Site Tour is a three-year-old start-up founded by former Eye Corp sales head Michael Scruby. It's bringing outdoor sales into the digital age and Scruby wants to take it from a "4% to a 10% medium".
The technology is described as "the eBay of outdoor advertising", where OOH owners list their inventory – over 80,000 sites nationally, or roughly 95% coverage, according to Scruby – overlaid on Google Maps.
Basic data such as demographic information can be combined with sales figures and other metrics to create highly targeted campaigns. All of the major media agencies are now on the system, including Omnicom, Dentsu-Aegis, Mediabrands, GroupM and Ikon.
"In the next three to five years two media types will prevail: online, delivering all sorts of content through personalised devices, and location-based media, which will include outdoor and cinema," Scruby told AdNews.
"Right now outdoor is definitely trailing [behind] online. There's a massive imbalance in ad revenue created through online's evolution in media buying. Despite over 10 times more consumer spending in outdoor environments, online is attracting more than six times the ad revenue of outdoor.
"For outdoor to compete head on, it has to automate. Billboards turning digital is a start but the buying process has to move with it. Glossy photos and coloured pins plotting billboard locations on floor maps just won't cut it any more. Online has led the market into programmatic and it's clearly working."
As with any shift into programmatic, Site Tour introduces efficiency and control, Scruby said. a sales director could "triple the number of deals they do each week" but still remain in control of every transaction.
"They simply program the rules of purchase rather than relying on manual approval processes which currently clog the system. And that has positive knock-on effects. Sales reps get more time to leave their desks and sell. Managers get sophisticated at managing inventory and yield. Agencies become more inclined to buy if they find it easy and accountable."
Site Tour has just hit the $1 million funding mark and now employs more than 10 staff. The first round of funding came via a number of high-profile Australian investors including Ted Pretty and Jamie Olsen, through CMB Capital.
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