00:10:30 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:10:30] S0: Yeah. So let's kind of take a step back. So Lamar, obviously, knowledge, we invested three or four years back into the company. And for us, it wasn't necessarily just Vistar per se, it was we believed in the technology, we believed in programmatic, and we believed in your leadership. Sure. What did what did that investment mean to you and the company outside of just the money side of things? [00:10:57] S1: Yeah. Sure. I mean, now now that I look back at it all, that was definitely a big jumping milestone, big change in the company, and that is really the first person, you know, really to put money where their mouth was and said, this is important for the space. And it was the top company out of home saying, hey, programmatic's a real thing, it's going to be around for a long time, and Vistar is the best company to be doing it. So that was a substantial moment for our business and for the industry. With T Mobile coming in, I feel like that's another stepwise function of here's the next thing that's happening. A company that is not an out of home company, it's a telecom company, is saying to the whole world that out of home is an extremely important channel to them. And my hope is that it changes the way a lot of brands look at out of home in the future, knowing that such a powerful brand that's very consumer focused is saying this and put this statement out there.
00:10:57 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:10:57] S1: Yeah. Sure. I mean, now now that I look back at it all, that was definitely a big jumping milestone, big change in the company, and that is really the first person, you know, really to put money where their mouth was and said, this is important for the space. And it was the top company out of home saying, hey, programmatic's a real thing, it's going to be around for a long time, and Vistar is the best company to be doing it. So that was a substantial moment for our business and for the industry. With T Mobile coming in, I feel like that's another stepwise function of here's the next thing that's happening. A company that is not an out of home company, it's a telecom company, is saying to the whole world that out of home is an extremely important channel to them. And my hope is that it changes the way a lot of brands look at out of home in the future, knowing that such a powerful brand that's very consumer focused is saying this and put this statement out there. [00:11:59] S0: Yeah. And it's... People often say like, well, why does it make sense for a carrier or a cell phone company? I... You and I were joking before over here. You said that on the Reddit, which by the way, you should never read the comments. [00:12:12] S1: I never... Yeah. You can't read it. [00:12:13] S0: But you said that, somebody said like, does this mean my cell phone phone bill is gonna [00:12:17] S1: go up?
00:12:17 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:12:17] S1: go up? [00:12:18] S0: Like... Yeah. It's wild. Right? But, you know, so maybe kind of shed a little bit of light more on... I think a lot of people, even within, you know, the home space, even within the media space, or even outside on the tech side, you know, T Mobile is a pretty robust, you know, you said they're using all of your your tools. Maybe give our give our listeners a little bit more on, like, what those tools are that Vistar has, but then also more importantly, like [00:12:40] S1: Yeah. [00:12:40] S0: Where's the connection with T Mobile? [00:12:41] S1: Yeah, look, they believe that they can really make out a whole truly targetable and measurable to the next level. You know, they have this amazing relationship with their customers. They have access to this amazing dataset across their assets. And they believe they can really tie the loop in terms of measurement in out of home. And I agree with them, they definitely can. So that's one of the biggest opportunities that they see. They also have a massive retail media network, and they're leading the charge on what retail media means, especially in store. And so, we've been working with them on powering their retail media network from ad delivery perspective and monetization perspective. And our intention is to take that and grow that into other retailers across [00:13:25] S0: the world as well. And for our listeners, the product that you guys have is Cortex Media. It actually powers Lamar's digital billboards and a handful of other waste based companies and even out of home companies.
00:13:25 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:13:25] S0: the world as well. And for our listeners, the product that you guys have is Cortex Media. It actually powers Lamar's digital billboards and a handful of other waste based companies and even out of home companies. [00:13:36] S1: Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah, Cortex is software that powers the screens and then, our ad serving platform is what's pacing, making all the decisions on inventory management, revenue, billings, all that good stuff. [00:13:47] S0: Yeah. And it's, you know, we hear this whole, like, rise of retail media and, you know, for me, when when we kind of learned about this deal, it's kind of like, well, yeah, T Mobile has x number of thousands of stores, they have screens inside of those stores, and you and I were kind of talking a little bit earlier about this as well. So... And then the SSP DSP side of Vistar as well. Like, now it, in essence, can consolidate all of the the media advertising buying, whether it's in their store, online, mobile, social, and out of home into one cohesive. [00:14:21] S1: Yeah. There's definitely a lot of integration opportunities across the products and services of the business. So that's gonna be, what our next few months are gonna be about. About to Yeah. Be [00:14:33] S0: you know, the other the other side of the retail media side is like the Cortex and then the ad server component is that's an immediate integration. So when people ask me the question, yeah. So it's really about like, how do they continue to grow that product? So...
00:14:33 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:14:33] S0: you know, the other the other side of the retail media side is like the Cortex and then the ad server component is that's an immediate integration. So when people ask me the question, yeah. So it's really about like, how do they continue to grow that product? So... [00:14:47] S1: Yeah. So I think they're almost like a, to to degree, kind of our guinea pig of one of the largest retail media clients we have today. We have a few other retail media clients, but the most probably one of the biggest. And really being able to say, what else do you need? And being in house now, being able to say, alright, what are the what are the exact feature sets? Get that quick feedback, that honest feedback. Then being able to take that and say, okay, cool, now we can apply this to other retailers. It's gonna be super helpful. It's almost like, you know, we acquired Adstruck about a year ago, and the Adstruck platform, you know, when you show that to an out of home buyer, their reaction is like, oh my god, this was built for me. And it's like, yes, they listen to buyers and they bought exactly what they what they needed. And I want to feel similar to retail media. I want to walk into a massive grocery chain and I want to demo our product and then say, oh my god, this is exactly what we've been looking for for our in store opportunity.
00:15:42 · Ian Dallimore
[00:15:42] S0: Yeah. How... You're... Every every time I'm up in New York and we we go have dinner, I'm always fascinated by your, you know, I have that entrepreneurial mindset as well, but you're you're just... You seem to be on another level in the sense of, like, leading the company, you're leading both through innovation, but on top of it, have the natural ups and downs, running the business, it's not easy. How do you personally stay focused and resilient during the tough times? Yeah. To get these... So we're trying to get... I'm reversing back for our listeners because I wanna know how you got here and how you dealt with it because it's not always...