At the fall IBOUSA conference Becky Smith highlighted how the IBO’s Speedway network is generating revenues for their independent billboard operators that are participating. Billboard Insider talked with Smith about the program.
How’s the program coming along?
It’s been great and we continue to grow and to evolve! We shifted focus last summer to include as many of our associates as possible, no matter what kind of workflow they had, whether they used subscription software, Excel sheets, PDF flyers or even 3×5 cards. Out of this our IBO Speedway was built on a powerful database software that many of the Fortune 50 companies use, which combines data from almost any source or format. It was necessary for us to customize our workflow to be able to include the various connections and platforms that our IBO members utilize to perform their sales & inventory activities.
Turns out, our success and our Speedway caught the eye of a prominent national ad agency, who now wants to connect with us. They see the ease and efficiencies our platform can deliver them, which will allow them more time to focus on growing their OOH budgets. Our NYC based national sales partner Integration Media (IMI), led by Terry Carmody, is our point person creating the relationships with national ad agencies. We expect this will be the first of many agencies wanting to save 15-25% of their campaign costs. We want our offering to be accessible with one call or email to IMI. To give you an idea, we just got a $250,000 check from IMI, covering 23 operators and averaging over $10,000 each!
How many operators and how many faces are participating?
Our entire IBO footprint consists of 250 companies with about 90,000 faces which has fluctuated up and down a lot with the recent M&A activity. We grew those connected from 17,000 pre-COVID with now 135 of our companies connected representing about 50,000 faces for guaranteed placements process. We also have our Request For Offer (RFO) module created and implemented currently which will replace the RFP process over time and save millions of keystrokes for both the buy and sell sides.
Is the IBO Speedway just for programmatic digital faces or does it include traditional static inventory?
The mainstream news tends to be focused on digital programmatic, which is growing, but currently only makes up about 10% of our overall volume which fluctuates around 50/50% Digital/Static 4 week plus buys. Static is a big part of the mix and will continue to be so as we expand and as such are focused intently on guaranteed placement at, near or above rate cards for BOTH digital AND traditional faces. We’ve expanded into mobile, freight liners, and even hotel rooms. We like this rate card guaranteed placement business for now until some audience measurement services become Media Rating Council accredited which will give comfort to operators that their inventory is being properly priced.
What does an independent billboard operator need to do if they wish to participate?
First thing is for a company to reach out to us to join our IBO Market Club which costs a whopping $140 a year and Daron Henry is the contact person for this. This gives the operator access to all our services we provide on a co-op basis (like health plans, mobile ads sales, access to new site opportunities, data bundles, etc.) and allows them to participate for free in the IBO Speedway, which I coordinate and assist with the details. I will then introduce the operator to our IMI team that digs into the local intel to fully understand how the operator works, what their demographics are and a deep feel of their inventory.
About IBO Speedway
The IBO COOP Speedway is a cloud based set of data solutions and technology “tools” that enable our IBO Marketing team to aggregate inventory information from just about any source and deliver data to just about any buyer or operator in any fashion.
IBO Marketing has grown to over 250 companies with about a 90K face footprint and uniquely functions on a break-even basis to represent the IBO Associates as a cooperative manager, much like a wheat farming coop. Our centralized technical effort enables a one-stop functionality for buying interests whether automation assisted, programmatic or the good old-fashioned manual way.
For more information contact Becky Smith, IBOUSA Enterprise Manager via email becky@IBOUSA.org, Daron Henry, Operations Manager via email daron@IBOUSA.org, or call the office for immediate attention, 580-226-2234.
About Integration Media Inc.
Integration Media, Inc. (IMI) was founded in 2009 by Terry Carmody, a seasoned business development and sales professional with a proven track record in the OOH media arena. IMI is a multi-faceted Outdoor Advertising sales firm that: operates its own advertising locations, acts as an exclusive sales arm for numerous partnerships and acts as a consultant on behalf of clients interested in entering the outdoor advertising world. IMI’s multi-faceted team brings decades of Out Of Home (OOH) experience and relationships to the table, both on the sales side and the agency side of the business. IMI is well versed in all OOH products, from static to digital, from billboards to buses, from traditional locations to placed based networks. Initially representing inventory in Los Angeles, IMI has quickly grown to operate and/or represent OOH in over 150 markets across the country, both big and small. From Top 20 markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Miami to smaller markets like Austin, Nashville, Bentonville and Omaha to name a few.
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