Digital & Dirt
01:16:48 · Ian Dallimore, Jim Norton, Barry Frey
[01:16:48] S0: us. Right. I agree. You know, programmatic has obviously unlocked the accessibility of out of home inventory. There's a lot of school of thought that says like, oh, we don't have an accessibility problem. But, you know, with the future of automation coming on traditional side and programmatic being brought to the forefront with just digital, do you think our approach is happening where eventually it'll be one in the same programmatic and out of home [01:17:12] S6: as I do. I think it's... First of all, supply exceeds demand today. [01:17:17] S1: Yep. [01:17:17] S6: Right? There is plenty of viable inventory that exists. Demand has been hampered by the fact that we, you know, look at the big holding code trading platforms have not prioritized. You know, there's a long list of things ahead of us, including audio, certainly CTV, retail and commerce media have all jumped the line ahead of us. We're battling to try to get on that product roadmap just for those integrations. Once those are done, I believe as those pipes widen, we are going to see a massive influx of more automated, what I would just consider overall, it's just a more modern way to transact. Right. Right? And that's it.
01:17:17 · Jim Norton, Ian Dallimore
[01:17:17] S6: Right? There is plenty of viable inventory that exists. Demand has been hampered by the fact that we, you know, look at the big holding code trading platforms have not prioritized. You know, there's a long list of things ahead of us, including audio, certainly CTV, retail and commerce media have all jumped the line ahead of us. We're battling to try to get on that product roadmap just for those integrations. Once those are done, I believe as those pipes widen, we are going to see a massive influx of more automated, what I would just consider overall, it's just a more modern way to transact. Right. Right? And that's it. [01:18:01] S0: And we can still, and the next topic, have to talk about AI, but it's more just, you know, how do we approach, to your point, accessibility to inventory, but also tell me a story. Yeah. But how do I capture that market knowledge of an LA in a certain neighborhood that OUTFRONT has inventory and why is this accessible? But do you see the biggest opportunity for AI to improve how buyers plan?
01:18:01 · Ian Dallimore, Jim Norton, Raj Lala
[01:18:01] S0: And we can still, and the next topic, have to talk about AI, but it's more just, you know, how do we approach, to your point, accessibility to inventory, but also tell me a story. Yeah. But how do I capture that market knowledge of an LA in a certain neighborhood that OUTFRONT has inventory and why is this accessible? But do you see the biggest opportunity for AI to improve how buyers plan? [01:18:25] S6: Yeah. I think it's still the workflow on both sides of the desk, honestly. I mean, I have a lot of empathy for the out of home buyers and the specialists who have been understaffed, were buying windows have shortened and there's not the time that they were once given in order to effectively plan and buy and then ultimately measure. And there's just a lot of art to this that it's hard to automate the art. Now, that being said, there's a huge opportunity to remove the super manual kind of swivel chair nature of our industry of like, you know, having to source multiple inventory points and measurement points. And, you know, I'm sure your team sees it on the sell side as well. Just aggregating photography and getting that ready for proof of posting is a big manual challenge for us all. [01:19:25] S0: Yeah, God, we love a spreadsheet with dropdown arrows Just and you can't copy and paste [01:19:30] S6: don't mess with the formulas. [01:19:31] S8: You know, someone [01:19:32] S0: once asked me, they were like, If you could rebuild an out of home company and specifically around National, what's the one thing you wouldn't allow? And I was like, A spreadsheet.
01:19:32 · Ian Dallimore, Jim Norton, David Sable, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:19:32] S0: once asked me, they were like, If you could rebuild an out of home company and specifically around National, what's the one thing you wouldn't allow? And I was like, A spreadsheet. [01:19:39] S6: A spreadsheet, I know. [01:19:40] S0: It'd be gone. So speaking of that, so AI automation, whatever it may be, as that continues to improve, I think one of the most unique things, we just had Nicole from The Trade Desk on. [01:19:51] S9: Yeah. [01:19:51] S0: And she's, and I love this, like you and I sitting next to each other, you and I having a podcast, in what world would Meta and YouTube sit? Oh God. Would be a bloodbath. And let alone be in the same building. [01:20:01] S4: Oh yeah. [01:20:01] S0: So with that, I think one of the unique things about our industry is how we we all play great together. And it's not play nice. It's like, no. Legitimately, if I can buy across Lamar out front and maybe a few other vendors, the automation creates that. It creates the efficiencies that you're talking about. But in your world, I believe the importance of the human relationship become even that more impactful.
01:20:01 · Ian Dallimore, Jim Norton, Doug Zarkin, Craig Brommers
[01:20:01] S0: So with that, I think one of the unique things about our industry is how we we all play great together. And it's not play nice. It's like, no. Legitimately, if I can buy across Lamar out front and maybe a few other vendors, the automation creates that. It creates the efficiencies that you're talking about. But in your world, I believe the importance of the human relationship become even that more impactful. [01:20:24] S6: I agree. Well, because you have to trust somebody's expertise on a particular market, on inventory, why this event makes sense for that brand. There's an inherent level of trust that, you know, performance media, the trust is in the ultimate ROAS number that's being spit out literally daily. Right. Right? And we don't have that benefit nor should we. That's not the role that we play. We can play in that space, but the role that we play is really about how do we help a brand develop a level of trust in an environment that is increasingly becoming distrusted, the media environment, You know, back to that original stat, 93% of people they're questioning whether what they see is real or not. But I think, to your original point about why you and I can sit across from each other, it's back to that, look, we're a $10,000,000,000 industry. [01:21:22] S10: It's crazy. [01:21:22] S7: Why [01:21:24] S6: do we want to punch each other in the face? We Forget collectively need to do a better job of synchronizing around measurement and standards and formats and all of the things we need to do together. That is the rising tide for all of our boats.
01:21:24 · Jim Norton, Ian Dallimore, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:21:24] S6: do we want to punch each other in the face? We Forget collectively need to do a better job of synchronizing around measurement and standards and formats and all of the things we need to do together. That is the rising tide for all of our boats. [01:21:41] S0: Yeah, I would agree with that. And then the only thing I would add is, you guys have out front studios and Lamar has it, importance of creativity. So if you create that automation, now the time is being spent where your sales reps and our sales reps are actively out there going, collaborating, be innovative, being creative thought minds, and not figuring out like, how do we drop down in the carrot and mess with [01:22:02] S4: the Exactly. We're wasting time here. Well, I'll give you a [01:22:04] S6: good example because I saw your team at the Fierce Pharma Conference in Philadelphia. And look at pharma, we know is a massive advertising category. But as an industry, we are nowhere. And so the ability to meet with your team in their booth and they had a beautiful activation, one that I was quite jealous of by the way. To be able to trade notes on like, hey, what can we do to help these pharma brand marketers recognize the role that our industry can play in helping them to build their brand. [01:22:38] S0: Yeah, I would agree. Last two rapid fire questions because I could talk to you all day here. Looking ahead to 2030, what's the one thing about the out of home industry that you think is going to look completely different?