FAQs

Playout is a platform which centralises playout data across media owners into a single connection point for buyers to access.

It is part of a wider ecosystem of industry supported platforms and standards in OOH including SPACE, Route and the OpenDirect and OpenRTB extensions for OOH.

To bring efficiency and independent oversight.

OOH campaign delivery data had evolved into a peer-to-peer system where Buyers collect playout reports from each seller. Different sellers provide data with differing levels of granularity which the buyer must consolidate for analysis, optimisation, and reporting.

DOOH has massively increased the volume of playout data - the need for standardisation has likewise become more important.

Moving away from peer-to-peer delivery to an independent central source of standardised data agreed by the industry improves accountability and saves time.

Participating in Playout is voluntary and open to all media owners and anyone who buys from participating media owners.

The development of Playout has been underwritten by Outsmart Council members. Subscriptions for Media Owners start at £2,400 per 1% market share + individual AWS cost. The buy-side would pay their cloud processing AWS costs, and only then above a certain usage threshold.

All users of the Data Warehouse will have control of AWS costs via an administrator dashboard where they can put in limits and receive alerts when they are reached.

Adwanted were chosen during a competitive pitch process for their 25 years' experience in whole industry campaign reporting for Audio (J-ET), OOH project experience (Route and SPACE) and AWS cloud and big data capabilities.

Adwanted are accountable to an Outsmart Council Delivery Group that meets fortnightly and have been collaborating with a whole industry Steering Group that meets monthly. The Steering Group is open to the industry, with over 50 individuals from more than 30 different companies participating. Project updates are also provided at OOH Standards Committee meetings, and the OOH Standards Technical Committee has contributed to the requirements.

The Steering Group will remain in place during on-boarding to deal with feedback and queries.

AWS cloud computing components including the Redshift Data Warehouse to ensure scalability, security, and resilience.

Version 1.0 of the Playout Data Warehouse was deployed in July 2023 with live digital data from Outsmart Council members JCDecaux, CCUK, Global and Ocean added over the summer and autumn. The production environment has been available since 1st January 2024.

This is decided between individual companies.

Playout data, adhering to the Playout data standard, will be accessible from the moment Media Owners begin delivering to Playout. This data will be readily available for reporting for a period of 15 months. If buyers need to access data beyond this timeframe, they are advised to archive it independently.

The Playout File Formats for both Digital and Classic were established through a collaborative consultation with the Delivery and Steering groups. This process ensured that the requirements of both the buy-side and sell-side were represented.

For documentation on the classic and digital standards, including details on how Playout data is validated before acceptance and the error codes generated if the data does not meet the Playout data standard, please refer to the following link:

https://github.com/Outsmart-OOH/PlayoutReportingStandard/tree/main/Playouthttps://github.com/Outsmart-OOH/PlayoutReportingStandard/blob/main/Playout/playout-file-format.md

This will be decided in consultation with the Industry and/or the Playout Steering Committee.

Yes, with caveats. The publisher may need to change file names due to technical criteria in limited circumstances. This would normally be communicated back to the buyer. There is also an optional third-party creative reference.

Media Owners will have to combine Campaign, Brand and Buyer data with 3rd party player data into the industry standard file format. This is essential to ensure that only the buyer can access data about their campaigns, and that the data is useful to them.

Yes, test Classic data is now being accepted into Playout, with production data expected from early 2025. MOs post a record when a posting goes up and another when it comes down. Slightly different validation rules will be applied where appropriate to Classic records.

The industry will need to collaborate to effect changes in 3^rd Party systems so that data on the buying agency can be accurately communicated through the bid stream and be reported on in Playout.

Technically the Playout Data Warehouse can receive data on programmatically bought DOOH from launch. However, the data flow outside Playout from the DSP to SSP doesn’t necessarily identify the buying agency. This information must be provided to make Playout reporting useful and to set the right access permissions.

Agencies or buyers can move data into their own data warehouses or use their own analytics tools (e.g. Tableau, Power BI) directly on the data warehouse.

Playout launch partners typically deliver data within a 24-hour turnaround or less. Playout will not accept any data more than fourteen days old.

No, Playout collects delivery data only. It does not directly compare what is booked versus delivered.

This is a matter between buyer and seller.

Not in the current iteration but we are working towards adding this feature. Data submitted to Playout goes through an extensive validation process before acceptance. However, it is possible that data may subsequently be identified as problematic due to processing or operational errors.

Data Processing Errors

Examples of data processing errors include errors such as incorrect time zone applied, incorrect associated url, or other reference data.

These errors will be corrected within 7 days of detection and data resubmitted.

Operational Errors

Examples of operational errors include a screen being wholly or partially inoperative.

Currently these errors will continue to be managed by buyer and seller for appropriate resolution. A technical solution within Playout that allows plays which have occurred during operational errors to be identified is being developed.

Playout does not accept data which is more than fourteen days old. The buyer and seller are expected to come to individual agreements on appropriate time periods for reporting.

Adwanted UK will provide a support desk to help provide access to the data and to help to resolve any technical issues. Questions relating to the data content or missing data should remain between the buyer and the seller.

Buy-side fees are dependent on the volume and frequency of requests to Playout. There are no charges for downloading data via S3 once. Costs are associated with direct ODBC/JDBC access if these are in excess of 350GB of data a month. Data usage over 350GB a month are chargeable per GB.

The Playout cost-control dashboard can be used to transparently monitor usage and to set alerts when data usage reaches a user-defined limit. Invoices for cloud computing costs will be raised by Outsmart monthly in arrears.

As standard the Media Owner defines the buyer and agency for each play, and only they can access the data. Outsmart will not have access to the data. Adwanted have managed confidential media transaction data for the last 25 years, are contractually obliged to maintain confidentiality.

Outsmart appointed PwC to audit the end-to-end supply of data including Proof of Play, Data Validations and Data Segregation. To conduct the audit, they were permitted to have access to the warehouse and data for the length of the project.

A possible exception being considered is utilising Playout date to better inform Marketing Mix Modelling or Econometric Modelling. Subject to buyer and seller agreement, Playout data may be shared with modellers to improve OOH’s ROI.

The requirements for Playout do not include reporting on the delivered audience.

Technically Playout could be expanded to integrate with Route impacts, reach and frequency data, this is expected to be the focus of a later phase to utilise Playout data for MMM or Econometric modelling.

Playout will provide independent data validation to prevent duplication and over-reporting.

• All fields will be validated against the published standard to ensure the correct file format and data types
• Data will be cross-referenced with SPACE to ensure only existing live frames belonging to the correct Media Owner are being reported on
• All required fields in the Playout File Format must be populated (SPACE FrameID; Order ID (Media Owner defined); SPACE BuyerID; SPACE BrandID; Creative ID; Creative Name)
• Digital or classic frames will need to correspond with their SPACE classification
• The Brand must be in SPACE so that an ID can be provided
• The playout can’t have a future date
• Validation will check a playout isn't duplicated or overlapping
• SOT data for scrollers may not exceed 100%

Validation will be at Playout (line item) level, not file level. Successfully validated records will be processed into the warehouse. An exception report will be provided to the Media Owner with details about what has failed and why.

Frames must be in SPACE (which allocates a Frame ID) but do not have to be on Route. If it’s not in SPACE it is not possible for it to be on Playout.

Playout has undergone verification testing by PwC’s Marketing & Media Owner team. Their Procedures Report examined and tested key areas of Playout including Proof of Play, Data Validations and Data Segregation. PwC’s verification testing was conducted in accordance with the international standard ISRS 4400 (revised) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. PwC’s report was issued to Outsmart in August 2024.

No, this is not currently in the requirements. The security model is based around allowing access to seller and buyer only.

Playout simply makes the transfer of data faster and more efficient. Buyers who download data from Playout can elect to share this for verification purposes.

The volume of data, market coverage and features will build over time. Additional media owners will join in the coming months, and participating Media Owners will add data on Classic, provide more complete programmatic OOH data (with both subject to help from the buy side) and communicate updates in the rare occurrences where a screen is compromised. Playout also presents future opportunities to better measure OOH in ROI studies e.g. in marketing mix modelling.

This is beyond the scope of what Playout is currently being built to deliver, but having accurate, timely and complete playout data may make such analysis easier.