The Modern OOH Tech Stack: What Agencies Need in 2025

The billboard industry is often viewed as "traditional" media—steel, vinyl, and lights. But the backend operations of successful media owners and agencies are becoming increasingly high-tech. The days of running a multi-million dollar portfolio on a whiteboard and Outlook are over.

To compete in 2025 and beyond, you need a tech stack that integrates data, sales, and operations. Here are the essential components of a modern OOH stack.

1. Inventory Management System (IMS)

The Core ERP. This is your "Source of Truth." It holds your asset data, availability schedules, pricing rules, and specs. Examples: AdGrid, Ayuda, Broadsign. Why you need it: Without it, you are prone to double-bookings and lack real-time visibility. AdGrid focuses specifically on the agency/mid-size owner niche, providing a lightweight but powerful interface compared to enterprise legacy giants.

2. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

The Sales Engine. This is where you track leads, deal stages, and communication history. Examples: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive. Why you need it: You need to know your pipeline value. Ideally, your CRM should integrate deeply with your IMS. When a deal moves to "Closed Won" in HubSpot, it should automatically reserve the inventory in AdGrid.

3. Programmatic SSP (Supply Side Platform)

The Digital Revenue Stream. If you own digital assets (DOOH), plugging into an SSP allows you to sell remnant inventory to programmatic buyers automatically. Examples: Vistar Media, Place Exchange, Hivestack. Why you need it: It helps fill unsold slots without manual sales effort, maximizing your yield per face.

4. Digital Signage CMS

The Player. The software that actually puts the pixels on the screen. Examples: Scala, Broadsign Control, Daktronics. Why you need it: Reliability. You need to ensure the right content plays at the right time. A modern CMS should sync with your sales data to automate scheduling.

Integration is Everything

The mistake many agencies make is buying these tools in silos. They end up with data trapped in different systems.

• Sales data in HubSpot.
• Availability data in Excel.
• Playback data in the CMS.

The Power of API-First Architecture The future belongs to connected systems. AdGrid is built with an API-first approach, meaning it is designed to "talk" to your other tools.

Imagine this workflow:

1. Sales rep closes a deal in HubSpot.
2. AdGrid automatically converts the "Hold" to a "Contract" and generates an invoice in QuickBooks.
3. The creative assets are pushed from AdGrid to the CMS for playback.
4. The POP report is generated and sent back to the CRM for the record.

That is the "Holy Grail" of OOH automation. It reduces administrative overhead to near zero, allowing your team to focus entirely on growth and strategy.