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New Schema Promises Granularity and Transparency for Programmatic Buyers, Bolstering OOH’s Omnichannel Integration
New York, NY – February 10, 2026 – The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) today announced a significant update to its OpenOOH venue taxonomy, a move poised to unlock greater programmatic potential for the burgeoning out-of-home (OOH) advertising sector. This revised taxonomy, building upon the foundation laid in 2020, introduces a more sophisticated classification system designed to address the granular data demands of programmatic buyers and facilitate seamless integration with omnichannel campaigns. The OAAA is simultaneously integrating its dedicated OpenOOH Taxonomy Working Group into its broader OAAA Taxonomy Committee, signaling a long-term commitment to the evolution and maintenance of this critical industry standard.
Historically, the digital out-of-home (DOOH) landscape has relied on broad venue-type categorizations, a model increasingly at odds with the precision required by programmatic advertising. Generic labels such as "retail" or "transit" are no longer sufficient for buyers seeking to understand precisely what inventory they are bidding on. This lack of specificity, compounded by the practice of some publishers and Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) aggregating media of disparate quality under single categories, has historically undermined transparency and created hesitation among programmatic buyers. The OAAA’s updated taxonomy aims to rectify this by providing a standardized, hierarchical structure that mirrors the sophistication of other programmatic channels.
A Strategic Pivot Towards Programmatic Integration
The driving force behind this taxonomy update is the escalating demand for OOH inventory to function as a cohesive extension of broader advertising strategies, particularly within the rapidly expanding realms of retail media and Connected TV (CTV) advertising. Premesh Purayil, Chief Technology Officer at OOH publisher OUTFRONT Media, emphasized the critical need for OOH to align with programmatic buying practices. "Programmatic advertisers require a more intuitive method for incorporating OOH inventory into their omnichannel campaigns, especially as they scale their retail media and CTV investments," Purayil stated. "This updated taxonomy directly addresses that need, making OOH a more accessible and efficient channel for these integrated strategies."
Anna Bager, President and CEO of the OAAA, echoed this sentiment, highlighting the strategic imperative for OOH publishers to capitalize on the significant growth witnessed in programmatic CTV and retail media spend. "Out-of-home advertising has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth, emerging from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with sustained momentum," Bager remarked. "We have observed 18 consecutive quarters of ad revenue growth, including a robust 4.5% year-over-year increase in the third quarter of 2025, during which advertisers collectively invested $2.13 billion – a record high for the third quarter."
Despite this impressive recovery and growth, OOH has largely remained a direct-sold channel. Open auction programmatic currently represents a modest portion of overall OOH ad spend. Bager attributed this disparity, in part, to the historical limitations of OOH inventory classification, which has lacked the precision that programmatic advertisers have come to expect. The new taxonomy is designed to bridge this gap, fostering greater confidence and participation in programmatic OOH transactions.
A Hierarchical Schema for Unprecedented Granularity
The core innovation of the updated OpenOOH taxonomy lies in its adoption of a "parent/children/grandchildren" hierarchical schema. This structure empowers media owners to classify their inventory with a level of detail that can be seamlessly integrated into OpenRTB (Open Real-Time Bidding) bid requests. For instance, a digital screen located at an airport baggage claim can now be precisely tagged as "transit/airports/baggage claim," a significant improvement over the previous broad categorization of "transit."
Purayil acknowledged that the previous OOH taxonomy did offer a "venueTypeString" field, a free-text option that allowed media owners and SSPs to manually input more specific details about a screen’s location. However, he pointed out the inherent limitations of such free-text fields in programmatic environments. "While the ‘venueTypeString’ provided a degree of flexibility, its reliance on manual input and inconsistent application across platforms made it challenging for programmatic systems to parse accurately," Purayil explained. "The new, structured taxonomy eliminates this guesswork. Consequently, the ‘venueTypeString’ field has been deprecated in this updated version, ensuring a standardized and machine-readable data flow."
Discussions with industry stakeholders suggest that the IAB Tech Lab, a key standards-setting body, is actively evaluating the integration of the new OAAA OOH taxonomy into the broader OpenRTB specification. While specific timelines for the deprecation of legacy fields and the incorporation of the new schema were not immediately available, the move signifies a strong alignment between OAAA’s industry-led initiative and the foundational protocols of programmatic advertising.
Democratizing Access and Enhancing Targeting Capabilities
The introduction of these more granular categories promises to democratize access to OOH inventory, enabling advertisers to pinpoint the specific placements that align with their campaign objectives. Purayil elaborated on the practical implications: "With more detailed classifications, advertisers can achieve greater precision in their OOH inventory selection for omnichannel audience extension. For example, CPG brands can now target the exact types of stores where their products are sold, moving beyond the imprecise ‘retail’ category."
This enhanced granularity also extends to the physical placement of advertisements within venues. A consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand might opt for street-facing displays in the windows of neighborhood bodegas, while a pharmaceutical company might prioritize screens situated near pharmacy counters within drug stores. This level of control allows for highly tailored messaging and brand association.
Furthermore, the new taxonomy directly addresses the challenge of what Purayil terms "sorta CTV" OOH placements – instances where OOH screens are located in environments that also feature CTV content, such as televisions mounted in bars. "A brand whose CTV creative relies heavily on audio will likely wish to avoid these environments," Purayil noted. "Conversely, a brand targeting sports fans with creative where audio is less critical might deliberately seek out ‘sorta CTV’ inventory to expand their reach and engage a relevant audience."
By enabling advertisers to specify these distinctions, the taxonomy effectively addresses concerns from both buy and sell sides regarding the misclassification of diverse OOH inventory. Advertisers gain access to more relevant media environments, while publishers can more effectively demonstrate the distinct value propositions of their inventory, mitigating the risk of mismatched placements negatively impacting campaign performance.
Empowering Smaller Publishers and Streamlining Omnichannel Buys
Beyond enhancing targeting capabilities for large advertisers, the updated taxonomy is expected to level the playing field for smaller, more niche OOH publishers. Purayil observed that larger OOH platforms like OUTFRONT Media benefit from established relationships with specialist agencies and robust direct sales teams, enabling agency buyers to readily understand and plan around their inventory. Smaller publishers, lacking these established networks, have historically faced greater challenges in making their inventory accessible and attractive to programmatic buyers.
"Smaller OOH publishers that adopt this new taxonomy can significantly improve the ease with which their inventory can be activated programmatically," Purayil stated. "This adoption provides advertisers with a more straightforward pathway to execute OOH buys across a diverse mix of large and small publishers, and to manage this curation within their existing omnichannel programmatic buying workflows, rather than relying solely on direct deals and private marketplace (PMP) transactions."
The impact on transaction models could be substantial. Purayil suggested that while a significant portion of OOH revenue currently flows through PMP channels, the increased transparency and precision offered by the new taxonomy could incentivize a portion of this spend to migrate to the open marketplace, where feasible and beneficial for both buyers and sellers. This shift could lead to greater efficiency and broader market participation.
The OAAA’s proactive approach to standardizing OOH inventory classification underscores the industry’s commitment to embracing programmatic technology and its potential to drive future growth. By providing the necessary data infrastructure, the association is paving the way for OOH to become an even more integral and measurable component of the modern advertising ecosystem.
