16:9 Podcast: David Weinfeld on How Screenverse Sells and Manages for Companies with Screens

16:9 Podcast: David Weinfeld on How Screenverse Sells and Manages for Companies with Screens

16:9 Podcast: David Weinfeld on How Screenverse Sells and Manages for Companies with Screens

16:9 Podcast

Advertising is hard – and a lot of companies, from startups to majors, have found out the expensive way that creating and running a screen network that’s funded through booked ad spots is no walk in the park.

There are lots of programmatic advertising options out there to make access to brand advertising easier for network operators, but a start-up called Screenverse is going down a different path – basically saying to a lot of companies that have screens: “You focus on what you’re truly good at, and we’ll take over the ad sales and management of your network.”

So in the same way that some solutions providers are the outsourced digital signage operating units for companies like QSR chains, Screenverse is doing the sales and related work for companies that happen to have a screen network as part of much larger businesses. A great example would be TouchTunes, which has 1,000s of digital jukeboxes in bars, with screens on them that support booked advertising. Screenverse now runs and sells the ad display side of the business, so TouchTunes can focus on what it is super-good at – music content curation, licensing and overall ops.

The company was started by a couple of guys I have known for a long time in this industry – David Weinfeld and Adam Malone. While less than two years old, started just in time for a pandemic and nuclear winter for out of home advertising, Screenverse is making money and recently announced a quasi acquisition deal to bring on the sales experience and business ties of The Danaher Group, a boutique media sales run by Sue Danaher, who many industry people will know from her days running the DPAA.

David and I go back to the days when we were consulting partners on The Preset Group. It was terrific to catch up, and get a better understanding of how his company fills what is a pretty obvious need in the market for companies that want to monetize the screens in their network, but struggle (or would struggle) trying to run ad sales and media operations within the walls of a company that otherwise knows very little about advertising.

 

The OOH Insider Show: Programmatic 101 w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 2!)

The OOH Insider Show: Programmatic 101 w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 2!)

The OOH Insider Show: Programmatic 101 w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 2!)

The OOH Insider Show

On this episode of OOH Insider, Adam Malone, Co-Founder & President of Screenverse, shares his knowledge of programmatic digital out-of-home.

Screenverse is a specialized provider of ad management and monetization for digital screen owners. They maximize revenue through direct, programmatic, and systematic direct sales channels.

Takeaways:
• Media owners should utilize direct sales through the existing channels and programmatic tools to sell their inventory.
• Make your inventory available during the open exchange and then read the data to see who is putting a bid.
• Use programmatic tactics to communicate and strategize with companies while they are still at the top of the funnel.
• OOH impressions can be difficult to calculate because there is no set way to measure them.
• The industry needs to work on pinpointing data for targeting, addressability, and contextual relevancy.
• In order to grow as an industry, we need to be more honest and establish goodwill with advertisers, especially during the current buying climate.

The OOH Insider Show: Programmatic 101 w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 2!)

The OOH Insider Show: Maximizing Revenue w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 1)

The OOH Insider Show: Maximizing Revenue w/ Adam Malone of Screenverse (Part 1)

The OOH Insider Show

On this episode of OOH Insider, Adam Malone, Co-Founder & President of Screenverse, shares his knowledge on industry disruption and building a startup.

Screenverse is a specialized provider of ad management and monetization for digital screen owners. They maximize revenue through direct, programmatic, and systematic direct sales channels.

Takeaways:

  • Talk to the industry and ask questions before putting the time and money into developing a tool or system.
  • Is the vision for the tool or system meeting the end-user need?
  • The industry cannot be defined as one thing; it is comprised of many different personalities and stories.
  • Try testing out a few tools, based on market feedback, with the community and build from there.
  • Respect the industry. If there is an opportunity to disrupt within any industry, come in with the mindset of growth on top of the existing groundwork rather than a bug in the foundation.
  • Timing can be the make or break for startups.
  • “Everybody needs to understand what their north star is in their career and in their life.” ~Adam Malone
2021 – A(nother) Year in Review!

2021 – A(nother) Year in Review!

2021 – A(nother) Year in Review!

Adam Malone, Co-Founder & President at Screenverse

Here we are again. The second annual Screenverse Year in Review!

No-one could have predicted this!

When we founded Screenverse in April, 2020, we expected that COVID-19 would persist for some months, maybe a few quarters, but the disease would be contained in due course. Soon the dams would be opened and people would flow through the world as they always had, while advertiser demand would follow close behind.

That is not, in a few words, what happened.

Luckily for us, we set out to build the Screenverse digital network and business as a financial adviser might compile a basket of assets – stocks, bonds, real estate – for her clients. We were very purposeful in the partnerships we struck with network owners, we followed audiences, sought counsel from demand partners, and invested in data, technology, and talent that would help us minimize risk and maximize reward for our partners.

How’d we do..?

Market Report:

2021 was another unsteady year for OOH; especially for anyone who owns or sells media that isn’t narrowly defined as a Billboard.

Data published by the OAAA shows that not only did the overall industry revenue shrink considerably from 2019 highs, but the percentage of revenue earned by Billboard owners skyrocketed, from 63.8% in 2019 to 84.1% through the first half of 2021.

The other side of that equation saw Street Furniture, Transit, and Place-Based Revenue-Shares contracted significantly. Place-Based media owners were the hardest hit, as they saw their share of the pie evaporate from 11.5% in 2019 to a paltry 2.8% in the first half of 2021.

While it appears to me and others that the back half of 2021 was a little better for Place-Based media owners, it is clear that the first money spent in OOH is going to Billboard owners and, if stock prices are any indication of financial performance, the publicly traded Billboard owners in particular.

According to analysis done by Billboard Insider, the three public OOH companies all outperformed the S&P500 in 2021.

There were some other bright spots, of course, as the programmatic platforms had banner years, leveraging their growth to attract fresh capital to develop their business lines and technologies.

Vistar Media Raises $30m in Series B Funding

Place Exchange Closes $20m in Venture Funding

AdomniDOmedia, and OneScreen.ai all raised 7 and 8-figure funding rounds this year as well.

While the technology providers are seeing their value propositions born out in real time, there has been innovation and consolidation on the media side as well.

Atmosphere raised $100mm to continue its expansion

Octopus Interactive recently sold its ride-share tablet business to T-Mobile

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and while many believe it necessary for the OOH industry to standardize its universal measurement currency to attain new levels of growth and market-share, 2021 was a step sideways at best.

I wont belabor the drama this year between Geopath and OAAA. There are well-founded arguments for whether the proper metric should be “likely to see” or “opportunity to see” when adjudicating OOH impressions. What is clear to me is that a universal impressions standard is an “opportunity” that will “likely” deliver real value that will move the needle for OOH advertisers and media owners alike.

Will Epicenter or Comscore assert themselves with powerful datasets and thoughtful methodologies (at reasonable prices!) to fill the void?

2021 was a year of growth for Screenverse.

  • We grew our Team => 10 new teammates
  • We added new Partners and Inventory => 6 Partners and ~42,000 Screens
  • We grew Sales and Revenue => +4.5x YOY
  • We were Profitable again this year and grew EBITDA => +50% YOY

“Our Success comes down to our People and Partners” – David Weinfeld

Our People:

We were blessed this year to add 10 new people to our team!

We started the year with a bang by Acquiring the Danaher Group and in so doing adding senior sales, marketing, research, and operations leadership in Susan DanaherVictor Germain, and Taylor Chiulli. In July we added two west-coast sellers (LA, and Denver) who know how to build digital media sales businesses in Susan Jaget and Tim Kennedy. After adding all of that sales talent, we needed to fill in our technical and media operations team to balance our services and prepare ourselves to scale. We were excited to welcome JunkoL.A., and Morgan in October, along with our VP of engineering, Erik Osmond, who is helping us centralize and enrich our data, tie together the systems we use every day, and giving our clients new levels of insight. Finally, in late December we offered Phil Donahue the opportunity to lead our midwest sales efforts.

We are committed to caring for, investing in, and developing our people. This year we offered full health benefits, 401K matching program, and authorized ongoing education benefits for the full team. We also created an employee stock options program that will reward our teammates as the business grows in value over time.

[We are hiring for multiple positions in sales, sales planning, engineering, marketing, and research — please reach out to us at careers@screenversemedia.com for more information!]

Our Partners:

We are betting on the growth of On-Premise and In-Retail:

Our big focus from the beginning has been to build a leading on-premise digital advertising network in essential businesses; Retail Grocery, Big Box, Pharmacy, and Convenience. In 2021, we secured new partnerships in Grocery, Pharmacy, and Point-of-Care to double down on our offering to advertisers who want to engage shoppers in healthcare environments and influence consumers at the point of care and the point of purchase.

Another pillar of our network is the TouchTunes digital Jukebox network. It is the largest digital network in Bars & Restaurants in North America and it is an absolute on-premise juggernaut. Available in all 210 DMAs, we can reach almost any audience and do so with both precision and scale! We saw hopeful signs in the Jukebox usage data in the summer-time and around key sporting-and-cultural events, but some markets have been slow to open and advertiser perceptions have hurt demand for on-premise advertising even as traffic and sales data have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Advertisers are leaning in to NFL playoffs, March Madness, and appear to have “priced in” a fully open economy by early-spring 2022. We’ll drink to that!

Enlighten – one of the nation’s largest Cannabis Dispensary network – is a perfect compliment to TouchTunes in reaching active and influential millennials. Both networks are age-gated and deliver 21+ audiences in brand-safe environments. As more states move to full Marijuana legalization and more research is done on the “Cannabis consumer”, the more interest and activity we expect from mainstream advertisers. We have already booked major campaigns in 2022 around the 420 “holiday” season, and leading brands in entertainment, DTC products, delivery services, and healthcare are connecting with their audiences via the Enlighten network — and this is just the beginning!

We are getting in front of Urban and Young Professionals where they Live and Work:

Advertisers are clamoring to reach Millennials, Gen Z, and Urban Professionals who consume way less ad-supported media than other demos. No-where have we seen more of a shift in consumer behavior than in this audience. This year we worked hard to find partners who offer 360 degree access to this coveted audience, at scale.

Two of the most exciting developments in 2021 were our partnerships we launched with high-end Residential and Office lobbies via theBulletin and TouchSource. We know now that the future of work is going to be a mix of work from home and go in to the office. Why not develop a media network that reaches urban and young professionals every day, no matter where they decide to work?!

We got out there in the Real World!

Finally, 2021 was our year to truly extend our offering from digital place-based, to digital OOH, to digital media in the Real World.

Our partners at SPIN, Smartify, and Corner Media significantly invested in growing their networks of 55″ street-level portrait displays in major US markets. These screens are big, bright, and represent new and impactful inventory in markets like DC, LA, and Miami where traditional OOH media is scant or inaccessible for many advertisers. We will also soon be announcing an exciting new partner in the EV charging space – a company who has deployed dozens of charging structures featuring 75″ landscape screens – and has plans to rapidly deploy many more charging stations in 2022. Watch this space!

2022 Outlook:

As we look ahead to 2022, there seem to be more questions than answers.

We face many challenges that will affect our businesses:

  • Will Supply Chain issues persist, affecting advertiser demand as well as inflation?
  • What will happen with Interest Rates and the broader capital and consumer economy?
  • Will Digital Buyers and Omni-channel DSPs mold DOOH in their image?
  • How will new capital, startups, and consolidation reshape the industry?

There are are many MORE reasons to be optimistic about what 2022 will bring:

  • Our Industry has smart, awesome, people who know how to be resilient in tough times.
  • There is pent up demand for services, events, and experiences around which [D]OOH campaigns flourish.
  • The discussions around cookies and privacy will put a premium on [D]OOH media that delivers targeted audiences in relevant environments.

Most of all, we are grateful for the opportunity to build a business in such a dynamic and interesting world!

We look forward to working with new Partners, Customers, and Team Members in 2022 and beyond.

Phil Donahue Joins Screenverse

Phil Donahue Joins Screenverse

Phil Donahue Joins Screenverse

OOH Today

Screenverse Inc. announces the hiring of Phil Donahue to be its Midwest Sales Director. Based in Chicago, IL, Mr. Donahue is an award-winning DOOH professional, having worked at Starcom Worldwide, Health Club Media Network, WSJON, and ZOOM Media before joining Screenverse.

Mr. Donahue is no stranger to innovation in DOOH. At Starcom, he and his team won Adweek™ OOH Media Plan of the Year for a Morgan Stanley campaign that brought real-time Dow Jones Industrial Average information to street-level media in NYC. He launched the first major international DOOH program at ZOOM Media that incorporated custom content in the US, Canada, and the UK. Mr. Donahue sees “acceleration in DOOH innovation and a decrease in transaction friction via automation and new technologies. The lack of friction will optimize programs across placements, timing, and content.”

Mr. Donahue sees great opportunity at Screenverse as “the company combines scaled and complimentary national DOOH networks with technology that minimizes transaction costs and optimizes placement and content adjacencies. It is an incredible opportunity to work with people with this kind of vision.”

Screenverse CEO, David Weinfeld, sees Phil as the perfect fit, “Phil’s digital out-of-home experience, knowledge and expertise is an incredible asset to our team, networks, and brand partners. He embodies the type of professional we want on our team; someone who is smart, driven, and dedicated to delivering great service to our partners. Knowing we have such a strong team member guiding our growing Midwest business, makes me even more excited about what’s in store for Screenverse and our partners in 2022.”

Screenverse added ten members to the team in 2021 and is actively recruiting for positions in engineering, marketing, sales, tech/media ops, and sales planning. The Screenverse team is fully remote and offers competitive compensation, full health benefits, 401k matching, stock options, and a fun, competitive, and empowering culture.