Australian ad tech company Veridooh expanded into the UK in late 2022 as part of its mission to take its independent out-of-home (OOH) verification solution to new markets around the world. Veridooh’s proprietary and patented solution, SmartCreativeTM, independently collects the data needed to track, measure, and verify the performance of DOOH campaigns.
Since launching more than two years ago, Veridooh is already a preferred verification partner for GroupM, Omnicom Media Group, and IPG Mediabrands in Australia and its clients include global brands such as Unilever, McDonald’s, Google, Amazon, Mercedes, Pepsi, and Sony.
As part of its UK expansion, cofounder and co-CEO Mo Moubayed relocated to London. New Digital Age recently spoke with Moubayed about the company’s growth journey to date and his views on the global marketplace for OOH advertising…
How did you and your business partner decide to launch Veridooh?
Originally, my co-founder, Jeremy Yang, and I set out to launch our own digital out of home network, with digital screens on top of vehicles. We went around to media agencies in Australia to pitch the idea. Every time we spoke to an agency, they would ask, “How do I know if my ad played?”
We kept on hearing that question over and over and, at first, we didn’t do much about it. We presumed that this challenge must have been solved by the industry already. However, there was no independent verification solution available at the time, instead advertisers were relying on self-reporting from the media owners. At one point, we presented to a major agency/client team in Australia and they told us they would spend in our network if, you guessed it, we could prove that their ads had played. We came back with a proof of concept that impressed them.
This brand was spending literally millions of dollars on OOH every year, so they said, could we help them verify their DOOH investment instead? That was a lightbulb moment for us, so from that day forward we put all our focus into building what is now called Veridooh.
The DOOH sector is set to be worth US$56 billion globally by 2026. Before Veridooh launched, less than 5% of DOOH campaigns were being independently verified, usually with physical spot-checks of sample screens. Our SmartCreative technology was built to solve this by providing independent verification for 100% of a DOOH campaign. Then in 2022, we added programmatic DOOH and physical inspection to our capabilities so that brands and agencies can independently verify their OOH campaigns across any format.
How does Veridooh’s technology work?
Using the Veridooh dashboard, clients have full visibility over their campaigns with access to more than 400 metrics. This includes location, plays, exposure time, and share of time, which clients can use to analyse and optimise their campaigns. SmartCreative doesn’t require integration with media owners, which means it can be used anywhere in the world. Our tech verifies digital, programmatic, and static OOH, paving the way for new levels of confidence and transparency in OOH advertising, helping to unlock further revenue for advertisers, media agencies, and media owners.
What prompted your move into the UK marketplace last year?
The UK market is the third biggest advertising market in the world. It’s huge. Even against a backdrop of slower-than-average growth for the UK ad market in general, DOOH advertising is still being projected to grow by 6%. The strength of the UK market means there is an exciting opportunity for Veridooh to grow rapidly and we’re excited to tap into local expertise to help us build our partnerships in the UK.
The advertising industry understands the value of our independent verification solution. We are already seeing strong interest from all stakeholders in the UK industry, including advertisers, specialist media agencies, and media owners.
Traditionally, OOH has been known as a brand building sort of medium, but I think it’s moving closer and closer to becoming a performance marketing medium as well. A key strength of OOH is that it can do both very well. Airbnb, for example, provides a really great case study for how ‘brand building’ with OOH can actually deliver an amazing ROI.
Why do you think your solution is important for the OOH advertising marketplace?
Having independent verification means you can remove any doubt around the performance of digital out-of-home advertising, bringing it in line with the verification standards of other digital channels. Verification increases transparency which, in turn, increases trust in the channel.
More trust equals more revenue and, with marketing budgets being realigned right now the OOH industry has a great opportunity to make its move. OOH has a chance to grow from being 4% or 5% of a brand’s media mix to closer to 8% 0r 9%. We think independent verification will be a key hygiene factor in making that goal a reality.
