Setting the standard for validated OOH data
Opinion
A new Playout report highlights how the platform is integrated into the OOH sector and the role it plays in delivering quality data.
Playout is now embedded at the heart of OOH delivery with Alight Media, i-media and Limited Space adding their inventory to the system.
They join the existing digital frames from the founding media owners – Bauer Media Outdoor, Global, JCDecaux and Ocean Outdoor – bolstering Playout’s already extensive coverage.
Backed by independent verification from PwC/mediasense and delivering proven day-to-day benefits, Playout has evolved into a foundational industry platform for validated, standardised delivery data. It sits alongside SPACE and the Route API; all three are developed and run by Adwanted UK.
A new Playout report shares the latest progress. It explains how the OOH sector, in partnership with Adwanted UK, has collaboratively built a scalable, trusted source of truth for campaign delivery, driving accountability, transparency, and best practice in OOH data assurance.
What is “play data”?
Every time an ad is played on a Digital Out of Home screen (DOOH), it generates a record.
Playout centralises every record, so you know when and where this happened.
More importantly, Playout requires the play data conforms to a defined industry-agreed standard, incorporating basic key information like advertiser, brand, campaign and product identifiers.
In short: with Playout, you know precisely how your DOOH campaign was delivered.
Why is this important?
Despite players within the industry being aware of Playout’s role, media owners each reported it in slightly different ways.
The issue with this is that “slightly different” can be a headache for a buyer seeking a consolidated view of campaign delivery across multiple DOOH media owners.
It may require custom tech integrations, and/or marrying various definitions (all broadly the same but not exactly the same).
It was all ‘true’ data, but buyers had to spend time collating the truth.
Where is Playout now?
Alight Media, Bauer Media Outdoor, Global, i-Media, JCDecaux, Limited Space and Ocean Outdoor all use Playout to describe the DOOH adverts they display on 99% of their screens.
At the time of writing, this amounts to 65bn rows of data, and growing each day.
Buyers now have a single source to ingest and analyse this data. It’s all standardised and validated to produce easy reporting of campaign delivery.
How is the data validated?
It is meticulous.
Every play record is subject to strict formatting, logic, and cross-referencing checks against SPACE inventory, including mandatory field completion, correct formatting and logical timestamp sequencing.
Playout enforces a robust validation framework that operates at the record level.
Only clean, compliant data is entered into the system. Any record failing validation is rejected.
To reinforce confidence in the integrity of the data, Playout underwent independent testing by PwC’s Marketing and Media Owner team (now part of mediasense).
Their review included real-time observation of Playout’s reconciliation with Media Owner systems and simulated failure scenarios (e.g., switching off screens to confirm no false records were generated).
The findings were conclusive: Playout accurately reflects real-world ad delivery and reliably rejects non-compliant data.
How has it developed?
Now, users can gather, collate, and evaluate play data across different media owners from one place.
Media Owners can upload as frequently as every 15 minutes.
Once validated, data becomes immediately available to authorised buyers and agencies.
This enables proactive monitoring of campaign delivery, driving a more agile OOH ecosystem.
Is it working?
In March 2025, a survey of media owners, buyers and third-party technology partners provided the following feedback: 100% of buyers and sellers reported increased transparency and efficiency.
Notably, 92% reported a reduction in manual effort, and 80% cited improved decision-making as a result of better data access.
Moreover, nearly half (45%) reported a decrease in cloud computing costs.
What is next?
Playout’s next steps are threefold:
- Ingesting classic OOH (posters) for a holistic view of campaign
- Reporting on creative triggers within DOOH (making creative optimisation easier)
- Exploring how programmatic DOOH could be captured in Playout
And we’re thinking about a range of strategic applications that support broader business goals:
Consistent, granular inputs Playout could directly feed into Marketing Mix Models (MMM).
Or enhancing ESG Reporting by calculating campaign-level carbon footprints.
Playout could be useful in any scenario where a correlation of OOH play with a defined outcome is desired.
So I’ll report back in a few months with an update. In the meantime, you can find all the details here.
Tim Lumb is director at Outsmart