A Leader in OOH, A Leader in Programmatic: Lamar's Success Story

As a longtime leader in the out-of-home industry, Lamar is constantly looking for ways to innovate and continue to deliver the most compelling media experiences to brands. It’s even in their slogan, “Innovating since 1902”. As part of this effort, Lamar has been a leading adopter of programmatic technology, partnering with Vistar Media since the early days of programmatic first entering the out-of-home industry.

Vistar Media partnered with Lamar to increase revenue by monetizing unsold inventory and maximizing yield across digital billboards. By connecting to the Vistar exchange, Lamar gained instant access to demand from the world’s leading digital buyers, demand side platforms and trading desks.

Over time, Lamar steadily made more inventory available to Vistar. The company also invested in educating local markets on the value of programmatic, helping their regional sales team understand how programmatic can augment existing sales. These steps have resulted in substantial increases in the programmatic revenue Lamar has been able to capture over the years. 

“Through our partnership with Vistar, which continues to evolve and expand, we have been able to deliver more effective and targeted campaigns for our clients while using our national digital inventory more efficiently and effectively. We continue to see programmatic revenues rise and have emerged as an industry leader in programmatic OOH advertising.”
- Ian Dallimore, Vice President of Digital Growth Lamar Advertising

Recently, the company adopted a network-wide change enabling preemptible, non revenue-generating ad spots (PSAs, bonus spots, etc.) to automatically be filled with programmatic advertisements. 

This removed the manual workflow requiring local managers to rearrange schedules in order to make room for programmatic demand, and resulted in increased revenue. 

Since Q1 2017 through the end of 2019, Lamar saw an average quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 43%. Programmatic revenue increased by 288% from 2017 to 2018, and again increased 247% from 2018 to 2019.

Over The Years, Lamar Secured Millions In Programmatic Revenue Through Vistar Media

Number of unique brands advertising programmatically with Lamar through Vistar

In addition to success on the open exchange, Lamar and Vistar have seen tremendous results from private marketplace (PMP) deals.  

Percent of programmatic revenue received from Vistar open exchange vs. Vistar PMP deals

Through PMPs, Lamar offers buyers specific inventory at a negotiated rate, activated with the ease of automation and additional data capabilities available through the Vistar platform. 

With the rise of self-service buyers on the Vistar platform, adoption of PMPs accelerated dramatically. PMP revenue in 2019 represented 28% of Lamar’s programmatic revenue from Vistar. 

Vistar's Solutions Built for You

Vistar is an independent tech company that is transforming the out-of-home industry through programmatic technology and cutting-edge software, designed for the everyday nuances of digital out-of-home (DOOH). Our end-to-end solutions are built by programmatic experts for the world of DOOH and are uniquely positioned to support the industry’s growth.

For a free evaluation of your netowrk or demo of our products, contacts us!