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Michael Scruby is the founder of out of home programmatic platform - Site Tour - who are bringing buying efficiencies and improved advertiser results to the digital out of home space. Michael shares his journey in developing Site Tour and outlines current beta testing with buy side platform - Cadreon. 

Thanks to Michael for getting involved and offering an update on Site Tour's progress....

Breaking (August) - Site Tour Hires Chief Commercial Officer

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• Your Name:  Michael Scruby
• Your Business:  Site Tour
• Your Role:  Founder and Managing Director

Tell us about your role with Site Tour and your career path to date?

I'm the founder and Managing Director of Site Tour. Prior to Site Tour I spent ten years running OOH sales teams for EYE, Clear Channel and others in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. 

What is Site Tour?

Site Tour is the first programmatic platform for OOH media.  For those unfamiliar with programmatic technology, think of it a bit like eBay of media. Programmatic technology facilitates a faster more efficient trading environment between buyer and seller.

Vendors control the way their media can be purchased, setting trading rules around price, access, and availability.  Buyers then set their buying criteria and use layers of data within the system to drive the optimal outcome for their advertiser.  The result is an optimal outcome for both sides - a highly targeted campaign that meets the trading rules of the vendor and the specific buying criteria of the advertiser.  

When you think about it programmatic technology is just an extension of the way media is traded currently, but the transaction takes seconds not days opening up a world of possibility for media owners and agencies.

Media owners can scale their business in complete control, optimising yield and strengthening relationships with their clients.  Media agencies can deliver more targeted campaigns to their clients in a fraction of the time, freeing them up to deliver more creative strategies and spend more time with their media partners.

How has Site Tour evolved to fit in with the media landscape?

Site Tour is built specifically to integrate with other technology platforms in the market.

On the buy side we connect with other DSPs like Brandscreen.

On the sell side, we connect with vendor Content Management Systems and Video players, meaning we can now flight an ad on a digital OOH screen seconds after it is purchased.  

As data is central to smarter decision making, we also integrate with other data platforms to gain deeper insights into the audiences passing the billboards.

Please outline your forward plans for Site Tour?

Without giving too much away there's a lot on the horizon.  We're deep in the OOH vertical working with our OOH partners to solve the problems of workflow, yield optimisation and measurement.

Recently, your beta test with Cadreon was announced.  Can you offer some further insights?

The Cadreon pilot has been a huge success.  Current participants on the sell side include Adshel, Westfield and Executive Channel.  On the buy side of course is Cadreon and the Brandscreen technology.

We're now auctioning OOH inventory in real-time and delivering revenue to the OOH sector that was previously reserved for Online media.  

Advertisers can now target with unprecedented precision, buying on location, audience, context and time of day moments before the ads are displayed.  

What is your opinion on the current media landscape - what state is it in?

It's an incredibly exciting space to be in at the moment.  Automation is going to drive the industry forward on both sides with greater ROI for both advertisers and media owners.  For the people working in the sector it's going to mean a lot less administration and a lot more creative thinking which is what attracted most people to the industry in the first place!

Further Resources

• State of the Media - see other Q&A profiles in this series

• MediaScapes - well known visual guides to a growing range of Australian media channels including digital media, cinema, television, outdoor and mobile billboard media, digital media expenditure - & more.

•  What's On - the best and most worthwhile events, training courses and awards for the Australian media and advertising industry

•  Best Advertising Books - browse & buy our pick of the best books on advertising, sales & marketing - with an Australian focus

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