E.B. Moss: Do historical concerns about fraud and accuracy in programmatic apply?
Wade Rifkin: Fraud is definitely a serious topic. The potential for fraud in DOOH would really only be through hackers vying for space on our boards, which we prevent with a robust firewall. So we're not subject to the same bots and fraudsters that settle into the display and video eco-
E.B.: What creative assets can be delivered?
Wade: Creative is a major opportunity for us to play in in the programmatic eco-system. There is a massive white space in the top of the funnel with programmatic and OOH can slot in nicely ... with those large formats, the static digital assets we offer on roadsides, but also video assets in our airport footprint.
E.B.: Do you envision this being the 20th century version of the Burma Shave billboards?
Wade: I don't know if I'm familiar with them …
E.B.: They were sponsored billboards in the 1930-50s that offered kitsch y, often safe-driving verses spaced every hundred feet or so, as a sequential story. For example: "Don't take / a curve / At 60 per. / We hate to lose / a customer. / Burma-Shave" or "Our fortune / is your / shaven face. / It's our best / advertising space. / Burma-Shave."
Wade: Ah! Well, I'd say sequential creative in programmatic is more down the road. I do think the macro point of storytelling is delivered upon today, though, via the integration of DOOH. Frankly, I'm excited to see it come to life for advertisers -- being able to understand how to unfold the creative narrative and to do that now across mobile, desktop and DOOH.
E.B.: Do you think there's going to be a long ramp-up time needed for creatives to understand programmatic digital OOH?
Wade: We don't think so. You can make [the assets] more specific for geography or time of day, but it's the same format. It's just a new means of transacting against that board.
E.B. So, we're not at the point where, say, the board will change when it knows I've passed by with my device.
Wade: Not yet! But there's still a lot that's being done in one-to-many with data relevant to the profile of the groups of individuals passing by roadside boards or visiting the airports where we have a presence.
E.B.: What kinds of clients would benefit most in using programmatic out of home?
Wade: Anyone that's buying OOH today could have a use case for programmatic. Matilda the Musical -- a show in the entertainment vertical -- jumped at the chance to be first to market, along with a finance advertiser and travel campaign.
E.B.: Are 100% of your boards allocated to programmatic?
Wade: It's a smaller subset of the inventory. We did that purposefully so the current inventory is valuable to these early stage partners and achieving their goals. We haven't hard-limited it from a business perspective though, so we're open to scaling it as our partners wish.
E.B.: You're working with multiple DSPs?
Wade: Yes -- Rubicon Project, MediaMath and TubeMogul all tested with us in Q4 [three more for Beta phase will include Adelphic, Simpli.fi and