When Alex Ewing was growing up in Purcell, Oklahoma, he could tell how close he was to home by spotting certain billboards from the car window. Now, as CEO of OneScreen.ai, he’s enabling startups like fintech company Ramp and technical recruiter Karat to advertise on billboards and beyond.
“I think billboards are cool and help bring creativity back into marketing,” Ewing shared with journalists. “They are like canvases for marketers in a way a digital screen isn’t.”
The Role of OneScreen.ai
Ewing joined the Boston-based OneScreen last year. The company operates as a software-enabled intermediary between startups and out-of-home (OOH) advertising slots, such as billboards and subway ads. OneScreen assists startups in selecting the optimal ad placements based on their target audience, leveraging demographic and historical data on the platform. The company also utilizes anonymized location data to help businesses measure the success of their campaigns.
OneScreen has secured $4.7 million in funding from investors, including Asymmetric Capital Partners, Techstars, and Impellent Ventures, among others. The company is currently profitable and tripled its revenue last year.
The Rise of OOH Advertising
Billboards and other OOH marketing methods are becoming increasingly popular, especially among startups, Ewing noted. OOH advertising spending in the U.S. is projected to reach $9.3 billion this year and nearly $12 billion by 2029, according to Statista.
But why would a B2B company like Ramp choose to advertise on city buses or inside subway cars?
Ewing explained that companies are shifting their focus back to OOH advertising strategies after years of concentrating on digital marketing. He mentioned that privacy regulations and the ability to block digital ads have reduced the effectiveness of online advertising for many businesses.
“B2B, B2C, companies everywhere from Series A, Series B, [companies that are] really well funded or publicly traded have said, ‘we can’t invest what we’ve been investing in digital anymore, the ROI isn’t there,’” Ewing said. “It continues to get more and more expensive and it’s getting less and less effective.”
This type of advertising builds brand recognition, which can be more effective for B2B companies than it may seem, even if the majority of viewers aren’t likely to become customers.
In February, Hila Perl, director of strategic communications at Papaya Global, told journalists that B2B HR startup Papaya bought a $7 million Super Bowl ad for this exact reason.
“It’s not a lead generation move,” Perl said about the ad. “It’s not so we can sell more. Obviously, yes we want to see a very direct ROI but we all understand this is a brand building or a brand awareness play, it’s not a lead generation play. In my mind it’s always a marathon rather than a sprint.”
Targeting the Right Audience
While OneScreen can’t control who sees an OOH ad, Ewing said his company can help businesses reach a targeted audience. B2B companies can provide OneScreen with a list of target customer companies, and OneScreen’s technology will develop a strategy that includes ad placements near their target companies’ headquarters or along their employees’ commuting routes. It uses anonymized cell phone tracking data to gauge reactions to the ad, such as increased website traffic from those who passed the ad compared to those who didn’t.
The downside is that the ROI on OOH ads is harder to track compared to digital ads, where it’s easier to connect the dots between a click and an online purchase. However, the hope is that seeing a New York MTA bus wrapped in a Ramp ad will be more effective than a cold sales pitch email.
“There is nothing more powerful than seeing a company and brand in the real world,” Ewing said. “If you get that in front of the right people, that can be a powerful way to soften the beachhead for inbound or to simply just drive leads.”
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