Inaugural Event Brings Together Networks, Advertisers, Creatives and More

NEW YORK, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) today announced that the public release of the Audience Metrics Guidelines will take place at OVAB's Digital Media Summit: Focus on Digital OOH. The event, being held October 29, 2008 at The Grand Hyatt in New York City, will bring together senior marketers and media agency professionals and is designed to educate the advertising community on the power and efficacy of the medium. Since its inception in 2007, OVAB's mission has been to make it easier for advertisers and agencies to evaluate, plan and buy digital and video out-of-home advertising networks through the development of guidelines, best practices and standards.

"The goal of OVAB is to elevate digital out-of-home advertising networks from an alternative media tactic to an indispensable strategic component of a brand's overall marketing communications plan," said Suzanne Alecia, president of OVAB. "We've worked tirelessly over the past several months to address the issues that the advertising community has noted as barriers to achieving that goal; common audience data reporting by our networks was the primary issue cited. The Guidelines, when put into practice, are designed to give the networks, the research providers and the agencies a rule book in order to capture common audience metrics. This data can then be used by advertisers and agencies to compare our media to other media."

OVAB's Agency Advisory Board, made up of 33 executives from top agencies in the US, were a crucial part of the Guidelines development. "OVAB was smart in their approach to these Guidelines. They collaborated with us and we determined together a fair and logical set of guidelines that will help the industry come together," says Alan Schulman, Chief Creative Officer of UDIG, The Digital Innovations Group.

OVAB is holding Guidelines training seminars for their member companies' sales teams and has presented the Guidelines to nearly 30 media research executives at the major media planning agencies, many of whom are on the AAAA's Media Research Committee. The reception from the agency community has been positive, and it's been described as a much needed step in order to grow the industry. Details of the Guidelines and its implications will be unveiled at OVAB's Digital Media Summit: Focus on Digital OOH on Wednesday, October 29th, in a presentation by the organization's president, Suzanne Alecia. Additional components of the event include panel presentations around creative executions, innovations in research, a fascinating case study conducted with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and more.

    To date, confirmed speakers include:
    -- Diana Dayrit, Owner, switch f/x
    -- Sandy Drayton, VP of Communications, Michael J. Fox Foundation
    -- Katy Ferguson VP Account Director, Initiative
    -- Jim Forrest, SVP of Advertising & Brand Insights, OTX
    -- Emily Fried, Director of Consumer Marketing, A&E/History
    -- Tyler Helms, Account Director, Deutsch
    -- Katie Hood, CEO, Michael J. Fox Foundation
    -- Rob Jayson, EVP Planning Director, Zenith
    -- Gerald J. Johnson, Vice President of Marketing Communication, ConAgra
    -- Kris Magel, EVP of National Broadcast, Initiative Media
    -- John Marson, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, Kraft
    -- Andrea McAteer, SVP Group Account Director, Initiative
    -- Bob Mitchell, VP of Consumer & Affiliate Marketing, Fuse Network
    -- Patrick Moorhead, Director of Emerging Media, Avenue A/Razorfish
    -- Christine Peterson, VP Digital Media Director, Carat
    -- Patrick Quinn, Owner, PQ Media
    -- Alan Schulman, Chief Creative Director, UDIG, The Digital
       Innovations Group
    -- Jim Spaeth, Partner, Sequent Partners
    -- Vic Walia, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, hotels.com
    -- Daniel Wilkins, President, n2

The goal of the Digital Media Summit is to present and address the major obstacles and challenges facing the digital out-of-home market so that attendees come away with a better understanding of the industry. The breakthrough forum is an opportunity for advertising and agency planners to get exposed, in a single day, to all the key issues and advancements that concern digital out-of-home. For more information or to register for the one-day event at the Grand Hyatt in New York City on October 29th, log onto http://www.ovab.org/summit/.

ABOUT OVAB

Founded in 2007, the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) represents leading out-of-home video networks and the advertising community that is actively engaged in planning, buying and evaluating the effectiveness of the medium. On behalf of its members, OVAB seeks to foster ongoing collaboration between agencies and out-of-home video advertising networks; provide standards, best practices and industry-wide research; and promote the effectiveness of out-of-home video advertising. For more information, please visit http://www.ovab.org.

Web site: http://www.ovab.org//