US OoH Industry: OAAA Launches Technical Council, Names New Chairman

The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) has announced the formation of a Technical Advisory Council to tackle technology challenges shared across the US out-of-home sector, along with a change of leadership at the top of the association, the winners of its 84th OBIE Awards and details of its 2027 annual conference.

A council for shared technical problems

According to the OAAA, the Technical Advisory Council (TAC) will address issues that span both static and digital inventory, as well as direct and programmatic transactions. Its stated priorities include data standards, workflow automation, reporting, attribution and integration with omnichannel advertising platforms, with emerging technologies such as agentic AI also on the agenda.

Ian Dallimore, VP of Digital Growth and GM of Programmatic at Lamar Advertising, will chair the council. Founding members listed by the association represent JCDecaux North America, Clear Channel Outdoor, Outfront Media, Intersection, Orange Barrel Media and Branded Cities. The council plans to develop common data definitions, API specifications and technical protocols intended to simplify how advertisers plan, buy and measure OoH campaigns.

"Technology is increasingly central to how OoH competes and grows, and many of the challenges facing our industry can't be solved by individual companies working alone," said Patrick Dolan, the OAAA's Chief Operating Officer. The new council is set to coordinate with the association's Programmatic & Automation Center of Excellence, which it launched in September.

New chairman at the OAAA

The OAAA also appointed Nick Brien, CEO of Outfront Media, as chairman of its board of directors. Brien succeeds former Clear Channel Outdoor CEO Scott Wells and, per the association, will serve the remainder of Wells' term through May 2027.

Wells had chaired the association since March 2023 and had been a board member since 2015. Brien, who already sits on the OAAA's executive committee, previously held senior roles at Dentsu, McCann Worldgroup, IPG Mediabrands and Amobee. His appointment followed the change in ownership and leadership at Clear Channel Outdoor, where Wade Davis took over from Wells as CEO.

The association additionally announced its 84th annual OBIE Awards, presented at a ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Random House Publishing Group and Known took the Platinum OBIE for "Steph Curry Shoots the Moon," which also earned Golds for Big Idea in OoH and Social Buzz. Gold winners included OpenAI and Clear Channel Outdoor for the ChatGPT Billboard Campaign in the Technology OoH category, Netflix and Heritage Outdoor Media for "Apex," and United Airlines, 72andSunny and Firefly Media for "Verified Closer Than You Think." Paramount (Skydance) was inducted into the OBIE Hall of Fame for its long-running use of outdoor advertising to promote entertainment properties.

For small businesses that use screens to reach local customers, the OAAA's moves signal where out-of-home is heading. The council's plan to standardize data, reporting and buying protocols points toward a market where booking and measuring screen campaigns becomes easier — including for advertisers who today find the process opaque.

The leadership change matters too: Nick Brien's media-agency background at companies like Dentsu and IPG Mediabrands suggests the association's board will keep pushing OoH closer to the wider digital advertising ecosystem.

And for operators weighing their own setups, options keep widening — a platform like Topaz Media (topaz.media), for example, lets a small business run video, image or text content on any TV without extra hardware, a do-it-yourself complement to the network-driven side of the industry.

Finally, the OAAA's 2027 OoH Media Conference runs May 17–19, 2027 at the Omni Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Under the theme "The Art of Attention," it will gather figures from advertising, media, marketing, creativity and technology to examine how brands can win consumer attention as AI and digital technologies change advertising.