Vistar: Media Owner of the Month: GSTV
Vistar | Media Owner of the Month
In the latest installment of our interview series, Media Owner of the Month, we spoke with David Kovall, VP of Digital Partnerships at GSTV. Have you ever checked out the screens at the pump while filling your car’s gas tank? Then you’re already familiar with this ever-expanding network. Below is our Q&A with David where we got to know a little bit more about GSTV and what makes them such an engaging location-based publisher.
Please describe your business - types of screens, regions, and venues in which you operate etc. - and what your network offers brands.
GSTV is a cutting-edge, national video platform, reaching over 93 million unique adults each month across 200+ DMAs.
Using physical screens imbedded in fuel dispensers at 21,000+ retailers, our full sight, sound, motion video network entertains and informs consumers during a natural pause point in their day – while they are fueling up their vehicles. GSTV creates original content as well as partners with leading publishers such as Cheddar, So Yummy, Blossom, The Chive, NFL, NHL, CNet and more. While consumers fuel up, they can watch and listen to our programming which offers a unique opportunity for brands to engage with a captive audience in a verified, viewable, 1:1 environment. In addition to premium video engagement, GSTV’s audience is highly correlated to much higher consumer spending in grocery, big box retail, QSR and other channels -- a fuel up is a surrogate for errands day, the weekly shopping trip, stocking up for the tailgate and so on.
Brands working with GSTV’s robust data capabilities can understand what happens before, during and after someone sees an ad on our network -- did they visit a store, make a purchase, or tune in after seeing a spot. The national digital video network provides access to viewers who are in a buying mindset, and is capable of validating the ROI on media spend. As a result, we see that our ad campaigns deliver meaningful business outcomes like increasing store foot traffic, viewership, sales lift, transaction, and more.
GSTV is redefining the creative and contextual capabilities of one of the fastest growing areas in media alongside leading brand, creative and publisher partners.
Where do you see the digital out-of-home industry moving in the next 12 months?
In addition to delivering on standard media KPIs and objectives, GSTV continues to focus on client outcomes and I think this will be a trend that we will see with DOOH more broadly as the industry evolves. It is one thing to check the box on media objectives like viewability, brand safety, ad completions, etc., but what is more important is driving those business outcomes like visitation lift, more sales and customer acquisitions. GSTV, like all DOOH at its best, combines contextually relevant messaging to consumer’s daily lives, digital-level targeting and attribution approaches through robust data, and collectively offers a massive creative and performance platform for brands to drive real results.
What has been Vistar’s most valuable contribution to your business?
Simply put, Vistar Media has enabled GSTV to be bought and sold programmatically -- just another solution for our clients to work with and buy us. Buyers can easily use Vistar’s DSP and bid on our supply in their open exchange or we can setup preferred PMP deals that give buyers full transparency, priority access to supply and fixed rates. Vistar also powers our programmatic direct/guaranteed solution where we schedule campaigns to run off their ad server. This gives buyers the benefits of a programmatic activation with guaranteed impressions and white-glove service.
What Vistar software capabilities do you find most useful?
Vistar’s planning tools are easy for self-serve buyers. They are also very helpful for GSTV to use when generating a plan around given parameters. If a client wants to see what is potentially available near their retailers and with a specific audience target, we can quickly generate a plan to show estimated impressions. On the reporting side, buyers can easily see impressions delivery down to the zip code and hour. Every day millions of live consumers are viewing GSTV in a 1-to-1 engagement and Vistar’s tools for buyers make it easy to understand campaign delivery.
What is the one thing that you wish more digital buyers knew about out-of-home?
I think many digital buyers may have a dated perception of out-of-home, as synonymous with static signage becoming digital screens and still largely thinking about the screen. The earliest innovations in DOOH were about multiple messages in the same location, weather triggered messages for a sunny day and so on. Those capabilities are correct, but the real power of DOOH is captured by bringing digital strategy to OOH - where is my audience, what is their mindset, how can I reach them in the most relevant and engaging moment to provide some value and how can I measure campaign success? GSTV and other DOOH networks now have true broadcast-level scale, so even with any measure of targeting there is significant audience delivery to generate business impact. For OOH, these once static environments are now digital, attractive, and engaging. Some publishers, like GSTV, are more akin to mobile video or OTT when leveraging audience and creative addressability. DOOH takes the centuries old power of OOH, massive creative canvases and physical context, and combines it with the best of contemporary digital strategy and creativity.
The Drum: Four Unexpected, Data-Driven Media Buys For Quickly Boosting Sales
By Sean McCaffrey | The Drum
Of all the topics that come up in my conversations with brands, agencies, media and data/analytics partners, how to quickly boost sales is always a common one. Even though most brands plan their media spending annually, every marketer should have a deep bench of partners they know have a higher likelihood of driving sales without the long lead. Oh, and that can leverage the most relevant data resources on the market.
For brands wanting to know who they can call today to have a data-enriched campaign running tomorrow (or maybe next week), with a degree of certainty that they’ll see some lift, read on.
To hone the list, I’ve put recency in the crosshairs, which means we’re not talking about TV, mobile, social or any of the usual suspects. Why recency? Recency theory holds that ads are most effective when they air “immediately before the time of decision” per Nielsen. Brands shouldn’t overlook recency when considering where to place media, especially if making the sale is their immediate goal.
Paul Macaluso, chief executive at the fast-growing quick-serve restaurant Krystal, told QSR Magazine last week that recency is one of the most important elements of restaurant marketing.
“We need to be in front of people when they’re thinking about food or when they’re hungry. It’s just not TV anymore,” he says. “Certainly not predominantly TV anymore.”
Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. Here are a few to consider.
Intersection’s Link kiosks
With a monthly reach of 44m (Source: Geopath), anyone walking the streets of New York or London has seen a Link kiosk. It’s the sleek digital obelisks that offer beautifully displayed content, free wifi, phone calls, device charging and tablets for local search. These are savvy technologies that are only growing in number.
And given that almost every major retailer, QSR/fast-casual, finance, travel - and so many other business categories - sell in New York and London, Link is a recency goldmine. In these urban markets, you can combine recency with proximity - consider a promotion for financial services. Link makes sense for consumers who are directly outside or blocks away from the institution.
Cinema
Cinemas present a unique option among this list because moviegoers are a captive audience, unable to opt-out. They’re sitting down, noshing, and relaxed because all they’re doing for the next 90 minutes is watching a flick. It’s an opportunity for a brand to say hello and ask for their consideration.
With the evolution of the movie theater to include reclining chairs and alcoholic beverages, consumers may be more likely to arrive on time, snacks and all. And for theaters located inside shopping malls, viability goes up further. Monthly reach is 25m and 15.1m for National CineMedia and Screenvision, respectively (Source: Nielsen Media Impact, Sept 2017).
Walmart’s WMX and Kroger’s ClickList Ad Platforms
You’re on Kroger’s ClickList website, or walmart.com searching for cereal, and a sponsored ad shows up for something you’ve bought in the past with a deal if you buy two. Recency doesn’t get any more recent, and advertising here should be a no-brainer for brands selling, or thinking of selling, in either store.
Why is this media buy “unexpected?” Amazon’s AMS/AMG are so well known at this point; I want to call out Walmart’s WMX and Kroger’s ClickList, newer platforms that have the same kind of advertising options (or will). Various news outlets have reported that Kroger is selling ad units and developing a programmatic platform. WMX, by contrast, came around just after AMS and AMG.
There is sure to be a lot of upside for brands that get in early and develop relationships with these platforms, invest, and learn how to take advantage of them early. Hint for media and advertising agencies: if you can help brands do this, you’ll win. The substantial growth brands have seen on Amazon, and the cottage industry of agencies and media companies developing Amazon-specific service offerings is a clear sign the same is sure to happen for WMX and Kroger.
A significant player in the space, Walmart’s WMX sees a unique monthly reach of 103.3m thanks to Walmart.com traffic (Source: comScore, Feb 2018). Kroger's reach data is not yet available.
GSTV
Self-promotion alert, but here’s why it matters. GSTV is the new name for Gas Station TV, a data-driven, national video network delivering targeted audiences at scale across tens of thousands of fuel retailers (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon-Mobil, Kwik Trip, Speedway and more). This format reaches one in three Americans monthly, and know from research that people who are fueling up are very often on their way to buy something else. I could go on, but know there are plenty more reasons to consider GSTV.
All of these businesses have access to best-in-class third-party data resources. They offer all the trappings of du jour digital offerings, without the risk that an off the cuff remark from a celebrity will send stock prices plunging.
And, most importantly, they reach consumers at natural times when a purchase is a likely outcome, times when audiences are potentially in a buying mindset. While there are plenty of media formats disrupting consumers at all other times of day, doesn’t it make sense to reconsider the options that aren’t as disruptive?
Thoughtful application of these unique media offerings could mean a big difference for brands who leverage them appropriately. And in a marketplace rife with fraud, brand safety, and so many other issues, it pays to have tools like these at your disposal.
Sean McCaffrey, is chief executive officer at GSTV