Just a few months ago we watched as Zoom Media -- a company with over 19,000 (static) billboards in 3,500 locations -- took its first tentative steps into the digital signage world with a project to outfit 50 bars and nightclubs with digital signs. Apparently, they've decided they like the industry, as they've expanded that pilot to over 300 digitally-enabled sites right now, and show few signs of stopping.
But what's a measly 300 sites compared to their latest announcement: they'll be acquiring rival Insite Advertising, a company whose (again, static) network spans over 20,000 billboards in 4,000 venues. This roughly doubles Zoom's size and footprint while taking a chief competitor out of the running. David Yacullo, President of Outdoor Media Group (a media buyer) noted that, "the consolidation will benefit the industry, since place-based out-of-home advertising has been a fragmented market with too many networks. "This will make it easier to plan and buy advertising space, and shore up a confused marketplace," he said in an Advertising Age article on the merger.
We spend a lot of time focusing on digital, but in fact we're just mimicking the much larger OOH advertising industry with our large number of small, fragmented players trying to get things done. As much as the digital signage market is ripe with merger/acquisition possibilities (and rumors), that's even more true for our traditional OOH brethren, many of whom have built up strong businesses in particular vertical, niche or local/regional markets, and are looking for ways to grow as advertisers start to spend more money below-the-line.
Tags: digital signage, out-of-home advertising, zoom
But what's a measly 300 sites compared to their latest announcement: they'll be acquiring rival Insite Advertising, a company whose (again, static) network spans over 20,000 billboards in 4,000 venues. This roughly doubles Zoom's size and footprint while taking a chief competitor out of the running. David Yacullo, President of Outdoor Media Group (a media buyer) noted that, "the consolidation will benefit the industry, since place-based out-of-home advertising has been a fragmented market with too many networks. "This will make it easier to plan and buy advertising space, and shore up a confused marketplace," he said in an Advertising Age article on the merger.
We spend a lot of time focusing on digital, but in fact we're just mimicking the much larger OOH advertising industry with our large number of small, fragmented players trying to get things done. As much as the digital signage market is ripe with merger/acquisition possibilities (and rumors), that's even more true for our traditional OOH brethren, many of whom have built up strong businesses in particular vertical, niche or local/regional markets, and are looking for ways to grow as advertisers start to spend more money below-the-line.
Tags: digital signage, out-of-home advertising, zoom
Subscribe to this blog
Follow Bill Gerba on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment