Congrats to the OVAB

Congratulations to the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) which finally got off the ground a few months ago. I'm a little late with this post but I do want to extend a congrats to them. You can check out their web site here:
http://www.ovab.org

I was fortunate to be at the first ever OVAB meeting in New York back in September 2006. I'm a big believer in Out-of-Home (OOH) media and I think that it is the future of advertising spending and media consumption. Many agences are placing their advertising dollars into the online space and pulling further and further away from print. While I have no problem with that, I do believe that more emphasis needs to be put on OOH media. Agencies have yet to really adopt OOH media. More on that point to come in a later post.

The OVAB was formed after years of advertising dollars being spent in other places. Now, the OVAB isn't going to change this on their own but it is a start for an industry that has consistently been passed over. For those of you who are involved in media already know about the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Cable Advertising Bureau (CAB), or the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB). These are all Bureaus which have been put in place to research, regulate, inform, and serve as an advocate for online advertising, as well as cable and broadcast advertising. So finally the OOH industry has something to stand behind them.

Although I do not know who is directly responsible for forming this organization I can say that two companies were behind it from the very beginning. Those companies are the Captivate Network and Premier Retail Networks (PRN). The Captivate Network is made up of hundreds of television monitors in high-rise building elevators. They feature news content mixed with advertising. Check it out here: http://www.captivate.com. PRN is famous for their networks inside big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, and several others. You may not always recognize their networks because they are typically branded to that particular stores name. However PRN is a large name in the OOH industry. You can check out PRN here at http://www.prn.com.


The OVAB will be responsible for setting guidelines and regulations for OOH media going forward. They will be at the fore front of new standards and research that will hopefully lead to a gain in advertising sales and overall education about OOH networks and what they can do for advertisers, retailers, government transportation systems, and many other locations. OVAB has a lot of work to do though. Although you have seen networks popping up more and more in malls and grocery stores, this still doesn't mean the advertising sales are a success. I have no factual numbers or research to back up this claim but I can tell you from my background in the OOH industry, it's a tough sell, even to DR advertisers. (Which by the way, DR still is un-proven on these networks but we'll keep that our secret. Someday I'll go back to this point in a OOH post.)

Take the time to read the OVAB's mission and check back as they continue to update news on their site. They have put together a very strong team and I know they will make some way soon in the OOH industry.