Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.
Today’s edition features an interview with Steve O’Connor, chief executive of outdoor giant JCDecaux and long-standing director of the Outdoor Media Association.
Below, an update on The Unmade Index, with Seven West Media the only victor on a day of broad share price falls.
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How Australia’s out of home advertising veteran is pushing the pivot to programmatic
JCDecaux Australia & New Zealand boss Steve O’Connor has been in the out of home advertising game for a long time - about 30 years, to be precise. It’s been almost 24 years since O’Connor joined the Outdoor Media Association as a director. Five years into his tenure, he was appointed CEO of JCDecaux in 2004.
In today’s interview with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, O’Connor discusses JCDecaux’s journey to digitisation, and its progress in programmatic amid a rapidly evolving out of home landscape.
While O’Connor is largely bullish on programmatic, that does not necessarily mean that all billboards will be digital any time soon. “I don’t think we’ll ever be 100 percent digital,” O’Connor says.
“There will always be a role for classic billboards in regional markets, and a few locations focused on directional or point of sale outdoor - that’s always got a role to play,” he adds.
Also discussed is the ‘long, long term’ objective of a 90-95% split between digital and classic revenues. Close to 10% of JCDecaux’s digital revenues this year have been from programmatic - a sign that the ‘big bet made on programmatic’ is starting to pay off.
“We’re getting a good premium on our programmatic trading,” says O’Connor
The conversation also turns to the long-awaited arrival of the ad industry’s upgraded measurement system, MOVE 2.0, probably next year.
Seven West Media only winner in a down day on the Unmade Index
The Unmade Index, our measurement of the performance of ASX-listed media and marketing stocks saw broad drops in share price yesterday. The Index fell 0.54% to land at 634.9 points.
Of all the stocks on the Index, only one survived the uniform tumble into the red - Seven West Media, which rose by 3.95% on the market yesterday. It comes after SWM fell 3.8% just the day before.
After a couple days of positive action, Southern Cross Media’s share price fell 2.63%. Communications agency holding group Enero saw a 2.8% drop, while the three largest companies on the Index - Nine, Domain and Ooh Media - fell 0.76%, 0.90% and 1.56% respectively.
Time to leave you to your Thursday.
Audio production was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.
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Why JCDecaux's Steve O'Connor is bullish that programmatic will make a difference in outdoor