Company: Ballyhoo Media

Address: 101 NE 79th St. Miami, FL 33138

Markets: Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Seattle, Miami

Email: info@ballyhooboats.com

Ballyhoo Media describes itself as a water-based multi-media company changing the landscape of outdoor advertising. The founders of Ballyhoo are brothers Adam and Nate Shapiro along with Tyler Zlatin.

Insider had a chance to discuss the business with the founders.

Nate, you and Adam were drawn naturally to the water. Tell us how that started the business and what the early years were like?

Ballyhoo Media was born from a shared love for the beach that we cultivated over many summers in Ocean City, Maryland. Growing up as umbrella boys, Adam and I spent our days on the sand dreaming about starting our own business. The inspiration came from a somewhat ironic place: the sky. For years, aerial banners captured desirable waterfront audiences, and we wondered how we could bring this form of advertising into the modern day.

The early years were the most fun, yet definitely the most challenging. It was getting told ‘no’ a thousand times, from banks to brands, and constantly having to reinvent ourselves. As a challenger brand in OOH, we not only had the uphill battle of educating brands on the value of waterway audiences, but also proving that our product, a giant floating screen on a boat, wasn’t just a stunt. It could actually play a meaningful role in the OOH media landscape and drive business outcomes better than a lot of the traditional formats.

It seems like recently I am reading expansion news related to the company. How many markets does Ballyhoo Media serve?

Currently active in 6 markets, with at least 3 more coming online before the end of the year. We started in Miami and have since expanded to Tampa, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and Fire Island, with a few other major DMAs in the pipeline.

Building digital boats takes time and money. But we’ve been able to move faster in the last couple of years by partnering with major ferry and passenger vessel operators. That’s helped us quickly scale into key markets, bringing both digital and static advertising onboard their vessels, exterior boat wraps, and placements in their terminals.

Conservation of the oceans is a part of your corporate DNA. Could you share some on that aspect of the company?

It comes back to our love for the waterways and the long-term vision of what we’re building. Ballyhoo doesn’t exist without healthy waterways. Period. Whether it’s for commerce, transit, recreation, or just their beauty acting as a natural beacon and a kind of “third place” in major cities, waterways matter. And frankly, the health of waterways usually falls way too low on the totem pole when it comes to global environmental priorities. So we’ve made a point to be one of the loudest voices out there pushing for their protection.

That means supporting nonprofits and public agencies with pro bono space, but also going a step further and investing in real impact. Some of our advertising vessels double as floating research vessels, partnering with universities and NGOs to map seabeds, test water quality, and pilot new microplastic cleaning tech. We’re always looking for ways to do more, from beach cleanups to installing new environmental tools directly onboard our boats.

We want to be the leaders in OOH who are actively protecting the environment we advertise in. Because preserving our waterways is critical, and we want them to remain a staple of our communities and something that can be enjoyed for generations to come.

What are your growth goals for the business over the next 2–3 years?

We are building a new media channel on the waterways. Brands are always looking for unique ways to grab attention, and we’ve found this massive, untapped real estate that allows them to connect with premium audiences in iconic, uncluttered environments, delivering their message in a way that feels both surprising and memorable.

Our goal is to keep building on that by expanding our digital boat network, launching new experiential media formats on the water, and continuing to partner with public and private transit operators (what we see as the last frontier in transit media that has largely been underserved by traditional advertising). Our agency and brand partners request new markets from us all the time. We hope that in the next 3 years, we have waterway products that can service any request in any market. We’re also doubling down on data and attribution to show that our platforms don’t just look great, they actually perform, driving real business outcomes for brands.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Just that we’re proud to be building something a little different in the OOH world. We believe OOH should be beautiful, effective, fun, and sustainable. As we say internally, we do “cool sh*t”, and to continue creating iconic and memorable platforms that go against the grain is in our DNA.

To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title.  Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.

Paid Advertisement