OOH Uncut Podcast: Marc Borzykowski
Marc Borzykowski, CEO, Vector Media, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the 5-minute podcast featuring OOH advertising experts from the media world.
Europe vs. US: Compared to Europe, the US OOH market suffers from:
Lower share: Europe consistently exceeds 5% share, while the US struggles to reach 4%.
Urban density: Higher density in Europe makes OOH naturally more accessible.
Digital privacy: GDPR in Europe may indirectly benefit OOH by limiting digital ad targeting.
Mass transit usage: OOH thrives on public transportation, which is more widely used in Europe.
Regulation: Lack of regulations on signage in the US drags down the perception of the whole medium.
OOH needs to bridge the gap with digital:
Proof and convenience: OOH needs to improve performance measurement and attribution to compete with digital's ease of tracking.
Common language: OOH lacks a unified measurement system, making it difficult for clients to compare across campaigns.
Pricing models: Exploring alternative pricing models could entice more brands to use OOH.
Marc Borzykowski Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hello everybody Rick Robinson here with our final episode of season 2 of OOH Uncut. Today's guest is Marc Borzykowski. He is the CEO of Vector Media. Say hello to everybody Marc.
Marc Borzykowski: Hello.
Rick Robinson: Great to have you here, mate.
Marc Borzykowski: Thank you for having me. I didn't realize I was the last episode. I'm grateful to be here.
Rick Robinson: Oh Yeah, You're gonna wrap it up strong. So There are a lot of positive things people can say about Out of Home -. it's larger than life. it's out in the public space. It's got better measurement and amplify social media. There's more digital than ever. You can do speed to market very easily and the list goes on. So it's all of those awesome factors in play and a lot of investment in development of those over the last several years. Why is it that out of home media is stuck at 5% market share?
Marc Borzykowski: So I think it's a great question. Obviously the answers multifactorial. I've listened to several of your guests this season each of whom laid out variety of really valid and good reasons. So I'll do my best to try to break some new ground, but if I can't then at the very least I'll try to approach. a slightly different angle For starters, I think as far as I can tell, 5% is probably optimistic right? We're probably closer to three to four percent here. Maybe 5% worldwide. I think the good news is our format is the only traditional one that's growing. The bad news is that our market share really hasn't been growing.
So in essence every other traditional format is losing eyeballs and therefore losing dollars, but most of that is moving to digital. So I guess maybe a good place to start is do we deserve to be under five percent and I think we have ample reason to believe that I think we have indications. If you look over the rest of the world, if you look at Europe, they're consistently over five percent. If you consider simply the amount of time we have people's attention right between Transit. I am an outdoor time, we're talking about 13% of their time you consider that screen time is up about 12% over the past decade digital revenues have more than quadrupled right? And then if you look at just some of the largest and smartest advertisers in the world and they're consistently spending more than five percent many of them are so, as I thought about the question as I think about it, maybe two areas to focus a little bit on our what's different about Europe.
And how do we stack up to digital? And how can we maybe better compete for those dollars since that's where so many of the dollars seem to be migrating to as a, fall out of other play.
Rick Robinson: So let's break that out then what is different about Europe?
Marc Borzykowski: So I think there's certain things about Europe that are different that maybe that aren't gonna change The urban density is higher. Yes, it's less Suburban, but then I think there's other things that maybe are a little bit more helpful to look at if you look at the digital protections over there that affect digital advertising gdpr, I think there's reason to believe that as more privacy concerns in the states result in more legislation that ultimately, will be a benefit for out of home. I think mass transit tends to be viewed differently in Europe.
It's because that density it's more relied on and I'd also say that I think Europe there's a lot better job of regulating legal signage, I think we do have a problem in this industry where you have, just a vast array out of home and some of it's really good out of them and some of it, is less and I think that ultimately drags down the whole medium when?
Rick Robinson: So your points Is that in markets Where the share is higher? the digital protections on personal data Of making harder to use mobile.
Marc Borzykowski: Yeah.
Rick Robinson: For example. more population density acceptance of mass transit which leads to the use of that Medium and in general to put it bluntly there's parts of the US which are perhaps overbuilt right where they're Maybe
Marc Borzykowski: I would say over Health but also unregulated right or not even regulated you have regulations that just aren't enforced and aren't followed and…
Rick Robinson: sure.
Marc Borzykowski: I think It ultimately drags down the perception of the medium when every storefront every street corner is littered with, advertising some of which is actually, Brad.
Rick Robinson: complying essentially completely and then speak to how we stack up to digital.
Marc Borzykowski: Sure, so when it comes to digital, I mean I think've in our business, the digital advertising is driving everything. We've seen shorter Windows, different terms in the way that advertises are buying I think ultimately and maybe it's because I came from a legal background. It most mostly comes down to proof and convenience in my opinion. Right we need to do a better job of a performance of our media as relative to other media. I know we'll do attribution studies and we can show certain aspects of how it might perform relative to not having that out of home. But we're not often in a position at least, where we're recent to be able to compare it to the other out of home in the program and to all the other media and in the program right to be able to say this campaign, extracting for all other variables. The difference was this much out of home versus this much and this much lift, we have a lot of.
It's interesting to see the way that the legal category almost uses out of home Performance Marketing, it's not just brand right they're able to actually, Roi and…
Rick Robinson: Sure.
Marc Borzykowski: it's interesting to see the way in which they measure it and I think not being able to speak with a common language and I think not being able to really drive home those points. it's not a wonder why people have moved to digital right? It's not in many ways. They can get a tow in a way that you can't with that at home, we may want to explore different pricing models, right? there's
Rick Robinson: Here, I'm not look I think you're getting at something there, which is really I can call pipes right the speed and precision of our medium the ease to access and immediately understand. What's happening and that goes back to a unity and the industry? and that's a theme that has cropped up right? It's just hard to do it fast and accurate and if I could I would because I'm speaking as if I'm a brand. Hey, I love out at home. everybody loves a great billboard. Everybody loves a big out of home moment, and I'd buy more of it if I could prove it better. So let's creep into what season 3 is going to be about here on out of home uncut which it will give you a little room on that. What do we do about it? what does this industry do? To try to get past 5%
Marc Borzykowski: It's a great question. how do we get past that? I think we need to experiment and I think we need to try more different things than we are currently.
Rick Robinson: and we just interrupt by the industry collectively.
Marc Borzykowski: I mean the industry together. Obviously, I think everyone said it before it is hard to compete with the 70% market share when you're fighting amongst all the different companies within a space right clawing over each other for that four percent rather than really collectively coming together. maybe.
Rick Robinson: They're finally happened because you're not the first to say it. Everyone talked about. Hey, we need to come together. We need benchmarkings and measurement because we're all measuring all kinds of different. Yeah, I views of the same thing. None of it's really blowing our clients. Okay, let's be honest. We bring form these appreciation studies. They're late and they're kind of mad. Sometimes it's useful, but it's really not doing what we needed to do. How do we bring people together? I know I'm putting you on the spot more.
Marc Borzykowski: sure now you are but I think a lot of this is the role for trade associations in our space. Certainly, right? This is big. They're the ones who are taking budgets from all these companies to try to fight the common interest and I do think they're doing no good job, and we've made a lot of strides in the last few years, but I think there's some area. I know there's been talk for years about, a universal ratings language that is the same language is other formats, I like to see better regulation of non-conforming out of home from the trade associations. So I do think There are things we can do but it's going to involve, people coming together and that's been a challenge.
Rick Robinson: All right, and that's the theme and I think we're all hopefully finally getting into the point where we recognize. That's what's next and in order to overcome some of these things you talk about the examples we've seen from other countries in particularly the European region. The demand from the pure digital side saying look give us need and precision. We want ease of access and quickly understand what the outcomes are. And we do those things then the inherent gravitus or medium can pay off Mark. I want to thank you for your time. I appreciate your input you help begin conversation for what will be season three in 2024, and I hope people wonderful holiday. Take care of yourself.
Marc Borzykowski: Thanks, Rick.
