Digital & Dirt
00:33:36 · Ian Dallimore, Rob Loftus
[00:33:36] S0: What what excites you as as you're hearing... And and obviously, there's certain publishers like the Lamar's, the Clear Channels, the out fronts of the world, some big place based companies as well. You have a lot of historical knowledge. So when those questions are asked, you're not only pushing, you know, the big three and others or beyond, but then also you have a backlog of of data questions and, you know, issues that you can kinda capture. So how do you stay so balanced, I guess? [00:34:02] S5: Well, it's it's kinda meeting everybody where they are at the end of the day. And so with Lamar, for example, it's... We're trying to optimize Yeah. Because this is a, you know, eight or nine year long relationship. You guys are totally leaned into programmatic technically, commercially, all that sort of stuff. So how do we fine tune and and keep things accelerating? Where other folks, it's it's just getting them into the ecosystem and getting them comfortable. And for those guys, it's... I always say it's, you know, simple as smooth, smooth as fast. So have good metadata, you know, have good technology to connect in. Like, the the pretty simple core, you know, fixtures that get you going.
00:34:02 · Rob Loftus, Ian Dallimore
[00:34:02] S5: Well, it's it's kinda meeting everybody where they are at the end of the day. And so with Lamar, for example, it's... We're trying to optimize Yeah. Because this is a, you know, eight or nine year long relationship. You guys are totally leaned into programmatic technically, commercially, all that sort of stuff. So how do we fine tune and and keep things accelerating? Where other folks, it's it's just getting them into the ecosystem and getting them comfortable. And for those guys, it's... I always say it's, you know, simple as smooth, smooth as fast. So have good metadata, you know, have good technology to connect in. Like, the the pretty simple core, you know, fixtures that get you going. [00:34:35] S0: Yeah. And and as as you hear from DSPs, and we won't say which future ones that are you're onboarding, we're really excited about that. But even the ones that that are, the Trade Desk DV is leaning back in. How are you taking what what they're doing and then making sure that it fits in a very complex ecosystem that is digital out of home? Right? If it was just roadside billboards, it would probably feel acting a lot like the Internet. Like, okay. It's just one format. You can go back and forth. But it is a complex world.
00:34:35 · Ian Dallimore, Rob Loftus
[00:34:35] S0: Yeah. And and as as you hear from DSPs, and we won't say which future ones that are you're onboarding, we're really excited about that. But even the ones that that are, the Trade Desk DV is leaning back in. How are you taking what what they're doing and then making sure that it fits in a very complex ecosystem that is digital out of home? Right? If it was just roadside billboards, it would probably feel acting a lot like the Internet. Like, okay. It's just one format. You can go back and forth. But it is a complex world. [00:35:04] S5: It is a complex world. And so I guess a lot of place exchanges job is to take the nuance out of that for them. That's where we provide that value. So it goes into data standardization, protocol standardization, signal standardization, trying to obviously create standards around measurement, things like that. So I think a lot of that takes the nuance out of it. Now there's publishers that want that nuance because those are differentiators and special sauce. But I think from our perspective, it's like we have enough special sauce for everybody. Right. So let us handle that nuance and let us simplify for those guys to buy. [00:35:33] S0: Yeah. I wince because I hate the word special sauce and I know why why you're saying it because the industry is kind of really [00:35:38] S5: Exact sauce, whatever we wanna call it.
00:35:38 · Rob Loftus, Ian Dallimore
[00:35:38] S5: Exact sauce, whatever we wanna call it. [00:35:40] S0: Yeah. No. But but you're right. Right? It's from the traditional side of things that special sauce is local knowledge. It's, you know, how we do things differently to our competitor. But the reality of it is, and the next question is really, as you guys continue to embrace data, you know, it's funny because we have to say AI, it's... You guys have always been learning like an LLM anyway. Sure. So ingesting that data. But where do you continue to evolve from an AI perspective to even faster and then get those lagging publishers to where everybody needs to be? [00:36:11] S5: Yeah. It's a great question. It's it's twofold. So there's a there's a buy side and I guess, like a sell side version of it. So the buy side is we've built an MCP. We've we've established protocols there. Like, you could technically buy an agentic... Totally agentic campaign from soup to nuts on Broadsign today. Like that exists, it's happening in Europe. Yep. So that's that's one bit. Like obviously there's automation that happens there, but a lot of it's on the back end and really helping our immediate planning teams. So putting a ton of AI into their systems to really give them that level of efficiency because at the end of the day, the marketplace is still super curated. Sure. Still super deal driven. And so that team's the one servicing all that. And so putting in those systems pull them forward.
00:36:11 · Rob Loftus, Ian Dallimore
[00:36:11] S5: Yeah. It's a great question. It's it's twofold. So there's a there's a buy side and I guess, like a sell side version of it. So the buy side is we've built an MCP. We've we've established protocols there. Like, you could technically buy an agentic... Totally agentic campaign from soup to nuts on Broadsign today. Like that exists, it's happening in Europe. Yep. So that's that's one bit. Like obviously there's automation that happens there, but a lot of it's on the back end and really helping our immediate planning teams. So putting a ton of AI into their systems to really give them that level of efficiency because at the end of the day, the marketplace is still super curated. Sure. Still super deal driven. And so that team's the one servicing all that. And so putting in those systems pull them forward. [00:36:52] S0: Yeah. One of the things that I've always been most proud of you watching your growth at placing shades and Broadsign. No, seriously, you've done a lot. You know, we've both been a part of committees and now part of another committee. It's exciting, right? But the one thing I've always been most proud of you is your ability to be very forward facing while also being very technical. Sure. So that's a very rare skill. Know, we jokingly say, like, we leave our IT guys behind the curtain. [00:37:18] S5: Well, right. And they were because I was wearing those crappy t shirts. [00:37:21] S0: So there you go. IT guys dress nice and you [00:37:23] S5: could wear jacket.
00:37:23 · Rob Loftus, Ian Dallimore
[00:37:23] S5: could wear jacket. [00:37:24] S0: But but you do... You have this this great way of also bringing technical knowledge to, you know, maybe not the Lamar's because we do have a powerful team, like, shout out to Shirley Faith, Alex, and Lindsey. But those new media owners or lagging media media owners, you always have done a great job of of dumbing down is maybe the right phrase to say about [00:37:43] S5: Layman's terms. [00:37:44] S0: Yeah. Layman's terms of of taking tech and then explaining it in such a way that a billboard operator can understand. [00:37:50] S5: Appreciate that, man. Thank you. [00:37:51] S0: Yeah. So what was that skill? And it's obviously continuing to evolve because then you have to decipher what the vendor is saying and bring it back to the team and say, okay, this is what they're saying. This is what they need. [00:38:01] S5: Yeah. I mean, someone told me early on that I was sort of this master translator. I got my career started in out of home and at ops. And so I was in software and hardware and doing deployments and all that sort of stuff. But always I'm Irish, so I have the gift of the gab and I guess so to speak. But once someone told me that I kind of leaned into it and it was like, there's there's a center point that you can be for people if you can manage both sides of the conversation and be able to translate. At the end of the day, it's being able to meet people where they are, bring them into the conversation so you can help them in their business.