OOH Uncut Podcast: Adam Malone
Adam Malone, Co-founder & President, Screenverse, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the podcast featuring leaders in the Out of Home media space.
May 23, 2023
Adam Malone Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hi everybody. Rick Robinson here with PJX Media and today's guest is Adam Malone, President and co-founder of Screenverse. Hi Adam. Say hello to everybody.
Adam Malone: Hey everybody.
Rick Robinson: Good to have you mate. All right, look, the purpose of this podcast is to talk about what brands want from out of home and I'm starting by asking a simple question. What can out of home do that no other media can do?
Adam Malone: Well, the first thing I'll say Rick, is that I don't think out of home is for every brand at least in every stage of its development. But I do think that brands that are interested in creating permanent brands and going mainstream should consider ooh and should consider it early in the development of those brands.
Rick Robinson: All right, let's get underneath that. You said permanent brands. Can you define that? What is a permanent brand?
Adam Malone: Yeah, I think you certainly know it when you see it, right? If you go into any major city today, you'll see that Apple has dominated those skylines with beautiful wallscapes and have established a major presence. Nike, a major ex-client of yours has done wonderful work in this way just to establish themselves as an omnipresent force in our lives and in the cities where they make these major investments. You can sort of juxtapose that against a lot of the hundreds or thousands of direct to consumer brands that's sprung up in the last three to four years. These brands, I would consider ephemeral brands that built their sales and built their businesses in ephemeral media. And it's not to say that some of those brands didn't ultimately break through. But many of them haven't and they capped out what they were capable of doing.
Rick Robinson: All right, so if I’m reading that what you're saying here is that out of home can create this lasting presence for a brand. It puts wind at its back. Is that it or is that going too far. Am I interpreting you right?
Adam Malone: I think that's right. And I would go a step further which is… it (ooh) makes it one of the tools that helps brands make themselves real, right.
Rick Robinson: Okay.
Adam Malone: you know, in a digital experience in Facebook and Instagram and these are wonderful platforms and you know folks use them and folks effectively advertise through them but when you're using those, those are personal experiences that you have in the quietness of your own home or in your own car. However, you consume that type of media, but it's not a shared experience. And in many ways, it doesn't feel real. It almost feels like It's so personalized to you that you don't know if the brand that's trying to sell you a new cooler or the new polo shirt is being seen by anybody else, whether it's been sold 50 times or 50,000 times.
Rick Robinson: Do they only have one, you know, what's their inventory supplies? The three units, right? Or is it a warehouse full of inventory?
Adam Malone: Yeah. And where is it coming from and how long will it take to arrive if I do click through and ultimately buy? I mean there's power in that thing but I do think that the brands that have transcended you know that world and those platforms and have been making more of a statement in physical spaces in the real world, those are the brands that have a lot more staying power over time, you know? The sign of a popular d2c brand today is if they get picked up and sold in a Walmart, or a Sam's club or Costco that is, that's when it becomes a real company and a real brand in many cases. And I think that, you know, showing up on a real physical retail shelf is sort of like if you're a service provider, let's say you're a lawyer and you start a law firm and you have a couple of clients and you do it out of your home office. I think it feels a little different when you actually, you know, rent a space and you hang your shingle and you establish your presence on Main Street. And so I think of it in the same way in terms of brands establishing their presence in the real world.
Rick Robinson: So if out of home can help brands feel real, right? Because of this presence in the real world. Why does that happen? Like what happens with a consumer? What happens with the public when they see a brand in out of home?
Adam Malone: yeah, I mean in many cases, You know, the branding that's done in the physical world or that's done out of home you know, it is near a point of purchase the relevant point of purchase and so there is an opportunity to create that brand building magic moment, but also in terms of, you know, moving from marketing into actual sales into nudging a consumer behavior, where somebody actually makes makes the purchasing decision or makes the reservation or buys it, you know, buys a ticket or downloads an app and does all those those things that we ultimately want our consumers to do. So, I think that there's tactics and strategies to talk about, for, how to make that happen But you know look you don't have to go too much further than a mainstay in the out of home world, you know, something like Cracker Barrel, one of the largest advertisers in our space historically and you know, it's directional signage on the highways and they built a tremendous QSR business fast, casual, you know, sort of business on the back of out of home. So there it doesn't have to be announcing a new brand or driving to a new store opening or a flagship store or anything like that, you know, there's hard working out of home media out there nudging folks in the right direction to make purchasing decisions all day every day.
Rick Robinson: All right, well, we heard it here: out of home gives a presence. Gives a permanence, makes a brand feel almost legit in a way that there's wind at its back. And that happens because it's out in the public space, its within context and we're seeing it concurrently in the real world, which gives it proof of life. So I don't know if those were your words,…
Adam Malone: I was gonna say I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you, Rick.
Rick Robinson: All right. Well, awesome to have you. Have a terrific day, mate. Thank you.
Adam Malone: All right. Keep fighting the good fight Rick.
Rick Robinson: Thank you!
