New Standard Promises Granular Granularity for Digital Out-of-Home Inventory, Aiming to Bridge the Gap with Digital Advertising Ecosystems
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 revolutionize how digital out-of-home (DOOH) inventory is classified and transacted programmatically. The revised taxonomy, first launched in 2020, introduces a more granular, hierarchical structure designed to align DOOH with the precise targeting capabilities demanded by modern programmatic buyers, particularly those integrating DOOH into omnichannel campaigns alongside retail media and Connected TV (CTV) strategies.
The industry has long grappled with the limitations of broad venue categories like "retail" or "transit." For programmatic buyers seeking to execute highly targeted campaigns, these generic classifications fall short, obscuring the true nature and quality of the inventory being considered. This lack of specificity has historically hindered the seamless integration of DOOH into programmatic buying workflows, leading to a perception of opacity and underscoring the need for greater transparency.
The OAAA’s updated OpenOOH taxonomy addresses this critical gap by implementing a sophisticated "parent/children/grandchildren" schema. This structured approach allows media owners to meticulously classify their DOOH assets, providing programmatic platforms with the detailed information necessary for accurate bidding and placement. For instance, a digital screen located at an airport baggage claim can now be precisely identified as "transit/airports/baggage claim," a significant improvement over the previous broad "transit" designation. This enhanced granularity empowers advertisers to make informed decisions, ensuring their messages reach the intended audiences in the most relevant environments.
A Strategic Push Towards Programmatic Integration
The OAAA’s initiative is a direct response to the evolving demands of the advertising landscape. As programmatic buying solidifies its dominance across digital channels, the out-of-home sector is strategically positioning itself to capitalize on this growth.
"Programmatic advertisers need an easier way to use OOH inventory as an extension of their omnichannel campaigns, particularly for retail media and CTV buys," stated Premesh Purayil, CTO at DOOH publisher OUTFRONT Media. "This updated taxonomy is crucial for enabling that seamless integration."
Anna Bager, President and CEO of the OAAA, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the potential for DOOH publishers to leverage the burgeoning spend in programmatic CTV and retail media. "By bringing OOH media classification more in line with programmatic buying, out-of-home publishers can capitalize on the recent explosion of programmatic CTV and retail media spend in recent years," Bager explained.
OOH’s Resilient Growth and the Programmatic Opportunity
The out-of-home advertising sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth, particularly in the post-pandemic era. According to OAAA data, the channel has experienced 18 consecutive quarters of ad revenue growth. In the third quarter of 2025, for example, advertisers invested $2.13 billion in OOH, marking the highest third-quarter revenue on record and representing a 4.5% year-over-year improvement.
Despite this robust performance, OOH has historically been a predominantly direct-sold channel. Open-auction programmatic transactions currently represent only a small fraction of overall OOH ad spend. This disparity is largely attributed to the aforementioned limitations in inventory classification, which have prevented programmatic buyers from achieving the precision they expect. The OAAA’s updated taxonomy aims to dismantle this barrier, unlocking greater programmatic potential.
The "Parent/Children/Grandchildren" Schema: A Paradigm Shift
The core innovation of the updated OpenOOH taxonomy lies in its hierarchical structure. This schema provides a clear and consistent framework for classifying DOOH inventory.
- Parent Categories: Broad classifications, such as "Transit," "Retail," "Entertainment," or "Street Furniture."
- Child Categories: More specific classifications within the parent, e.g., "Transit/Airports," "Retail/Supermarkets," "Entertainment/Stadiums," "Street Furniture/Bus Shelters."
- Grandchild Categories: The most granular level, detailing the exact placement or environment, such as "Transit/Airports/Baggage Claim," "Retail/Supermarkets/Checkout Aisles," "Entertainment/Stadiums/Concourse," or "Street Furniture/Bus Shelters/Near Transit Stops."
This layered approach replaces the previous reliance on the venuetypestring field within OpenRTB bid requests. While the venuetypestring offered flexibility as a free-text field, its manual and often inconsistent application across different platforms made it difficult for programmatic systems to parse accurately. The new, standardized taxonomy eliminates this ambiguity.
"To be fair, the old OOH taxonomy did allow media owners and SSPs to use OpenRTB’s venuetypestring – a free text field – to manually list more details about the exact venue in which an OOH screen is located," acknowledged Purayil. "But free text fields can be hard for programmatic systems to read accurately because they tend to be inconsistently applied across platforms. Because the new standard eliminates that guesswork, the venuetypestring field is deprecated in the new taxonomy."
The OAAA has also formalized its commitment to the ongoing development and maintenance of this standard. The OpenOOH Taxonomy Working Group, which was instrumental in designing the new specification, will now be integrated into the OAAA Taxonomy Committee. This consolidation ensures a continuous evolution of the taxonomy to meet the dynamic needs of the industry.
Democratizing OOH Through Granular Targeting
The implications of this more granular classification are far-reaching, empowering advertisers with unprecedented control and flexibility.
"With more detailed categories, advertisers can zero in on the OOH inventory they want to use for omnichannel audience extension," Purayil explained. "CPG brands, for example, could target the types of stores their products are actually sold in, rather than targeting the broad ‘retail’ category."
This level of specificity extends to the precise location of ad placements within venues. A CPG brand might opt for street-facing displays in bodegas to reach a convenience-seeking demographic, while a pharmaceutical company might prefer screens positioned near pharmacy counters in drug stores for a health-conscious audience.
Furthermore, the new taxonomy offers advertisers greater ability to distinguish between different types of OOH placements, including those that might be perceived as "sorta CTV." For instance, TVs mounted in bars, which often fall into a gray area between traditional OOH and lean-back viewing experiences, can now be specifically identified.
"Advertisers also get more flexibility over where their ads appear inside venues," Purayil elaborated. "For instance, a potato chip brand might want to target street-facing displays mounted in the windows of bodegas, while a pharma brand prefers screens near pharmacy counters inside drug stores. And more granular targeting also helps advertisers avoid buying ‘sorta CTV’ OOH placements, like TVs mounted in bars."
This distinction is crucial for creative optimization. A brand whose CTV creative relies heavily on audio would likely avoid bar environments, while a sports-focused brand where audio is less critical might deliberately target these "sorta CTV" placements to expand reach.
"By specifying such distinctions, the taxonomy addresses both buy- and sell-side concerns about very different types of OOH inventory getting broadly lumped together," Purayil noted. "Advertisers get more relevant media, and publishers can demonstrate the real value of their inventory without having to worry that mismatched placements are harming performance."
Empowering Niche Publishers and Fostering Open Marketplace Growth
Beyond enabling sophisticated targeting for major brands, the updated taxonomy is expected to democratize access to DOOH for smaller and more niche publishers. Historically, larger OOH platforms have held an advantage due to their established relationships with specialist agencies and direct sales teams, making their inventory easier for buyers to understand and plan around. Smaller publishers often lack this visibility.
"Plus, the new taxonomy should help smaller, more niche OOH publishers compete," Purayil stated. "Large OOH platforms like OUTFRONT have an advantage because they’re well known to specialist agencies and have established direct sales teams. Agency buyers understand how these larger networks organize their inventory and can plan accordingly. Smaller OOH publishers, by contrast, don’t have that."
By adopting the new, standardized taxonomy, these smaller players can significantly enhance the programmatic activation of their inventory, making it more discoverable and appealing to a broader range of advertisers.
This improved discoverability is also anticipated to shift revenue from private marketplace (PMP) deals towards the open programmatic marketplace. While PMPs have been a significant channel for OOH revenue, the increased transparency and precision offered by the new taxonomy could make open auction buys more attractive and efficient for certain campaign objectives.
"The revenue is already flowing in heavily through the private marketplace side," Purayil observed. "But this could potentially move some of that revenue into the open marketplace, if it makes sense."
This transition could lead to more streamlined programmatic buying flows, allowing advertisers to manage a mix of large and small publisher inventory within a unified omnichannel strategy, rather than relying on fragmented direct sales or bespoke PMP deals.
Looking Ahead: Integration with Industry Standards
The OAAA’s move to enhance the OpenOOH taxonomy is a proactive step towards greater integration with the broader programmatic ecosystem. While the OAAA has developed this specification, its ultimate impact hinges on its adoption and integration within key industry standards and platforms.
AdExchanger reached out to the IAB Tech Lab, the organization responsible for developing and maintaining the OpenRTB protocol, for comment on its plans for incorporating the new OOH taxonomy and deprecating legacy fields. As of publication, the IAB Tech Lab had not yet responded. However, industry observers anticipate that collaboration between the OAAA and the IAB Tech Lab will be crucial for the widespread adoption and success of this initiative.
The updated OpenOOH taxonomy represents a significant milestone for the out-of-home advertising industry. By embracing granular classification and aligning with programmatic principles, OAAA is paving the way for more efficient, transparent, and effective DOOH advertising, ultimately strengthening its position as a vital component of the modern marketing mix.
