AdTech Firm Vistar Media Launches Verification Program To Ensure Quality Of Display, Audience And Environment

June 2, 2023 by Dave Haynes

The DOOH-focused programmatic firm Vistar Media has launched a new program called Vistar Verify that’s intended to characterize the quality of the place-based media positions it puts on offer to brand advertisers. A verification process benchmarks all of NY-based Vistar’s DOOH inventory against a set of criteria, with the intent of ensuring they meet expectations.

In lay terms, it’s a counter-measure against media buyer worries that some of the spots they place are in crap or compromised locations, or that what they think they’re buying isn’t what they’re really getting. We have all seen digital inventory that’s obscured by hoardings, beat up or in generally dodgy locations that don’t suit the brand.

From the PR:

Vistar Verify creates a shared definition of quality that can be monitored fairly and objectively across all inventory in the Vistar marketplace. Vistar Verify utilizes a set of manual and automated checks to ensure inventory is represented accurately and meets a collective set of standards established by Vistar in consultation with media owners, buyers and platform partners. Vistar Verify assures buyers that they can confidently make inventory choices and continue to grow their investment in DOOH.

When it comes to out-of-home media, the concept of “quality” can take on a lot of meanings. Vistar has consulted with clients and partners across the OOH ecosystem, incorporating input from brands, agencies, demand-side platforms and media owners to develop a set of criteria that can be used to assess the quality of an OOH media asset:

• Environment: The quality of environment in which a screen is located, including both the location itself and the audience present in the location

• Presentation: The quality and effectiveness of the presentation in terms of the physical display itself and the on-screen experience

• Signals: The reliability and accuracy of data (“signals”) describing the inventory

Through the Vistar Verify program, Vistar launched a verification process to benchmark all Vistar inventory against each criteria to ensure that all inventory in the marketplace meets the highest standards. Audited media owners also complete a detailed RFI covering all aspects of a media owner’s environment, processes, data usage, integrations and more.

Additionally, an automated inventory check runs a script against a list of OOH venues, checking the location (latitude/longitude) against the Google Places API, to verify the accuracy of the venue type – for example, identifying a grocery store at or within 50m of the location of a venue listed in the “grocery store” category.

“As the programmatic OOH space has grown, the supply landscape has become saturated, and all screens are not bringing equivalent inventory quality to the table,” says Wade Rifkin, EVP and GM, Programmatic, Clear Channel Outdoor.  “Vistar’s ‘Verify’ solution is illuminating for brands, helping them demarcate and focus investment within premium and impactful contexts for their campaigns. We’re excited to see powerful audience targeting and DSP decisioning marry up even more with high quality programmatic DOOH environments like our roadside and airports inventory through the use of Vistar Verify.”

Over the next few months, Vistar will be rolling out tools for buyers making it easier to browse, plan against, and target inventory based on verification status. Additionally, this framework provides media owners with actionable insights into how they can continue to improve the quality of their networks and drive value for advertisers.

Vistar Verify is currently available in the United States, with global rollout expected by the end of 2023.