As reported earlier, Clear Channel Outdoor has expanded its partnership with Vistar Media beyond supply-side platform (SSP) services to adopt Vistar’s full ad serving stack, starting with its airport network.
The move is part of a broader digital transformation at Clear Channel, aimed at streamlining campaign management, standardizing delivery across all DooH inventory, and preparing for future products. “We’re focused on delivering new products that meet advertisers’ evolving needs. Expanding our partnership with Vistar gives us a strong, scalable foundation that supports these goals,” said Nichole Boatsman, Chief Technology Officer at Clear Channel Outdoor.
Airports were chosen as the launch point due to their complexity and premium value for advertisers. They also operate on a separate platform from the rest of Clear Channel’s digital network. Vistar said it enhanced its synchronization capabilities to handle large groups of screens – some running the same campaign, others flipping to different content.
For advertisers, the transition was designed to be invisible. Campaigns continue to run as before, but behind the scenes, Clear Channel’s operations now benefit from greater automation. Manual tasks, such as pacing, competitive separation, and bulk targeting, are handled by Vistar’s ad server, which also dynamically adjusts SSP request volumes in real time. The result is more efficient trafficking and optimized inventory exposure to programmatic buyers.
The rollout does not introduce new targeting features at this stage, but it scales existing tools more efficiently. Advertisers continue to have access to audience targeting based on mobile movement data, point-of-interest targeting, dayparting, proof-of-play reporting, pacing dashboards and programmatic performance metrics such as eCPM and win rates. Both companies noted that dynamic creative, such as weather or flight-status-triggered messaging, is already available, and the integration ensures those campaigns can run smoothly at scale.
The next step will be extending the platform beyond airports to other parts of Clear Channel’s portfolio. “Programmatic monetization is now standard, but what we’re seeing is the need to unify all ad delivery on a single platform,” said Jordan Fraser, Senior Director of Enterprise Solutions at Vistar Media.
(Image: Vistar/Clear Channel)