stable of online inventory and the addition of digital out of home inventory suggests a blurring between online and offline, with the new distinction increasingly being digital and analog.

The move will see Verizon’s platform capable of capturing greater spend and allow for more creative, multiplatform buys, it has claimed. It has added DOOH screens in more than 60 cities across seven countries.

Through Verizon, marketers can now buy video, mobile, display, native, connected TV, audio and DOOH inventory.

The DOOH is available in the UK, US, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, with further markets coming online later in the year, across high-footfall locations like major shopping centres, street furniture, airports, commuting transport links like London Transport and mainline railways across the UK. Through the buying of advertising digitally, they can be triggered by location, weather, time of day, and more.

Last year, Verizon Media tested the waters of DOOH by integrating inventory in the US, UK, Canada, and the Netherlands in collaboration with Rubicon Project and Vistar Media. This brought aboard digital screens from Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar, Zoom Media, Captivate and Hivestack and Broadsig.

Ivan Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, said: “Our customers want to be able to buy across multiple channels, formats and screens with a simple purchase and measurement structure that allows them to be creative, reach the right people and truly see the effectiveness of their campaigns. With VIOOH, we further our commitment to building products with our customers’ and consumers’ experience in mind. When you combine the high impact of DOOH with our diverse reach to millions of people worldwide, it makes Verizon Media’s DSP a compelling option for marketers.”

Jean-Christophe Conti, chief executive officer at VIOOH, added: “Programmatic OOH is on the cusp of going mainstream, of that there is no doubt.

“Verizon Media was among the first global demand-side platforms to connect to the DOOH ecosystem, and is driving meaningful growth and geographic scale in the ecosystem. We want to partner with omnichannel leaders like them to help brands deliver a more targeted, unified and holistic experience to consumers.”

The inventory will be available in Verizon Media’s DSP from this week.

It signifies the latest land grab in advertising with pressure mounting on the third-party cookie, marketplaces are looking to grab at targeted ads in the digital out of home realm – recently we saw Global integrate its out of home holdings with its buying platform DAX recently.