DailyDOOH

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

It hasn’t taken Judy Kenny long to immerse herself in the world of Zoom Media and Marketing and its goals, challenges, strategies, priorities – and sales pitch.

Named president of the company for both the U.S. and U.K. barely a month ago, we had an extensive, exclusive interview with Kenny who comes from senior sales and management positions, mainly in the TV sector. (See our Oct. 19 article)

“I’m still on a learning curve, but I see that marketers and agencies are looking at all the alternative media and the fast changing technologies, and they are seeing that consumers are using technology quickly, much differently, and in different places,” says Kenny. “This gives us an opportunity to explain our offerings and advantages. Buyers and planners are no longer specifically TV buyers or magazine buyers . They are becoming generalists. We need to get from them not just share of market, but share of mind.”

Coming from the TV background, Kenny says that she sees the importance of Zoom to talk to clients, planners and buyers in ‘their’ language that they understand from the traditional media sector – eg. ‘video investment’. They see that young people aren’t just watching TV at home with family and friends. They’re consuming it everywhere: on the computers, their iPhones, iPads and other tablets, and often alone.

“Agencies tell me they have to find ways to ‘capture the consumer’ and to know where they consume their media,” she says. “This is where Zoom offers an incredible opportunity as a reach and frequency vehicle to talk to qualified viewers who have higher education, money to spend and are light TV viewers. Zoom’s fitness club network reaches this group: a robust audience aggregate of like-minded consumers who frequent their clubs with a long dwell time. We’re looking at 35 million to 40 million impressions per month in the U.S. alone.”

To reach this desirable audience, Kenny says, “We’re not saying to give us your TV budget. We’re saying, see us as a complement And since we also offer experiential marketing, we can round out your campaign with sampling, coupons and other offers.”

Kenny’s priority right now, she says, is to ‘evangelize’ all the Zoom assets to those who don’t know what Zoom offers.“

“I’ll be omnipresent to spread the word. I’ll see anybody who will see me. Our mission is to marry the consumers we deliver with the brand initiatives of clients so the clients reach the right consumers – the ones that are important to the brands. We deliver those consumers.”

While Kenny has obviously bought into the Zoom message, she’s not blind to its challenges.

“In the U.K., we need to have a solid accreditation that agencies will accept, the way they accept BARB for TV,” she says. “We have to find a research house that can give us solid accreditation with facts that agencies will accept.”

We asked Kenny what she wishes she knew more about at this time. Beyond how to always deliver ROI to advertisers to grow their business, as well as Zoom’s, she says that she wishes she could know where the technology world will be in 10 years time. “Will it be more efficient?” she wonders. “Where will people be migrating?”

But in the here and now, is Zoom being affected by the economy?

“For sure in whatever happens to our advertisers affects us, but it doesn’t take dollars away from us if they haven’t been there with us. That’s where we have an opportunity. We’re a growth vehicle. But we need that accreditation in the U.K. and we need more visibility in the U.S. And to help that along, we’re going to be putting more investment into proprietary research and whatever we need to deliver ROI.”

With Zoom able to deliver sound, sight and motion, as well as a qualified audience, she sees Zoom as a leader and the fastest growing in its sector. To that end, she says the company will be adding a few staff, but mainly will focus on retraining the current staff “to talk the broadcast language.” And any new staff “will have to have passion, pride and purpose in what they do and can understand how important place-based media is and will be in the future.”

We asked about expansion into networks other than those already offered by Zoom.

”We have a lot of venues and inventory,” she says. “I think it’s important right now to monetize what we have. And we have to build awareness of what we can deliver.

“I find the place-based media more challenging compared to TV, because the space is held to a higher standard,” she says. “The challenge is that everybody is busy and we have to get people in agencies to put it on their agenda to learn more about what it offers. We have to be concise, relevant and persuasive so they can learn. There are so many that haven’t been tapped into.

“I’m always looking for a challenge and I’m undeterred. There’s a whole blank canvas out there, an uncharted territory. We have to make advertisers and agencies aware that there are consumers out there who aren’t seeing the commercials at home. We’re offering an opportunity to see more products.

“The more visibility and conversion that we have with advertisers, you’ll see more of Zoom going forward with amazing ROI potential.”

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 14:32 @647 and is filed under Scuttlebut. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.