DailyDOOH

This month, we welcome Simon Wall, Managing Director, Tractor Outdoor, Cape Town, South Africa.

1. After your education in South Africa, you gained a lot of business experience in Asia and the Far East. What drew you there and what drew you back to South Africa?My first position in Out-of-Home was in sales/business development for Tractor Outdoor, a South African-based business which also had an office in Dubai. My dealings in Asia and Europe were for projects that we were working on. I was relocated on a project-by-project basis. One of the companies was a signage manufacturing business and I was seconded to its Hong Kong Office to assist in the sales and marketing of that particular business. I also spent some time working in Germany on behalf of LG Electronics, running its Football World Cup 2006 OOH campaign.

   We had the advertising rights for various airports in Pakistan (Karachi and Islamabad) and Sri Lanka (Colombo). While I was in Dubai, I was tasked with building up a portfolio of mall advertising opportunities while, at the same time, facilitating bookings and sales from agencies out of Dubai and London who wished to place advertising across these various airport advertising locations.

   This was before the days of proper Internet and media owner websites, so having local on-the-ground knowledge of exactly who the rights holders were in these instances was critical. I used to get all kinds of requests for billboard locations in weird and wonderful places. I had one client who sent me a brief to find locations in Baghdad and Basra, post the Iraq war of 2003. (We didn’t end up booking sites for them, but I still managed to connect with an ex- advertising executive who was in the British army and based in Baghdad, who secured some locations for me.)

   I returned to South Africa in 2008, as the country was hosting the 2010 World Cup Football, so we decided to focus our development so as to capitalize on this event.

2. I believe that much of your experience was in advertising sales and property management. How did you come up with the idea of Tractor Outdoor?Before I got involved in Tractor, I headed up a division at one of the largest listed property owners in South Africa: Old Mutual, where I was responsible for setting up an in-house media division. It oversaw all their various OOH opportunities on their property portfolio.

   One of our partners, Adam Whitford, had, in 2001, sold his Hong Kong-based businesses to Clear Channel in the U.K. and had relocated to South Africa to spend time with his wife’s family. While here, he noticed that the OOH market is Cape Town was hugely underdeveloped, so we then set about building up a portfolio of sites.

3. Who owns Tractor Outdoor? Please tell us the history of the company since its founding and the launch of its products?We are privately owned and there are currently five shareholders. Our first OOH offering was exclusively focused on Cape Town and the immediate surrounds. Over the years, we have grown our business both organically and through some strategic acquisitions to be one of the larger national operators in South Africa, with a comprehensive, national portfolio of locations spanning Digital, Classic, Transit and Ambient.
4. How many digital billboards does Tractor now have across South Africa and in what sectors are they located? Is retail your most important vertical?We currently have just over 100 digital billboards, and these are split into:
   • Roadside – Large Format (18m2 plus) on highway/major road junctions;
   • Pedestrian – Smaller Format (8m2 below) on various highly frequented pedestrian locations (forecourts, malls, etc.).
5. You recently made a partnership deal with Oasis Media. Why? What kind (and size) of screens does Oasis Media have? Are all its products digital? What does each company gain? How will you work together?Oasis has, for over 10 years now, been the preferred media partner for a number of the biggest oil companies in South Africa and has developed a great working relationship with them, specifically around the development of media opportunities on their property portfolio. Oasis brings an incredible network of sites and locations with huge opportunities for growth and expansion, and its choice of partner in Tractor allows them access to one of the most highly respected sales teams in the country, with deep meaningful relationships with advertisers and media partners.

   The coming together of our respective businesses enables both our companies to scale quickly, and with the implementation and standardization of management software and formats, we are able to offer a one-stop, comprehensive Digital Out-of-Home network across South Africa at a singular touch point.

6. Is this partnership a prelude to an eventual financial takeover by one or the other? How many staff does each company have? Has there been or will there be any staff losses with the partnership?We have maintained all the staff in each business, but this partnership has allowed us to establish a dedicated and focused DOOH task team, from Specialist Content managers to high qualified DOOH engineers to assist in the rollout of additional digital sites across our portfolio.
7. Please tell us about your survey with Huq Industries. Why did you commission the survey?Through our partnership with HUQ, we have developed highly accurate cost per thousand (CPM) valuation metrics, which enables buyers and planners to do like-for-like comparisons with other campaigns that they may be running online. In many instances, they have found that advertising on our DOOH Network is, in fact, a far more cost effective way of reaching an audience than many other online/digital campaigns. This was a very deliberate move on our part to ‘standardize’ our CPM data to move more in line with online valuation metrics.
8. Why did you think it was so important to have such data as you received from the survey? What were the most important things you learned from it?The HUQ data is not reliant on any third party servers or ad exchanges, so we are able to record the device ID (anonymously) and then track the historical movement patterns of these users as they go about their day, giving us extremely insightful information as to where they go and what venues they enter and transact in – which allows us to create incredibly targeted campaigns for our partners.
9. With Oasis, you now offer campaigns in three specific regions: Western Cape, Gauteng and Coastal. Please tell us about each: their major cities; the differences in population and buying habits?South Africa is geographically diverse, but most of the buying parity is located within four major metropolitans, and almost 95% of all OOH media spend is generally focused in and around these areas. Our network covers off these metros comprehensively.

   Johannesburg, located in Gauteng, is widely regarded as Africa’s economic hub—although this role is quickly being rivaled by cities like Lagos, Addis Ababa, and even Cape Town. Nearly half of all out-of-home (OOH) media spend is concentrated in Gauteng, leading to an overwhelming number of advertising opportunities that have somewhat diluted the media value in the area. Cape Town, however, maintains strict regulations on OOH media, resulting in fewer but higher-value sites. Additionally, the city’s appeal has driven an economic migration of companies seeking tax benefits and lifestyle advantages, fueling significant population growth over recent years. For those navigating this shifting landscape, this guide serves as a valuable resource, offering insights on how to leverage high-value media in regulated markets like Cape Town while maximizing reach in areas like Gauteng.

   Many people refer to Cape Town as the ‘Singapore of Africa’ with its developing financial services building and infrastructure boom currently taking place.

10. What have you learned from the Huq survey about each of these regions? How will you use the data?As mentioned earlier, media buyers and strategists used to apply a simple ‘rule of thumb’ when allocating media spend geographically – 50% of the budget would go to Johannesburg, 25% to Cape Town, 15% to Durban and the rest was spread around other smaller metros. What our HUQ data has shown us is that there are far more affluent and economically active people than previously recorded in Cape Town, and the CPM of targeting these individuals was, in almost every instance, far more cost effective than a Facebook or Google Ad campaign when the same (regional) data was applied.
11. You held a Sales Gala last year. Why did you hold it and who attended? Do you or will you hold a gala annually?Our business cannot exist with out our media partners and we have built an incredible bond with all of them over these years. We put on our Sales Gala every year as a ‘thank you’ to all these partners.
12. I noticed, on the backdrop in the photos of your gala, such names as the Loop and Mischief? What are these?The Loop is the name of our DOOH network. We have standardized our entire DOOH offering so that the formats are of the same ratio, the length of each advert is the same, and the loop is made up of exactly the same number of adverts. This uniformity allows advertisers to book across the entire network – something which no other media owner has been able to do here in South Africa.

    Mischief is our dedicated ‘non traditional’ media business that specializes in innovative and experiential OOH opportunities. All our experiential opportunities are run through this business.

13. What is Tractor Transit? Please tell us about it.As mentioned previously, South Africa is geographically vast and it will be literally impossible to cover every metropole with a standard OOH billboard campaign. Tractor Transit is the largest provider of Bus Advertising in South Africa, which has enabled us to plug the shortfalls and regions where we do not have billboard cover. It’s an incredibly useful tool in our media offering which, when added to a traditional billboard campaign, really enhances the reach and frequency.
14. South Africa seems quite isolated from a lot of the big trade shows and conferences. Do you get to attend many? Why or why not? Does Tractor exhibit?As Tractor, we have had representation at DSE, ISE, FEPE and New York Signage week over the last several years. I think we have been more active than any other South African business, as far as international trade shows are concerned. I do think that is changing though. As DOOH grows here in South Africa, more and more media owners are understanding the needs for international best practices.
15. Do you find that you are influenced more from what is going on in Digital Out-of-Home in Australia, Europe or North America? Please explain.One of founding partners is Australian, and he and his family have been involved in OOH for over 20 years in Melbourne. He currently resides in Melbourne, but is still very much involved in the industry, so we get a great deal of input from the Australian market.
16. Within the traditional Out-of-Home sector, you have Beach Media and Cab Media. Please tell us about each.We have broken our offering down into three clear categories:

    CLASSIC (OOH):

    • Spectaculars (above 36m2)

    • Campaign (below 36m2)

    DIGITAL (DOOH) – aka ‘The Loop’

    • Roadside (18m2 and above)

    • Pedestrian (Small Format) (6m2 and below)

    AMBIENT:

    • Mischief – Innovation

    • Transit (This includes the earlier mentioned exterior Bus advertising as well as Cab Media: our branded Taxis, with free WiFi inside.)

    • Business Park Advertising

    • Beach Media (We offer a range of OOH opportunities across all the Blue Flag Beaches in South Africa. These can take the form of branded beach umbrellas, free WiFi and activations.)

17. Does Tractor Outdoor also act as an ad agency?When we launched the business in 2002, we had an OOH division, a Film Production division, and a Creative Agency, but we gradually phased out these divisions to focus solely on OOH.
18. What are your views on Programmatic buying? Do you use it in the South African market? Please explain why or why not.We are tracking this extremely closely, but I do feel that we are a few years away from a fully integrated and automated buying platform. Right now, the market is quite disparate and we have only started to scratch the service as far as DOOH is concerned, but as the market matures and more and more operators convert their existing portfolios to digital, we will see a renewed interest in programmatic. We have built our network with programmatic buying in mind and already have software in place to manage the automation should the need arise. However, we are, in my opinion, a few more years away from that happening.
19. What is done in the South African market itself to help show and educate about DOOH?The DOOH market here in South Africa is still in its infancy and still has a long way to go. However, there are some amazing industry bodies that are making great headway in educating the market as to the importance of a standardized measurement system, including the Out-of-Home Measurement Council (OMC).
20. What are your plans for expansion, both across South Africa and elsewhere?Perhaps beyond South Africa in the future, but right now our country is undergoing a massive boom in DOOH and our plan is to first take advantage of this opportunity and consolidate our business before we look further afield. We have recently undergone a few strategic acquisitions and are currently bedding these down and integrating them into our current systems. So in the short term, we are continuing with organic growth through the rollout and conversion to DOOH of our existing and newly acquired portfolio down the line. In the short term and once we are completely comfortable that our systems and existing infrastructure are able to cope with the increased portfolio size, we will look to plugging gaps in our regional portfolio.

    In the medium-to-long term, I see further strategic partnerships with digital ad-serving technology companies and location-based media businesses, as it’s only a matter of time before these two mediums cross over and eventually converge.

Australia’s leading Out-of-Home company JCDecaux has shown its support of the 41st Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by rebadging all its advertising panels along the parade route with rainbow branded logos for the first time ever.

The JCDecaux logo, which is usually white, has been changed to vibrant rainbow colours in support of Mardi Gras and its philosophy.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is one of the oldest continuously operating LGBTQI organisations in Australia. Its vision is to be a global leader in the promotion of diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice through culture, creativity and partnerships.

JCDecaux Head of Creative Solutions, Ashley Taylor told us “JCDecaux is privileged to have advertising panels along the entire Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade route from start to finish. We are strong supporters of equality and diversity and wanted to showcase this in a unique way while the iconic Mardi Gras Festival is underway in Sydney. Each year, the city turns more and more into a rainbow coloured festival in the lead up to Mardi Gras, and this was the perfect opportunity to contribute to supporting this important culturally and socially significant event in Sydney”.

The parade route runs from Hyde Park, and along Flinders and Oxford Streets and finishes at Moore Park and the JCDecaux rainbow logos will feature on all its 20 advertising panels, including bus stops and phone bollards, along the route from 19th February until 3rd March.

The Outdoor Media Association (OMA) has welcomed both ODNA and Seedooh as new members of the Out of Home industry body, taking the total membership now to 36 members.

• Based in Queensland, media display member ODNA was established in 2012, in response to the growing demand for dynamic and responsive OOH advertising targeted at premium retail audiences in high traffic suburban locations. ODNA joined both the OMA and MOVE in January 2019.
• As a non-media display member, Seedooh is an independent technology platform specifically designed and built to provide complete and standardised campaign delivery reporting for buyers and sellers in the OOH industry. Seedooh became a member of the OMA in late 2018.

Greg Radford, General Manager, ODNA told us “Our Digital OOH network is expanding and we’re constantly analysing community demographic trends and campaign performance to ensure we provide relevant and timely brief responses and insights to our customers. Becoming a member of the OMA and MOVE is an exciting step for our business and was essential for site comparison with other DOOH suppliers. Creating awareness and visibility of our offering will provide competitive alternatives in QLD and beyond in future years”.

Tom Richter, Founder and CEO, Seedooh said “As an independent business with a focus on data-confidence and automated efficiency at scale, joining the OMA was an obvious step to help us better contribute to the industry’s innovation at this crucial time,” said

Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the OMA and MOVE summaried by saying “In our 80th year as an association, these two new members highlight the continued growth of the OOH industry and demonstrates our commitment to actively build a multi-faceted membership community”.

OMA members typically fall into three categories; media display companies, non-media display companies, and asset owners.

Former Posterscope and Groundtruth industry veteran, James Davies, has launched crossover – a new business described as a full-service location agency which will uniquely operate across all aspects of location marketing whether online or offline.

James told us that ‘crossover’ will work with brands, media owners and technology companies to help them extract maximum value from innovation in location based data, technology and mobile. He told us “In doing so, crossover will create better connections between online and offline activities, identify new media efficiencies and enable brands to be more memorable through creative relevance and high-engagement experiences”.

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Understanding the revenue-generating, creative and production advantages that only an LED display-based advertising network can deliver, Lamar Airport Advertising recently removed all of the static advertising signage and banners in the Terminal 1 baggage claim area of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and replaced them with 60 Engage Series and Performance Series LED displays from NanoLumens.

Rosemary Vassiliadis, Director, McCarran International Airport told us “As the initial purchase price of LED displays continues to become more and more competitive, the enormous revenue-generating, creative and production efficiencies the format offers have become more and more compelling,” said “After a careful review we decided that the return on investment opportunity was very real, which convinced us that the time was right to undertake a complete renovation of the baggage claim area advertising displays to meet the needs of our advertisers for years to come. Lamar partnered with us to make the project a reality.”

Those needs, according to Brig Newman, Vice President and Senior Director, Airports for Lamar, include better engagement and greater advertising recall coupled with the ability to replace creative on the fly, and target arriving passengers with rifle-specific messages. “Today’s generation of travelers and consumers are completely digital-centric,” he emphasized. “They respond to digitally delivered ads in a way that they never will to static display ads. It’s a generational shift that is here to stay. Our advertisers understand the shift and they want to be able to leverage it in their campaigns, complete with audience analytics and targeted messaging.”

Recent studies by Arbitron and Capital Networks underscore the fact that consumers engage more completely and more often with digitally delivered ads than they do with static ads. What’s more, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), out of the top 100 OOH advertisers, 37 doubled their spending on digital ads from Q3 2016 to Q3 2017.

Dave Merlino, NanoLumens Vice President of Sales said “Most of the adverting that Lamar had in that baggage claim area needed to be constantly updated as the shows and events in Vegas frequently change. Removing static banners and sign graphics and putting up new ones was an additional cost for Lamar’s advertisers. Replacing those banners with NanoLumens LED displays empower Lamar to offer their clients a world-class digital advertising platform whose content can be changed instantly to meet the needs of its advertisers.”

Among several challenges encountered during this massive project was the task itself! Sixty static signs had to be replaced with NanoLumens displays while the baggage claim area continued to operate around the clock.

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Minor League Baseball (MiLB) this week announced that Peerless-AV will be the ‘Official Digital Display Partner of MiLB’ – among the many extensions of the strategic partnership, Peerless-AV will be integrated into MiLB’s existing partnerships with Allegiant Air and ISM Connect to establish it as the exclusive provider of screen technologies for Minor League Baseball.

Nick Belcore, Executive Vice President for Peerless-AV told us “Creating and implementing high-quality display solutions to enhance the fan experience is a key focus for our team at Peerless-AV. With a shared goal of increasing fan engagement through the use of innovative technology, we are excited to be partnering with Minor League Baseball on this initiative.”

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Ocean Scotland and AGS Airports have announced a new Daktronics LED advertising tower on the Scotland’s busiest road, one which connects the nation’s two biggest cities. The 40 metre high tower becomes operational in May.

The double-sided advertising screen will deliver more than two million impacts a fortnight as motorists and their passengers travel in both directions along the M8 motorway corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

With its unique proximity to Glasgow International Airport, the M8 Tower will also capture almost all the airline passengers who arrive and depart by car. The airport carries more than 9.9 million passengers a year, travelling to and from more than 100 destinations.

Ocean Scotland managing director Marc Keenan told us “The M8 Tower is the gateway to Scotland’s biggest urban economy. It’s a ground breaking structure which marks a new era in airport and roadside advertising.
“It’s another milestone in Ocean’s digital cities for digital citizens proposition and confirms our position as a leading provider of super premium technically enhanced urban advertising designed to be the highest gross rating sites for audience delivery.”

Francois Bourienne, chief commercial officer for AGS Airports Ltd, owners of Glasgow Airport, said “We are very pleased to partner with Ocean Scotland given the company’s position as one of the country’s leading suppliers of large-format outdoor digital platforms.

“Ocean brings innovation and energy to this partnership and has a proven track record of delivering iconic digital advertisings at key city locations across the UK. The Tower is ideally positioned on one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the country serving our biggest city, which will make it a prime location for advertisers.”

Modern in design, the striking steel structure provides unparalleled visibility along the M8 corridor with no other competing roadside media.

It is fitted with a dynamic lighting structure to deliver creatively enhanced brand campaigns and decorated in the world famous ‘Paisley Pattern’, in homage to its location in Paisley, Renfrewshire. Paisley has a rich heritage as a centre of textiles and material design.

The tower will also reach local traffic with smaller light boxes which will be used for public information messages from Renfrewshire Council. Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest city by population and is ranked the UK’s number two in terms of retail spend (source CACI).

Ocean, the UK’s leading premium digital out-of-home operator, operates from four offices in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London and across 12 UK cities.

Imagination Park Technologies Inc. (CSE: IP) (OTC: IPNFF), is bringing augmented reality experiences to consumers and sports fans globally and has just announced the release of its XenoPlay platform.

We are told that XenoPlay Version 3.3 is packed with features that will allow advertising and marketing professionals to create augmented reality campaigns within minutes without the need for any programming or technical expertise.

Alen Paul Silverrstieen, CEO and president of Imagination Park told us “Although many agencies know how to develop great brand campaigns, they usually don’t know if their campaigns are working. Now, Imagination Park’s XenoPlay can provide the agencies with activation details about who has viewed their ads, billboards, and end caps. The agencies can also send those details sent to the clients for further engagement. And to help promote this feature set and drive sales to agencies, we’ve added advertising and marketing industry veteran Simon Schatzmann.”

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ITE Group PLC, the organiser of Broadcast Video Expo has announced that next year the event will move to June 9-11, 2020.

The press release stated that it had moved its show date from February to June in order to attract new audiences and deliver greater value for existing ones. The change of date moves the event away from the Mobile World Congress ‘window’ but the organisers told us that another key driver for the date change has been to position Broadcast Video Expo after NAB in the industry events calendar to try to secure Broadcast Video Expo’s position as the European launch platform for the media & entertainment sector.

No doubt the idea here is that it will enable the show to become the de facto choice for exhibitors debuting their products and solutions, whilst also enabling the exhibition to grow its international audience and cater for new industry sectors including AV, Live Production & Connected Media.

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HOYTS Group CEO Damian Keogh has announced a restructure of the Val Morgan business as it sets sight on future growth in a changing media landscape following the unexpected resignation of CEO, Dan Hill.

Newly appointed Managing Director, Guy Burbidge, will assume control of Val Morgan Cinema while current Val Morgan Outdoor Managing Director, Paul Butler, will continue his role. Both will report to Keogh.

Damian Keogh told us “We are in for an incredible line up of blockbuster movies in 2019 and the growth of SVOD viewing, which is advertising free, is strengthening the power of cinema advertising. As with all businesses we are constantly evaluating the resources and structure to maximise market effectiveness. While sad to see Dan depart, we have a strong executive team to carry the business forward”.

Dan was brought into the business seven years ago as National Sales Manager and has performed the roles of Chief Revenue Officer and Managing Director of Val Morgan Cinema Advertising before assuming the role of Val Morgan Group CEO in February 2018.

The press releases stated that he had been instrumental in the transformation of the business .. (he) helped drive strong revenue growth and (saw) Val Morgan recognised with multiple industry awards as a leading media sales company.