When Alex Ewing was a child in Purcell, Oklahoma, he knew how close home was based on the billboards he could see from his car window. Now, as CEO of OneScreen.ai, he helps startups like fintech Ramp and technical recruiter Karat advertise on billboards and more.
“I think billboards are cool and help bring creativity back into marketing,” Ewing told TechCrunch. “They’re like a canvas for marketers in a way that digital screens aren’t.”
Ewing joined OneScreen in Boston last year. The company is a software-enabled intermediary between startups and out-of-home (OOH) advertising slots like billboards, subway ads and more. OneScreen helps startups find the right placement for ads based on the potential customers the company wants to reach paired with demographic and historical data on the platform. The company also uses anonymized location data to help the company track campaign success as well.
OneScreen has raised $4.7 million from investors including Asymmetric Capital Partners, Techstars and Impellent Ventures, among others. The company is now profitable and tripled last year’s profit.
Billboards and other types of OOH marketing are on the rise, especially for startups, Ewing said. OOH ad spending in the US is expected to reach $9.3 billion this year, according to Statista, and is predicted to reach nearly $12 billion by 2029.
But why would a B2B company like Ramp want to advertise in classic consumer ways like outside city buses or inside subway cars?
Ewing said the company is looking to return to its OOH advertising strategy after years of focusing on digital marketing. He added that regulations around privacy and targeted advertising, and the ability to block digital ads, make online advertising strategies less successful for many.
“B2B, B2C, companies anywhere from Series A, Series B, (companies that are) well-funded or publicly traded, say, ‘we can’t invest what we’ve invested in digital anymore, the ROI is not there. , ‘” said Ewing. “It just keeps getting more expensive and less effective over time.”
What these ads create is more effective brand recognition for B2B companies than people might realize even though the majority of people who see the ad will not become customers.
In February, Hila Perl, director of strategic communications at Papaya Global, told TechCrunch that B2B HR startup Papaya bought $7 million in Super Bowl ads for the right reasons.
“It’s not a lead generation move,” Perl said of the company’s ad buys. “It’s not so we can sell more. Obviously, yes we want to see immediate ROI but we all know this is a brand building or brand awareness game, not a lead generation game. In my mind it’s definitely a marathon rather than a sprint.”
While OneScreen can’t control who sees OOH ads, Ewing says his company can still help companies reach their targeted audiences. B2B companies can give OneScreen a list of their customers’ target companies and OneScreen’s technology will create a strategy for them that includes advertising slots near the target company’s headquarters or where employees can check in and out. It uses anonymized mobile phone tracking data to see how people respond to ads through metrics like website traffic from people who pass through ads compared to those who don’t.
The downside is that ROI on OOH advertising cannot be tracked as easily as connecting the dots between people clicking on a digital ad and then making an online purchase shortly after. But 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 companies and brands in the real world,” Ewing said. “If you get that in front of the right people, it can be a powerful way to soften the blow for entry or just drive a lead.”
