Fresh from yet another acquisition, OohMedia's chief executive says the outdoor business is not an old out of home company, rather it's morphed into a new technology and media player.
Speaking with AdNews after its purchase of digital display network Executive Channel Network (ECN) for $68.5 million, CEO Brendon Cook explained the recent string of acquisitions are all part of the greater strategy from the business, which sees it embody the traits of some of the newer kids on the block rather than heritage media.
“We have a very specific plan about how we see out-of-home moving in the next five to 10 years,” he says. "We're working to build our assets and capabilities around that plan, so we see ourselves as a new technology and media player, we don't see ourselves as an old out-of-home company.
ECN specialises in CBD screens in office building lifts, lobbys and car parks, which show a stream of news, the weather and also advertising. It has screens in nearly 300 locations.
Ooh says the acquisition creates a combined network of more than 3,500 screens reaching a premium business audience of over 1.8 million per week.
ECN is just one of four purchases made by OohMedia this year, with the firm taking 25 businesses into the fold over the last decade.
The two most notable deals are fellow display network Inlink and youth-focused publisher Junkee Media. Cook says that its recent buys are further bolstering out the core capabilities of the business, while giving Ooh the scale it needs to be a true audience player.
“We look at it [out-of-home] as an audience medium. We're no longer going to be briefed on buying a billboard or buying a bus stop, they’re [advertisers] going to look at an audience play, so we identified the office audience some time ago as a really good environment.
“We're now in the position where we can elevate the office media sector even further than what it's been and bring that extra level of innovation around content,” he added.
As part of the ECN announcement, ECN is forecast to contribute more than $8m of EBITDA to Ooh in 2017 including approximately $3.2m of estimated cost synergies forecast to be realised in 2017.
When asked about the cost efficiencies, Cook says those final details are still being worked out, noting however that Ooh is a growth business and a lot of the changes will steam from ensuring that clients have one touch-point and platform to benefit from all these offerings.
Another facet to the acquisition is opening up a “placement” of some 12.6 million shares to fund the purchase. The hope is to raise $60m to partially pay for the investment in ECN and Cook is positive that they'll be interest from investors.
“Out-of-home is an extremely strong place, in a disruptive world our audiences are growing.
“Technology is enabling us to do more – the data poor industry is increasingly becoming the data rich industry and that is helping us to deliver for our advertisers the value they need, so we’re very confident the investor community will look kindly on the placement.”
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