DPAA Adds More Associations As International Members

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

The Digital Place-based Advertising Association has officially announced that digital place-based media associations in Canada, Russia and Romania have joined DPAA’s growing ranks of international members.

Of course, we had already announced the Canadian membership by CODACAN back in May but had not discussed the memberships of Russia and Romania at that time, although we knew that that of Russia, at least, was imminent. The three associations join DPAA Australia and ABDOH (Brazil), who earlier became international association members of DPAA.

The DPAA represents leading digital placed-based networks and the advertising community that is actively engaged in planning, buying and evaluating the effectiveness of the medium.

Susan Danaher, president & CEO, DPAA, says, “Our increase in international membership reflects the fact that digital place-based media is growing in influence throughout the world. We look forward to working closely with our international counterparts to translate the growing consumer consumption of digital place-based into greater ad spending on our medium.”

The Romanian Indoor Advertising Association (RIAA) was founded in 2011. Ovidiu Brazdau, president of the RIAA, is managing partner, Info-Sanatate Network, which operates the largest digital signage network in Romania in the waiting rooms of 554 hospitals and private clinics in 122 cities.

Info-Sanatate and RIAA are collaborating to establish DPAA’s audience metrics guidelines in Romania. The first meetings for implementation of international standards for measuring the effectiveness of indoor advertising campaigns was held in June, 2012, attended by representatives from BRAT (Romanian Auditing Bureau for Media Networks), ARMA (Romanian Association for Audience Measurement) and Nielsen Romania and Spain.

“Info-Sanatate is the first media company in Romania that measures the effectiveness of indoor advertising campaigns, in terms of audience, efficiency indicators and ROI evaluation,” says Brazdau. “In partnership with Nielsen, our goal is to upgrade the business environment in Romania and convince all media agencies and OOH networks that a standardized evaluation of campaigns is necessary.”

Dmitry Kurkovich, CEO of AIZ Media, is the founding member of the association for digital place-based networks in Russia. AIZ Media is the first video wall network operator in the largest first-rate malls in Russia. Total traffic in the malls is 660,000 per day. Headquartered in Moscow, the Russian association is in its formative stages and will be announcing its official launch and name shortly.

“The modern Russian OOH market needs to come out of the shadows,” says Kurkovich. “Today, it looks like Frankenstein’s monster. It is made up of weird segments, with some parts overgrown, while others are obsolete, a monster that interferes with its own development. Joining DPAA gives us a chance to standardize the market, make a normal human being out of the monster and consequently achieve the volume of $600 million in digital Indoor sales by 2016.”

Founded in 2005, the Canadian Out-of-Home Digital Association (CODACAN) is a non-profit trade association representing industry leaders from across Canada. Through its members and partners, CODACAN creates demand for digital out-of-home and digital place-based and provides target audiences with compelling and credible information. The association is committed to serving the needs of advertisers, agencies, digital networks and industry suppliers.. Network members currently operate more than 18,000 screens across Canada that engage consumers during their daily routines – where they work, shop, play and socialize.

Charles Vachon, chairman of CODACAN, says, “By aligning with the DPAA, the Canadian industry has taken a step forward in solidifying the power of digital out-of-home and digital place-based. CODACAN’s mission is to provide a precise and informative way to enhance advertisers’ goals. The DPAA has been promoting a number of insightful and viable messages to the advertising community for years and, with this new partnership, CODACAN will be able to share these with the Canadian advertising community.”


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