OAAA’s Programmatic Automation Center of Excellence: What Local DOOH Buyers Should Plan For

At a Glance

On 24 September 2026, the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) launched a Programmatic & Automation Center of Excellence. On 8 October 2026 it added a Technical Advisory Council (TAC). Together they are an industry effort to make out-of-home easier to plan, buy, measure, and connect to other channels.

For a local US advertiser booking convenience-store screens or ATM toppers, nothing in these announcements is a rate card, a finished taxonomy, or a new way to check out. The useful part is the work list: shared venue labels, machine-readable data, APIs, automated workflows, and clearer reporting. OAAA says that work will feed 2027 deliverables. This post explains what was actually announced, who was named, and which questions to ask while you plan.

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Who This Is For

Audience	Why it matters
Local brands and franchisees	You buy a few named screens. You need to know what “standards” will and will not change about that booking.
Regional marketers planning 2027	Taxonomies, creative specs, and reporting formats are the pieces that make a multi-screen plan comparable.
Agencies using DSPs	The Center and the TAC are aimed at the planning tools and APIs you already use.
Not for	Anyone looking for a CPM, a venue count, or a guarantee that a standard is already in force.

Book named convenience-store and ATM venues on self-serve. For a short same-day play on one screen, bought by scanning that screen’s QR code, see Instant Ads.

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What the Center of Excellence Is

OAAA’s 24 September 2026 announcement (also on GlobeNewswire) describes the Center as an industry-led initiative to modernize the out-of-home ecosystem and strengthen OOH inside omnichannel plans.

The same release says the Center will bring together media owners, technology providers, agencies, brands, and other stakeholders. The work methods it names are dedicated working groups, buyer and seller listening sessions, industry research, and collaboration with adjacent trade organizations. The point, in OAAA’s words, is to identify shared barriers, establish common standards, and develop practical frameworks.

On its Center of Excellence page, OAAA states the mission as growing OOH industry revenue by encouraging data-driven advertising, establishing best practices, driving innovation, and enabling scalable, transparent, and measurable programmatic solutions. That is the association’s mission statement, not a forecast.

The page lists three imperatives:

• Accelerate adoption. Make programmatic OOH easier to understand, access, plan, and activate.
• Enhance efficiency. Advance standards, automation, and interoperability so OOH is easier to transact at scale.
• Deliver impactful results. Strengthen measurement, transparency, and data-driven capabilities.

It also lists four focus areas: standards and best practices, research and measurement, technology and innovation (including automation and agentic AI), and education. Expected resources include industry standards, an annual benchmark study, educational programming, technology-focused events, and collaboration with OAAA committees. The page invites interested companies to use the email address published there.

OAAA’s own boilerplate, repeated on the releases, says the association was founded in 1891, serves more than 850 member companies, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York City.

Four pillars from the launch

The 24 September release organizes the Center around four pillars:

1. Standardization and optimization. Unified data constructs and machine-readable frameworks that agency omnichannel planning tools can ingest.
2. Workflow automation and agentic AI. A translation layer so OOH can sit in machine-driven buying and planning, closer to how digital media is procured.
3. Reporting and attribution. Frameworks for data, reporting, and attribution, including standardized attribution models.
4. Omnichannel and retail media. Positioning OOH next to retail media networks and connected TV.

Expected outcomes named in that release: shared data definitions and taxonomies, machine-readable standards, more consistent reporting and attribution guidance, and recommendations for automating workflows.

Two first steps are already described, and neither is a published spec:

• A Buyer Listening Session in New York, with IAB Tech Lab, to gather input from agencies, brands, media owners, and technology providers.
• An industry benchmark study on programmatic adoption, workflow automation, and gaps in standardization and measurement.

OAAA says insights from both will help prioritize working groups and 2027 deliverables. Additional participants “will be announced as the initiative progresses.”

Patrick Dolan, OAAA’s chief operating officer, said the Center should “provide the framework, alignment, and technical foundation needed to remove friction, modernize our ecosystem, and scale out of home’s role in omnichannel advertising.”

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Who Is Named

Chair and executive lead. The 24 September release appoints Ari Buchalter, chief strategy officer at Broadsign and founder and former CEO of Place Exchange, as inaugural Advisory Board Chair. Ashwini Karandikar is Executive Lead. She most recently served as executive vice president of media, technology, and data at the 4A’s. The 8 October TAC release describes Buchalter as chairing the Center’s Advisory Board at Place Exchange by Broadsign.

Founding member companies, as listed in the 24 September release: AdQuick, Broadsign, Perion, VIOOH, and Vistar Media.

The Center of Excellence page lists the board this way:

Name	Role on the page
Ari Buchalter	Chief Strategy Officer, Broadsign; OAAA Advisory Board Chair
Chris Gadek	CEO, AdQuick
Norm Chait	VP, US Marketplace, Perion
Leslie Lee	SVP, Marketing, Vistar Media
Ludovic Menard	CPO, VIOOH

The same page lists OAAA leadership beside the board: Patrick Dolan, chief operating officer, and Ashwini Karandikar, OAAA executive lead.

Take 10 Media is not named in these sources as a member, a chair, or a participant.

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The Technical Advisory Council

On 8 October 2026, OAAA announced the Technical Advisory Council. A doohdigital write-up on 9 October restates that announcement. Facts below are from the OAAA release unless noted.

The TAC’s remit is the full OOH business: static and digital inventory, direct and programmatic transactions. OAAA says it will focus on how inventory is defined, how orders move between systems, and how delivery and performance are reported.

Initial priorities in the release: data standards and taxonomies, transaction and workflow automation, reporting and attribution, integrations with omnichannel platforms, and emerging technologies such as agentic AI.

Inaugural chair: Ian Dallimore, VP of Digital Growth and GM of Programmatic at Lamar Advertising Company.

Founding members also named in the release:

• Graham Conzett, Director of Technology, Orange Barrel Media
• Mark Costa, Chief Digital Officer, JCDecaux North America
• Lauren Haag, Chief Technology Officer, Adams Outdoor Advertising
• Premesh Purayil, Chief Technology Officer, OUTFRONT Media
• Wade Rifkin, EVP / GM, Programmatic + Commerce, Clear Channel Outdoor
• Nitin Shriram, Chief Technology Officer, Intersection
• Shawn Taylor, Vice President of Digital and Innovations, Branded Cities
• James Thomas, Director of Digital Growth and Programmatic Operations, Interstate Outdoor

The council says it will develop frameworks and technical standards, including:

• Consistent data definitions and venue classifications across static and digital inventory
• API specifications for connecting OOH inventory with omnichannel planning and buying platforms
• Protocols for more automated workflows, from planning and ordering through proof of performance, including AI-driven planning and buying
• Interoperable approaches to reporting, impression verification, and attribution
• Technical standards that make it easier to connect OOH with retail media and CTV

Working groups of technical experts from participating companies are how OAAA says those recommendations will get written.

OAAA is explicit about how the two groups relate. The Center, launched in September, focuses on programmatic growth, automation, and connections between OOH and the systems agencies, brands, and technology partners use. The TAC “complements that work with a broader mandate,” bringing media owners’ technology and operations leaders together across the full OOH business. Dolan called the TAC a forum for media owners to identify common challenges and align on practical solutions.

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The Spend Context AdExchanger Reported

In an 8 October 2026 interview with Dolan, AdExchanger reports that, according to OAAA research, DOOH accounted for 38.4% of OOH spend in Q2 this year, an 18.5% growth rate compared with last year. The interview is dated 8 October 2026, so “this year” is 2026. Those are the spend figures the article attributes to OAAA research. They are not a price for any screen and not a Take 10 result.

Our Q2 programmatic DOOH recap walks through the separate 18 August OAAA release. Use that post for the wider quarterly picture. This one stays with what the CoE coverage itself states.

AdExchanger’s framing is that DOOH’s share is a sign for programmatic activation, because digital screens lean on programmatic technology while static boards are more often direct-sold. That is the article’s reading. Dolan’s own line in the interview: the programmatic side of OOH “is a growth story, as it always has been.” He pointed to marketers’ comfort with programmatic, the ability to manage OOH inside the same dashboards as other campaigns, more screens, and the conversion of traditional screens to digital.

He also said the Center is not only a programmatic-share project. Static inventory still matters, which is why the name includes automation as well as programmatic: the goal includes automating manual processes and the sale of static inventory.

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What to Ask When You Plan 2027 C-Store and ATM Screens

OAAA did not publish a convenience-store or ATM-topper playbook in these announcements. The fourth CoE pillar and the TAC’s retail-media bullet are about connecting OOH with retail media and CTV. Place-based screens at a store or on an ATM sit in that neighborhood. The checklist below is how a local buyer can use the announced work areas. It is not a claim that any of these standards are finished.

1. How is the venue classified?

The TAC’s first work item is consistent data definitions and venue classifications. The Center’s first pillar is machine-readable data that planning tools can ingest. If one seller calls a screen “retail,” another “place-based,” and a third “on-premise,” a 2027 plan that mixes them will be hard to compare.

Dolan told AdExchanger the industry recently released a taxonomy and is “working toward taxonomy 2.0,” and that getting everyone to use the same thing is still the hard part. He also said a label like “transit” covers many formats, and digital buyers want more specificity, while metadata is inconsistent across platforms and content systems. The interview does not publish the taxonomy. Ask each network which classification it uses, and do not treat a shared label as already mandatory.

2. Will one creative file actually run?

Creative specs came up in the buyer listening session, Dolan said: not only design, but file size and file type. Screens come from different eras and have different technical limits. The Center is looking at how to reduce the number of versions a campaign needs, including AI and responsive design. That is a direction, not a spec sheet you can download from these pages.

Before you build one master for a c-store loop and an ATM topper, get the accepted file type and size from each place you intend to run. Our c-store retail media note covers how chains talk about in-store and pump screens. It is a separate topic from this standards launch.

3. What will the report contain?

The Center’s third pillar and the TAC’s reporting bullet both aim at more consistent delivery and attribution data, including impression verification. Dolan told AdExchanger that reporting and attribution are not the Center’s main focus, because Geopath and other measurement groups already work on that. He described the Center’s role as fostering technical capability. He said IAB Tech Lab CEO Tony Katsur mentioned the IAB Tech Lab SDK at the listening session as one possible integration path, and that verification technology of the kind digital media already uses is on the Center’s list.

None of that is a measurement product you can turn on today. If you need to know whether a flight moved sales, a holdout comparison or a screen-only code still works without an industry attribution model. The method, and its limits, are in DOOH attribution without device IDs.

Update, 23 October 2026: Geopath’s dataset switch on 12 November. Geopath says its 2026 Planning Dataset becomes the default transactional planning dataset in the Geopath Insights Suite and API on Thursday, 12 November 2026 (the preview ends Wednesday, 11 November). Geopath also says frames in high-foot-traffic areas may show noticeable differences in pedestrian audience impressions compared with the 2025 dataset, and that a review with its roadside data provider, Bentley Systems, of traffic and speed data for several thousand frames may update audience estimates in the coming months. Geopath does not give a size for those changes. If a plan or proposal you are pricing runs across 12 November, ask for the audience numbers to be re-pulled on the 2026 dataset.

4. Are you buying through a planning system, or picking venues?

API specifications and automated workflows are aimed at orders moving between media owners and omnichannel planning platforms. That is the path agencies use when OOH has to show up inside a DSP or a media mix model. Dolan told AdExchanger that taxonomy, metadata, and the structure of data for media-mix systems are all part of “the easy button” for buyers.

Venue-level booking is a different path. You choose listed stores and dates yourself. Easier programmatic pipes do not replace that. The distinction is the same one in our programmatic DOOH market guide and in programmatic DOOH and retail media.

5. Treat 2027 as a deliverable date, not a switch-on date

The 24 September release says the listening session and the benchmark study will prioritize working groups and 2027 deliverables. It does not say those deliverables are done. The CoE page says the Center will translate priorities into standards, research, and events. Plan 2027 budgets knowing the study is announced. Do not write a media plan that depends on a file format, an API, or an attribution model these pages have not published.

On agentic buying, Dolan told AdExchanger the association is looking at getting OAAA data into large language models in a more structured way, and at AI as a translation layer between mismatched data sets and between seller agents and buyer agents. Asked whether OAAA would pick one agentic standard, he said they had not gotten that far: the work is evaluation, including how to cooperate when companies use different standards. The question put to him named competing efforts from IAB Tech Lab, AgenticAdvertising.org, and others. He did not choose one.

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What This Article Is Not

• Not a rate card or a CPM. No price appears in the OAAA announcements used here.
• Not a finished standard. Taxonomies, APIs, reporting models, and the benchmark study are described as work in progress.
• Not a Take 10 result, inventory count, or membership claim. Take 10 is not named in these sources.
• Not a c-store or ATM product from OAAA. The retail-media pillar is about connecting OOH with retail media and CTV. Applying that to convenience stores and ATM toppers is this article’s planning frame.
• Not legal, measurement, or investment advice.

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Sources

1. OAAA — OAAA Launches Programmatic & Automation Center of Excellence to Accelerate the Future of Out of Home (Washington, 24 September 2026). Wire copy: GlobeNewswire.
2. OAAA — Programmatic & Automation Center of Excellence (mission, three imperatives, focus areas, board and OAAA leadership as listed on the page).
3. OAAA — OAAA Launches Technical Advisory Council to Accelerate OOH Automation and Integration (Washington, D.C., 8 October 2026).
4. doohdigital — OAAA Launches Technical Advisory Council for OOH Automation (Sunil Kumar, 9 October 2026; trade restatement of the TAC announcement).
5. AdExchanger — How The OAAA Is Guiding DOOH Through Its Next Stage Of Programmatic Evolution (Anthony Vargas, 8 October 2026; interview with Patrick Dolan; DOOH 38.4% of OOH spend in Q2 and +18.5% year over year, attributed on the page to OAAA research).
6. Geopath — 2026 Planning Dataset to Become Default on November 12 (19 October 2026).

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Next Steps

If you are planning a 2027 place-based flight, write down four things before you pick dates: how each network classifies the venue, which creative file it accepts, what the delivery report includes, and whether you are buying through a planning platform or choosing stores yourself. The Center and the TAC are where the industry says those answers should get more consistent. They are not where you book a screen this month.

On self-serve, you choose the convenience-store and ATM venues and the dates. Start in the Take 10 Media Ad Portal; your account and video still go through review before the campaign goes live. For a same-day promo on a single screen, Instant Ads are the shorter path.

Related reading: programmatic DOOH for local brands · DOOH attribution without device IDs · NACS and c-store retail media · programmatic DOOH and retail media.