Insider noticed this week AdQuick’s announcement of a strategic alliance with the Independent Billboard Operators Speedway (IBO) and Integration Media Inc (IMI). This collaboration, says AdQuick, is the first OOH buying and supply platform to integrate with IBO’s innovative TORQ system. This cutting-edge inventory co-op streamlines the planning and buying process for IBO’s network, which interactively includes over 300 media owner members and more than 110,000 OOH footprint displays.
We reached out to Chris Cowlbeck, CVO at IBO for more detail on this alliance.
Chris, what is the TORQ system? Is TORQ an acronym?
TORQ is our OOH Info | Speedway platform where we “crank down” all the data to a homogenized, streamlined state, like a racing “torque” wrench, allowing us to seamlessly integrate our entire supply network with various buy-side channels through a perfected tension needed for high performance. OOH CHARGER is the front-facing side of this is for media owners and buyers, used for charging up or electrifying revenue and execution experiences. The environment includes validation tools for data prep for the scoring, insights, and impressions products, MetricOOH, Spotzi, and PerView. It gives media operators live views under the hood into the positioning of the inventory related to the various analytic products. The environment is also usable for local sales for subscribers. AdQuick recognizes these attributes drive brand activation and are the cornerstone of our partnership.
Don’t the IBO and Integration Media already partner together?
Yes, of course, as we have for a decade, Terry Carmody’s IMI team are some of the best in the business. The classic OOH industry RFP model has not been as efficient or as fast as the online process and the industry has lost campaign market share to online for decades now. So, we’re combining the skills, ad tech, and brand familiarity of AdQuick, the relationships and connections of Terry’s team, along with the streamlined display details and traffic metrics, to drive deals to brands and agencies that want to get to market fast, as they do with online advertising mediums. We believe these new deal types are the future way of OOH selling and buying, aligning with the cross-market demand side using AdQuick’s ad tech. They harness unique automation along with our standard ways of securing static and digital guaranteed placements in a manner that appeals to cross-market, cross-publisher buyers’ campaign budgets used in online placements.
What are my advantages, as an operator, to participating in this new AdQuick alliance?
More to come on this, as the details are proprietary and simplified for our IBO Speedway users in a first-look scenario given the data validation requirements, similar to a buy-it-now concept (but with HOLDs and current validation to account for storms, wrecks, etc.) No RFPs, guaranteed pricing and placement ahead of other non-aligned inventory, no more arbitrary negotiations between buyers and sellers for every campaign, along with payment within 90 days, are hallmarks of these Direct Buy deals, which will require trustworthy traffic metrics mentioned above and are very affordably positioned for those interested in participating.
How can I be included?
The company must be an IBO USA member ($395 annually per company), enroll the inventory in the IBO Speedway, get validated and then have impression data, either from GeoPath or PerView, and MetricOOH scoring when it is released very soon. There’s no need for any connections or workflow provider interactions, just the will to perform to meet the needs of the brands. There’s a master engagement agreement to cover the basic transactional mechanics typical to OOH to review and authorize, along with the conditions for the AdQuick tech performance. I’ve been very impressed with their creative and fast-moving tech, and their maverick style favors our independent approach to life.
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