http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/493084-Out_of_Home_Ads_Offer_Pinpoint_Targeting_for_Marketers_Seeking_Elusive_Demo.php

Hartford Courant:

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-out-of-home-america-acquisition-20130404,0,2026004.story

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

http://www.jsonline.com/business/advertising-company-outdoor-first-sold-to-connecticut-firm-us9ejt6-201679021.htm

Milwaukee Business Journal: 

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2013/04/05/outdoor-first-sold-to-connecticut-firm.html

The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/business/media/accounts-and-people-of-note-in-the-advertising-industry.html?_r=0

And an East Hartford firm is on the cutting edge of the revolution.

The folks at Out of Home America in East Hartford are no strangers to the outdoor advertising market. In fact OOHA, founded as New England Outdoor Advertising, has been at it for nearly 30 years.

Although the industry has changed dramatically, OOHA has continued to seek out growth opportunities and find its clients the most efficient and cost-effective way to plan, purchase and produce out-of-home media.

The company — with capitalized billings of about $60 million last year and the hope of reaching $100 million this year — now has about 300 clients ranging from privately owned local businesses to international Fortune 500 companies. Over the past five years, OOHA’s consolidated business has grown at an average rate of 60 percent per year.

Recently, OOHA acquired award-winning Atlanta-based Wilkins Media, creating the largest, independently owned, out-of-home media buying service in the country. Combined, the two agencies have served every industry vertical and operate through dedicated industry coverage teams.

“Wilkins is a leader in applying sophisticated research and measurement techniques to out of home media campaigns,” said Jon Selame, OOHA’s president and CEO. “Wilkins was also the first in the industry to launch an entire division dedicated solely to digital-place-based media. The capabilities that the Wilkins team brings to bear really represented a game changer for our business.”

The acquisition not only gives OOHA a presence in Manhattan, Atlanta and St. Louis, but also creates dedicated research and digital place-based divisions. Selame says the addition of dedicated divisions focused on research and digital also is a game changer for OOHA’s clients.

The research division focuses solely on identifying ways to quantify results and demonstrate return on investment to OOHA’s clients, while the digital place-based division focuses on identifying every single digital out of home opportunity across the country and internationally.

The Wilkins deal played a substantial role in OOHA’s recent growth spurt.

“The addition of the Wilkins business was key to this growth,” said Selame. “Additionally, we are experiencing strong organic growth from our current client base who are seeing the ROI through out of home media. Next, as an industry, we’ve made significant strides in providing audience measurement data on par with traditional media formats.”

In the rapidly changing world of advertising, Selame feels that the out-of-home media industry is performing extremely well, partially due to what he calls the “fragmentation of traditional media formats.”

“The OOH media industry is strong,” Selame said. “Digital media has helped create an environment that limits the consumer’s exposure to all other ‘traditional’ media, leaving out of home the last bastion on the mass media landscape.”

According to Selame, technologies such as the iPad, Netflix, Hulu, and Sirius have transformed the media ecosystem into an environment that allows media to be consumed on demand, on the user’s terms, turning consumption of media over to the hands of the consumer.

“Only a decade ago, media planners needed to make phone calls to only a few traditional media vendors in order to build a plan that could efficiently reach their target demographics,” Selame said. “Due to the fragmentation of media used daily by consumers, integrated, cross-media plans are becoming the standard.”

It is for this reason, Selame says, that the need for expert out-of-home media planners who are experts in the category and proficient with the latest research and measurement techniques is becoming increasingly obvious.

And it is that ever-changing technology that is allowing out-of-home media vendors to explore advertising avenues never before possible.

“We have gone far beyond billboards; now we have research technology that allows advertisers to reach their target audience where they live, eat, shop, and play every day,” said Selame. “Using relevant research data, we map out a typical day in our key consumer’s life and determine how we can best reach them across multiple touchpoints over the course of a single campaign.”

Internally, each of OOHA’s media planners dedicates nearly half of their day to learning about innovative new out-of-home media opportunities, and the office is constantly filled with vendors who are introducing new media formats for the team to consider.

“Our job is to have a pulse on the out of home marketplace and know about every opportunity available to our clients,” Selame said. “By doing that job right, we are able to develop effective and innovative media plans for our clients.”

John Lahtinen is a freelance writer based in Farmington. Reach him at lahts@yahoo.com.

New York (October 22, 2012) – Two of the oldest and most respected out-of-home media leaders have joined forces to create the largest, independently-owned, out-of-home media buying service in the U.S.

Out of Home America (OOHA) has acquired Wilkins Media, fusing the out of home media capabilities of both shops and forming the leading team in the industry.

“Out of Home America is thrilled to be combining with Wilkins Media to fully realize the growth opportunities available in the out-of-home advertising industry, including digital technology, new measurement systems, and add-on acquisitions,” said Jon Selame, President and CEO. “Our clients are served by the strongest team of out-of-home media specialists in the industry today, along with the industry’s most sophisticated research and measurement technologies.”

Selame noted that the combined agencies boast proprietary digital, mobile, and traditional media tools for an industry that includes millions of advertising units. Daniel Wilkins, who was CEO of Wilkins Media Company, now leads the firm’s digital out-of-home division, n2Media, LLC, which focuses on the planning and integration of digital, placed-based, mobile and social media programs.

Clients of OOHA/Wilkins will benefit from the expanded media planning/buying and strategic planning resources of the new firm. “The need for sophisticated planning and buying tools in delivering results through out-of-home media is critical. OOHA/Wilkins is one of the very few firms that have made the hefty investment in the latest research tools,” said Dana Burleson, Senior Vice President, Research.

OOHA, headquartered in Hartford, CT, is enjoying its strongest year in its 30-year history. Wilkins, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, has seen growth as well, with a coast-to-coast presence in Los Angeles, CA, St. Louis, MO, and New York, NY.

Wilkins Media, an award winning media agency, and OOHA have developed best-in-class marketing initiatives for nearly 50 years. The two agencies have served every industry vertical and operate through dedicated industry coverage teams. The senior team is comprised of industry leaders in the fields of research and measurement, digital out-of-home, and non-traditional media formats. OOHA/Wilkins client base serves many of the leading advertising agencies as well as a number of the fastest growing Fortune 100 brands.

“Out-of-home media is significantly under-utilized relative to traditional media formats. As traditional media continues to fragment, the services of an out-of-home specialist will become increasingly critical to successful execution of a media plan,” said Tom Flood, Senior Vice President of Business Development for OOHA/Wilkins.

“The proof is in client retention, where our client relationship averages more than ten years,” said Lisa Weaver, Senior Vice President, Client Service. “The merger of these two client service-centric organizations provides our client partners increased access to customized media planning, leading research, digital out-of-home capabilities and our 50 years of OOH experience.”

The OOHA brand identity reflects the simplicity that Out of Home America conveys, making Out of Home media more accessible to advertisers. The new identity also represents the commitment that OOHA is making to its clients: to leverage the latest technologies in an effort to provide leading measurement data.

Moira McNally, Director of Sales, explained that: “Out of Home advertising can be a daunting task, from identifying the various media formats and vendors to negotiating rates and ultimately ensuring media performance. OOHA specializes in making Outdoor advertising simple and measurable. Our new brand identity is designed to reflect our value proposition.”

Founder

Loretta M. Berry is devoted to the Outdoor Advertising industry. She began her business career serving as traffic manager for a few small Hartford based ad agencies. In 1975, she joined Griese Companies, a privately owned Outdoor Advertising firm in New England. After eight years, in 1983, Loretta’s entrepreneurial spirit arose and Out of Home America was founded.

Loretta is active in mentoring women entrepreneurs. She is an avid gardener, a sailor, a dog lover and a Block Island “beach bum”.

Jon Selame took over as President & CEO of Out of Home America in January 2012. Prior to purchasing OOHA, Selame led Merger & Acquisition activities at Global Advertising Strategies, a New York City-based full service advertising agency.

In August 2012, OOHA Purchased Wilkins Media Company. The combined organization, now known as OOHA Wilkins, is the largest independently owned OOH media agency.

Jon holds a Masters in Business Administration, with a major in Marketing, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Finance and Economics from Franklin and Marshall College.

Jenelle joined ooha in 2008 and currently works with many of our banking, automotive and retail clients to manage their out-of-home campaigns nationwide. She researches, plans and implements media programs tailored to her clients’ specific needs.

Jenelle graduated from Bryant University with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

In her “down time”, she enjoys traveling, hiking, painting, and cooking.

Account Executive

Melissa joined ooha in 2006. Her responsibilities include market research, client liaison, and proposal development. She is in constant contact with clients, outdoor companies, and agencies to ensure the integrity of each client’s out of home advertising programs.

Melissa graduated from The University of Connecticut earning a bachelor’s degree in Communications.