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June 15, 2023

Don't Adjust Your Dial, This Is AI-TV: How TAIV Is Disrupting Place-Based CTV And Winning With Sports Audiences With Avi Stoller, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer

Today’s guest is Avi Stoller, co-founder and chief revenue officer of TAIV, a place-based ctv disruptor that uses AI to perform maybe one of the most agreeably useful tasks for humanity - changing the channel on the TV during commercial breaks.

Find out how drinking beer and watching playoff hockey led to building AI that changes the channel during commercial breaks in sports bars during the biggest moments in sports to position brands front and center at the right place and right time.

Here’s a fun fact for you - 94 of the top 100 most-watched pieces of television programming last year was a sporting event. 82 of them were NFL games. Now, think about how many tv commercials you see playing on tv’s in public places. Now think about how many of those are in sports bars and consider the ability to automate changing the channel on all of those TVs as soon as they go to commercial break and infusing more timely and relevant content.

Check out TAIV on AdScout by clicking here.



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Chapters

00:00 - Tave

11:39 - Scaling a Rev-Shared Digital Out-of-Home Network

22:41 - Bridging the Gap in Out-of-Home Advertising

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.361 --> 00:00:07.089
Welcome to Out of Home Insider, the first podcast for media and marketing executives that connects how offline attention drives conversion.

00:00:07.089 --> 00:00:17.106
My name is Tim Rowe and for the past three years I've been interviewing guests about their unique insights, bridging this misunderstood and undervalued opportunity for brands to create alchemy in the real world.

00:00:17.106 --> 00:00:32.347
Today's guest is Avi Stoller, co-founder and chief revenue officer of TAIV, a place-based CTV disruptor that uses AI to perform maybe one of the most agreeably useful tasks for humanity Changing the channel on the TV during commercial breaks.

00:00:32.347 --> 00:00:46.411
Find out how drinking beer and watching playoff hockey led to building an AI that changes the channel during commercial breaks and sports bars during the biggest moments in sports, to position brands front and center at the right place during the right time.

00:00:46.411 --> 00:00:55.487
Here's a fun fact for you 94 of the top 100 most watched pieces of television programming in the United States last year was a sporting event.

00:00:55.487 --> 00:00:58.088
82 of those were NFL games.

00:00:58.088 --> 00:01:02.930
Now think about how many TV commercials you see playing on TVs in public places.

00:01:02.930 --> 00:01:14.427
Now think about how many of those are in sports bars and consider the ability to automate changing the channel on all of those TVs as soon as they go to commercial break and infusing more timely and relevant content.

00:01:14.427 --> 00:01:18.831
Tave is spelled T-A-I-V because they put the AI in TV.

00:01:18.831 --> 00:01:20.183
So that's the big idea.

00:01:20.203 --> 00:01:25.269
I'd like you to consider What is the secret sauce that makes you and what you do so special?

00:01:25.269 --> 00:01:29.490
It doesn't have to channel-changing a AI that even David Ogilvy would love.

00:01:29.490 --> 00:01:31.079
It can be absolutely anything.

00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:34.079
It can be your unique way of developing creative concepts.

00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:39.531
It can be how you work with partners to unlock unprecedented value for your clients.

00:01:39.531 --> 00:01:42.808
Whatever it is, own it and let the world know about it.

00:01:42.808 --> 00:01:48.623
Speaking of letting the world know, for the very first time in Out of Home Insider history, you can check TAIVon on tryadscout.

00:01:48.623 --> 00:01:49.948
triadscoutcom.

00:01:49.948 --> 00:01:57.013
Search TA-I-V on triadscout or click the link in the show notes wherever you're enjoying this conversation.

00:01:57.013 --> 00:01:58.801
So, without further ado, let's go.

00:02:33.610 --> 00:02:39.276
Well, i imagine it's like the same way that a lot of people get into Out of Home.

00:02:39.276 --> 00:02:42.068
It kind of fell into it by accident.

00:02:42.068 --> 00:02:56.485
This wasn't something that was a goal of ours as a company or a goal of mine personally, but we ended up creating a product and then we ended up realizing that the product was an Out of Home advertising network by accident.

00:02:56.485 --> 00:03:08.831
We approached it from a little bit of a different perspective, so it might make more sense for me just to give you a quick timeline of how our company came to be, why we created what we created and then that ended up being classified as Out of Home.

00:03:09.139 --> 00:03:13.734
Because you started out similarly, actually, to a recent guest.

00:03:13.734 --> 00:03:16.501
They started out as a consumer product.

00:03:16.501 --> 00:03:22.552
What they discovered was that businesses were buying this consumer product as a CMS.

00:03:22.552 --> 00:03:25.168
You kind of flipped that.

00:03:25.168 --> 00:03:33.436
You started out as a service to businesses and then pivoted into a digital Out of Home network.

00:03:33.436 --> 00:03:34.558
Is that correct?

00:03:34.558 --> 00:03:35.139
Yeah, exactly.

00:03:36.584 --> 00:03:45.973
And it wasn't like a super intentional pivot, but I think a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of businesses that get created, especially ones with Nobel ideas.

00:03:45.973 --> 00:03:55.866
You end up building something and you think your customers will use it in a certain way and it ends up being completely different than your originally intent.

00:03:55.866 --> 00:03:56.590
It's interesting.

00:03:56.590 --> 00:03:57.965
You kind of have to follow the market.

00:03:57.965 --> 00:04:00.808
You don't really get a control of how people use or what you build.

00:04:00.808 --> 00:04:07.586
You create something, you put it into the market, you iterate on it and then the market kind of dictates who you really are.

00:04:07.586 --> 00:04:08.865
It's not really the other way around.

00:04:08.865 --> 00:04:20.865
So absolutely What we did is we're sitting in a sports bar watching a hockey game This is the Winnipeg Jets, who are currently in the playoffs.

00:04:20.865 --> 00:04:22.009
Go Jets, go Jets.

00:04:24.663 --> 00:04:35.689
But this was like five years ago or something like that Watching the TV and drinking Corona beers and having a good time, and all of a sudden we look up at the screen, tv cut to commercial break.

00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:45.827
There's an ad for Boston Pizza, a competitor sports bar network, and they were advertising their $5 Corona's.

00:04:45.827 --> 00:04:54.526
And there's a Boston Pizza down the street And here we are drinking like our like I think it's like a $7 Corona or something like that We're thinking to ourselves man, this makes absolutely no sense.

00:04:54.526 --> 00:05:00.749
What a terrible experience for the bar that we're in, selling us more expensive Corona's, and we could have just gone down the street.

00:05:00.839 --> 00:05:08.187
So the competitor their TV spot was running during the commercial break And the sports bar you were in.

00:05:08.187 --> 00:05:15.774
the competitor to the bar, you were in their commercial was running while you were watching the game advertising a cheaper beer than the one you were drinking.

00:05:16.677 --> 00:05:16.959
Yeah, exactly.

00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:19.507
So it kind of smashed us in the face.

00:05:19.507 --> 00:05:33.187
It wasn't like some yeah I mean, yeah, it kind of just presented itself And you know, our CEO, noah Polanski, you know, was like wait a second, what if we let's find out how the restaurant feels about this?

00:05:33.187 --> 00:05:38.303
So we talked to our manager and of course the manager says how much they hate, you know, the commercial break.

00:05:38.303 --> 00:05:39.610
They have no control over it.

00:05:39.610 --> 00:05:41.360
It provides harmful branding.

00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:47.206
They'd love to have their own specialists up on those screens during the commercial breaks instead of having to play their competitor.

00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.329
Because, to this point, like that's the challenge, right?

00:05:51.329 --> 00:06:04.728
Either I have a, i have a screen that's playing the game and I just have to go along with whatever plays during commercial break or run over and change the channel, or I just have to have a dedicated screen that only plays an ad loop.

00:06:04.728 --> 00:06:06.170
That's the alternative.

00:06:06.230 --> 00:06:08.944
Absolutely, That's the only alternative.

00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:16.646
And the reality for all the bars and restaurants too, at that point is I'm paying an arm and a leg for Direct TV.

00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:25.589
They're charging me, or Comcast or whatever the version is up and front of it, And I am and I'm paying for this.

00:06:25.589 --> 00:06:32.406
These are my screens, this is my audience that I own, and I have no control over the whatever branding and marketing plays.

00:06:32.406 --> 00:06:40.009
I can control every single inch of my bar and restaurant to make sure it's the experience and the atmosphere that I want to build for my customers.

00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:47.434
And I pay for the service and they turn around and then they harm my atmosphere and my marketing and branding efforts by playing that one.

00:06:47.434 --> 00:06:56.733
And so so started the idea TAIV and and a year and a half of research and development.

00:06:56.733 --> 00:07:10.752
when it's a building with this brand new piece of technology that no one has ever done before, which is this piece of hardware that connects between the you know TVs and can basically change the TV input and switch.

00:07:10.752 --> 00:07:22.091
it'd be like a smart channel changer, so that someone doesn't have to manually switch the TV, switch the TV channel during those commercial breaks using AI for something actually useful changing the channel during commercial break.

00:07:23.129 --> 00:07:23.916
Exactly, exactly.

00:07:24.701 --> 00:07:26.168
Can I get this for my own TV?

00:07:26.168 --> 00:07:33.701
It would be probably a little bit more than you want to pay, but absolutely That would be pretty cool.

00:07:33.742 --> 00:07:35.127
Avoid commercials altogether.

00:07:36.512 --> 00:07:38.480
Or just see the ones you want right Like that's.

00:07:38.882 --> 00:07:47.291
There's relevancy to that, to just showing someone commercials that they're interested in content, that they're interested in ads that they're interested in.

00:07:47.291 --> 00:07:50.605
Just they're not opposed to ads, just make it relevant.

00:07:51.860 --> 00:08:23.853
Very smart person told me not me, it was actually giving a talk yesterday or the day before in Miami at the possible conference that I just came back from really fun time And they said that a good TV commercial is not doesn't get a bad rap like most commercials do or most ads do, but if it's respectively relevant to the consumer and it's done in a thoughtful way and out of home can be a really fun place and a really awesome fun canvas to use to create those experiences for the consumers.

00:08:23.853 --> 00:08:26.901
Good TV commercial is a conversation starter.

00:08:26.901 --> 00:08:28.084
It adds to the atmosphere.

00:08:28.084 --> 00:08:30.007
It doesn't take a week from the atmosphere.

00:08:30.007 --> 00:08:40.438
However, tv commercials and the TV networks have no ability to change the creative home environments.

00:08:40.438 --> 00:08:56.889
In bars and restaurants and other businesses They play the same app that doesn't really make sense to play, that would play in a household that's designed for households, that relies on audio that basically, is meant to be consumed in a completely different environment.

00:08:57.299 --> 00:09:04.485
Sure, and potentially for a different audience altogether, depending on the setting, in the context and all of those things.

00:09:04.485 --> 00:09:23.182
So okay, so we went from being a way for bar owners to get their own content onto the screens and then we hijacked the remote control and we got really smart and we're using AI to change the channel, which allows you to then hijack that commercial break run.

00:09:23.182 --> 00:09:26.471
Your own content Is hijacked the wrong word Are we going to get ourselves?

00:09:26.471 --> 00:09:28.823
I want to get into trouble here.

00:09:29.806 --> 00:09:37.374
Well, i just think hijack is this negative thing where we're like going, we're stealing, we're not stealing anything.

00:09:37.374 --> 00:09:56.230
Those commercial breaks are still playing, it's just someone's changed the channel and switched to PVM, and a lot of bars do pay for a DJ or somebody to actually manually change the audio and change the channel during commercial breaks and during things, and all we're doing is exactly that, just automatically.

00:09:57.231 --> 00:09:58.153
Not hijacking.

00:09:59.160 --> 00:09:59.985
Not hijacking.

00:09:59.985 --> 00:10:01.111
We're not taking anything.

00:10:01.111 --> 00:10:02.399
We're not really taking anything.

00:10:03.263 --> 00:10:06.313
I appreciate you challenging that and adding clarity to it.

00:10:06.313 --> 00:10:10.907
We're not hijacking commercial space, but what we are doing is we're changing the channel.

00:10:10.907 --> 00:10:19.297
We're creating an ad opportunity in a captive environment with some high value contextual relevance.

00:10:19.297 --> 00:10:21.621
I want to be seen next to this programming.

00:10:21.621 --> 00:10:36.384
You have this existing network of business owners that were using version one of the hardware, which was not intended as this digital play space, ctv ad delivery technology.

00:10:36.384 --> 00:10:39.370
How hard was that to start?

00:10:39.370 --> 00:10:42.878
Was it a forcing function?

00:10:42.878 --> 00:10:49.895
How did you go from being a technology company serving businesses in that sense to an ad platform?

00:10:51.119 --> 00:10:56.011
There was a forcing function and it was really, really hard.

00:10:56.011 --> 00:11:01.326
For us, the silver lining was COVID, covid hits all the restaurants close their doors.

00:11:03.371 --> 00:11:06.864
Restaurants aren't willing to pay for this anymore and replace it with their own stuff.

00:11:06.864 --> 00:11:09.860
They have to go into their version of survival mode.

00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:20.666
Suddenly, we realized we built something that restaurants are just not going to pay for right now.

00:11:20.666 --> 00:11:26.620
We had always known that there's a potential to sell advertising to support the system.

00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:28.686
Give it to the restaurants with free, in fact.

00:11:28.686 --> 00:11:39.807
Why don't you share some of the revenue with them but have advertisers pay for it and maybe the restaurant gets some of the time to still promote themselves, but the majority of it's advertising-based.

00:11:39.847 --> 00:11:45.408
During COVID, we have a long period of time where restaurants and bars just flat out weren't open.

00:11:45.408 --> 00:11:48.837
That's what we did I embarked on.

00:11:48.837 --> 00:11:54.130
I started having conversations with other founders in the community and the YC community.

00:11:54.130 --> 00:11:59.870
These entrepreneurs, startup communities that were involved in started learning a little bit about it.

00:11:59.870 --> 00:12:03.633
But, man, is that a learning curve that I don't still feel like?

00:12:03.633 --> 00:12:05.961
I haven't really finished learning about?

00:12:05.961 --> 00:12:10.918
It took a long time, but thankfully we didn't have any business to.

00:12:10.918 --> 00:12:16.905
No business could use that product because we were in the middle of everyone getting shut down due to the pandemic, especially bars and restaurants.

00:12:19.133 --> 00:12:20.277
For us, it was a silver lining.

00:12:20.277 --> 00:12:21.902
You know what we discovered.

00:12:21.902 --> 00:12:27.259
Advertisers are so incredibly thrilled to play really targeted out of home.

00:12:27.259 --> 00:12:31.393
What at CTV, in-stream video, whatever you call it?

00:12:31.393 --> 00:12:33.782
The consumer doesn't really care what it gets called.

00:12:33.782 --> 00:12:43.567
All they know is that they're watching a professional sports game and all of a sudden, the commercial break happens and there's something entertaining that's actually designed to work in that environment.

00:12:43.567 --> 00:12:45.714
We can make way more money doing that.

00:12:45.714 --> 00:12:51.913
We need to give some of that money back to the restaurants who don't operate a high profit margin business at all.

00:12:51.913 --> 00:12:57.548
It just ended up being so much better for every single party involved.

00:12:57.548 --> 00:12:59.952
That's how we fell into out of home.

00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:02.143
Pretty cool story.

00:13:02.143 --> 00:13:13.287
I think it is particularly relevant, understanding how much the out of home landscape has evolved over the last five to seven years.

00:13:13.287 --> 00:13:24.047
On this Hayek Forward model of hey, let's work together, it's a win-win-win It's a win for the business, it's a win for the company and it's a win for the brand.

00:13:24.047 --> 00:13:31.828
No one gets hurt along the way This opportunity to potentially scale this out now.

00:13:31.828 --> 00:13:39.447
So you've gone from being a hardware company with a SaaS revenue model to now being a rev-shared digital out-of-home network.

00:13:39.447 --> 00:13:44.663
Where was the footprint and how has it changed since those early days?

00:13:45.985 --> 00:13:50.135
Well, the early day footprint was essentially Canada because that's where we're from.

00:13:50.135 --> 00:13:59.172
We might have we had a customer too in Mountain View, california, in Silicon Valley, because that's where we were living at the Tundra, actually by a coordinator.

00:13:59.172 --> 00:14:03.774
But essentially it was all Canadian inventory, sass, sass.

00:14:03.774 --> 00:14:07.874
So I wouldn't even call it inventory necessarily, because that's not how we looked at it.

00:14:07.874 --> 00:14:11.717
In that way We had a bunch of Canadian bars, restaurants, covid happened.

00:14:11.717 --> 00:14:20.224
Covid shut down all of our bars and restaurants in Canada And I don't know how familiar you are with the way COVID was handled in Canada.

00:14:20.224 --> 00:14:21.629
But we did not open up that at all.

00:14:21.825 --> 00:14:24.355
Really one of the strictest lockdowns in the world?

00:14:24.576 --> 00:14:26.062
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

00:14:26.062 --> 00:14:34.448
So we made all these changes and invested in and became an ad-supported visual at a home network.

00:14:34.448 --> 00:14:37.115
But we didn't have any opportunity to grow in Canada.

00:14:37.115 --> 00:14:43.991
So the three of us kind of sat together I'm talking about the three founders, mel and Jordan and I And we're like Hey guys, what are we going to do?

00:14:43.991 --> 00:14:45.190
We can't wait any longer.

00:14:45.190 --> 00:14:52.212
I mean, so you keep on opening up and then you come back down and just sit there and where is the most least likely place to close down?

00:14:52.212 --> 00:14:56.374
And we're doing a bunch of research and we fell on Florida.

00:14:56.394 --> 00:14:56.774
Florida's.

00:14:56.875 --> 00:14:58.931
Ron Desant Ron Desant is at the time.

00:14:58.931 --> 00:15:03.672
He said he's like we're going to sue anybody that locks down more than I say you're allowed to lock down.

00:15:03.672 --> 00:15:07.294
And we're like, holy, this sounds like a place that would be good for us to grow our business.

00:15:07.294 --> 00:15:17.729
And the next month I landed in Florida for the first time in my life and we started growing our first network, which was in South Florida, miami, and from there we went to Tampa.

00:15:17.729 --> 00:15:19.605
We did So.

00:15:19.625 --> 00:15:30.315
We've done top DMAs in Florida and then we moved over to Texas because we're still kind of like, just in case COVID comes back, we should probably stick to these, you know red states that we think are going to be most likely to remain open.

00:15:30.315 --> 00:15:39.745
So we did a couple of markets in Texas, that's, austin, san Antonio, we recently did Phoenix, and now we're at the point where we're scaling any markets.

00:15:39.745 --> 00:15:41.150
We don't really have to worry.

00:15:41.150 --> 00:15:45.292
We're not knocked on the wood, we're not worried that anything bad will happen in our restaurants.

00:15:45.292 --> 00:15:48.412
We close down, we can kind of just scale whatever market might be best for us.

00:15:49.465 --> 00:15:52.553
Talk about why Combinator and startup incubators.

00:15:52.553 --> 00:16:02.474
We don't have a lot of startups in out of home relative to kind of the rest of the world of marketing and marketing technology.

00:16:02.474 --> 00:16:11.118
When I was at a company called One Screen, we went through Techstars with the Minnesota Twins And there's a few of these startup incubators out there.

00:16:11.118 --> 00:16:18.496
but for anyone that's listening that maybe doesn't know what Y Combinator or startup incubator is, how would you describe that?

00:16:20.427 --> 00:16:23.336
It's a three month boot camp.

00:16:23.336 --> 00:16:27.850
You have to apply and you have to get in, and the acceptance rates are usually quite low.

00:16:27.850 --> 00:16:31.096
For the top ones like Techstars Congratulations.

00:16:31.096 --> 00:16:32.831
That's not an easy one to get into as well.

00:16:32.831 --> 00:16:36.495
That's one of the like that is in the top group of startup incubators.

00:16:36.495 --> 00:16:38.770
But essentially you apply.

00:16:38.770 --> 00:16:45.758
If you get accepted, you move, or you know, maybe not necessarily move, but you meet with your partners.

00:16:45.865 --> 00:17:02.813
So you have these incredibly esteemed and successful startup entrepreneurs that understand what it is like to to try to scale a startup, which is different than you know, an established business, in a lot of different ways And they kind of help you and you just go absolutely crazy.

00:17:02.854 --> 00:17:03.436
For three months.

00:17:03.436 --> 00:17:05.673
You basically don't sleep, you have no social life.

00:17:05.673 --> 00:17:24.352
You're there to try to progress the business as much as you possibly can in those three months And often takes a really, really crazy, unsustainable period like that to really kick off a business And you finish it off with the fund raise And then, hopefully by the end of the you know three month program, you're in a spot that is radically different from where you started.

00:17:24.352 --> 00:17:42.191
You've had enough direction and training to really understand how to make proper decisions when it comes to what to do in your business and how to deal with obstacles that come up, and you usually have a pretty reputable name behind you that you're able to use to say hey, i'm a bit more credible than you know.

00:17:42.191 --> 00:17:48.596
A no name company you've never heard before, because you know we were accepted into tech stars, a live call bait or something like that.

00:17:49.525 --> 00:17:50.248
And and how?

00:17:50.248 --> 00:18:02.597
I guess how has that and how is your, your background and kind of stumbling into out of home, How is your perspective shaped, the challenges that you see in the industry today?

00:18:02.597 --> 00:18:09.326
Like, you've got a very, you've got a very unique perspective that can be applied to our problem set And I guess what?

00:18:09.326 --> 00:18:10.248
what stands out to you?

00:18:11.411 --> 00:18:13.897
Yeah, totally, it's a great question.

00:18:13.897 --> 00:18:26.113
So you know, typical startup advice is you make a product that people want Like that is like a tagline for YCom there Make an actual product that people actually want.

00:18:26.113 --> 00:18:36.189
You make the best product or something that actually provides business value to the person using the product And you're able to scale it up.

00:18:36.189 --> 00:18:41.922
You're actually solving somebody's problems with a clever solution, something that no one's done before.

00:18:41.922 --> 00:18:48.771
And if you do that and that's all you need to focus on, then everything kind of takes care of itself.

00:18:48.771 --> 00:18:57.221
Then there's a way to you know, as long as you communicate that properly, your sales is solved and your business continues to scale.

00:18:57.923 --> 00:19:02.136
However, in the other home industry Right apply that lens out of home.

00:19:02.136 --> 00:19:06.266
Well, it works a little different because there's a bit of a disconnect.

00:19:06.266 --> 00:19:15.236
The majority of advertising spend is controlled by agencies who have their own set of priorities and not really the end advertisers.

00:19:15.236 --> 00:19:23.414
Often what's best for the actual client or advertiser isn't necessarily what gets chosen.

00:19:23.414 --> 00:19:26.846
It was really hard for me to wrap my head around that at the end.

00:19:27.042 --> 00:19:43.299
So, like a really good example that I can think about, is you know, in regular business or in a startup world, if you make your product like free or super cheap way undervalued, you should theoretically grow as much as possible.

00:19:43.361 --> 00:19:45.296
Businesses should be thrilled to hear about that.

00:19:45.296 --> 00:20:06.205
However, when you talk to an agency, if you're not charging enough that it's worth their time or effort and there might not be enough in it for the agency, they might not use you Interesting And that's like kind of seems counterintuitive because you think like the best possible thing for the advertiser might be like a very undervalued or even free ad platform that actually drives business results for them.

00:20:06.205 --> 00:20:15.136
Yet that's not what gets chosen by the agencies, who are there to like choose what's in the best interest of the clients or the advertisers, right.

00:20:15.136 --> 00:20:18.244
So it's really.

00:20:18.244 --> 00:20:43.777
It was a little bit frustrating and it's still something I'm trying to wrap my head around, but I think something in this industry that's There's a lack of knowledge between a sophisticated advertiser and what the agency is doing, and the agency has its own set of like priorities and difficulties and obstacles that it has to kind of go through, like the fact that they don't have a lot of time to do things they can't.

00:20:44.069 --> 00:21:00.981
Sure The balance in 20 different projects and emails and there's a fire And I would love to, i want to be strategic and I want to do those things but oftentimes really stretch thin under resourced and there's not a lot.

00:21:00.981 --> 00:21:08.328
Back to kind of the initial question about Y Combinator Relative to the rest of the world of marketing technology.

00:21:08.328 --> 00:21:19.902
There are not a lot of companies in out of home solving for some of those challenges that would allow buyers and agencies to be more strategic and to consider some of those things.

00:21:21.672 --> 00:22:12.759
Yeah, and what I found that actually gets results, since I've been in the space, is obviously having something that, okay, i'm being completely honest, if you have a product that sounds like it's going to work more than in reality, that logically might work better and you are Really good friends with the person and the person likes dealing with you, the amount of influence those two things can have compared to, racnally, what the absolute and effective marketing channel or the way that the product is, it matters a lot more, and so it's definitely a new style of way to kind of grow and way to sell than I've been used to.

00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:29.958
If you offer to take somebody from the tech world out to a sporting event or to go golfing or something like that, it might be seen in a very negative way.

00:22:30.390 --> 00:22:31.192
Oh, interesting.

00:22:31.192 --> 00:22:39.692
So I'm a SaaS sales development rep and I'm trying to win a deal, so I take someone out to a fancy lunch.

00:22:41.155 --> 00:22:46.785
Yeah, yeah, i mean, it's not as prevalent in the industry.

00:22:46.785 --> 00:22:49.315
You'd have to approach it very delicately.

00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:53.631
And yeah, I'm just Person out of home.

00:22:53.631 --> 00:22:54.053
That's just.

00:22:54.053 --> 00:22:56.080
Hey, let's go get lunch.

00:22:56.080 --> 00:22:58.107
Right, it's not even a.

00:22:58.107 --> 00:22:59.752
There's no thought given to it.

00:23:00.755 --> 00:23:02.858
Yeah, it's almost Yeah.

00:23:02.858 --> 00:23:05.991
In a way it's a little bit of an expectation, i think sometimes.

00:23:07.275 --> 00:23:09.760
How would you So with that?

00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:13.789
how would you approach bridging that gap?

00:23:16.554 --> 00:23:19.719
That's a Well.

00:23:19.719 --> 00:23:29.624
I think sometimes some of the reason that that is the case is because our industry is very fragmented.

00:23:29.624 --> 00:23:32.980
There is a lot of innovation in our industry.

00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:43.925
There's a lot of new networks that are popping up, different types, even networks that might not fit in exactly perfectly into the other home category, which I would think that we do as well.

00:23:43.925 --> 00:23:57.310
The better that the agencies can get educated on it, the more they can understand it, and everyone's so unique, the better that they can make decisions.

00:23:57.380 --> 00:24:00.025
I don't think it's coming from a bad.

00:24:00.025 --> 00:24:07.931
I don't think the agencies necessarily have bad intentions and I really think they're trying to do the best thing that they can for their customers at all times.

00:24:07.931 --> 00:24:10.003
But I think it's hard.

00:24:10.003 --> 00:24:13.883
Everything is an art.

00:24:13.883 --> 00:24:16.865
It's not a science, it's more of an art.

00:24:16.865 --> 00:24:21.269
It's hard to objectively show oh, this is going to work.

00:24:21.269 --> 00:24:24.028
There's a lot of extrapolation for the future.

00:24:24.028 --> 00:24:45.568
I think the best way that we can solve that is and I don't know how to do it, but I think I can imagine if the person deciding where the add dollars are being placed understands all the tools at their disposal and is able to do it as quickly and efficiently as everybody else, depending on what channel they use.

00:24:45.568 --> 00:24:47.284
I think they make the best decision.

00:24:47.284 --> 00:25:00.071
Maybe that's some other software, or maybe it's a programmatic exchange or something that ends up being the ultimate facilitator, making the market a little bit more efficient in that way.

00:25:01.260 --> 00:25:02.182
How do you think?

00:25:02.182 --> 00:25:05.589
okay, so let's maybe double click into the programmatic piece there.

00:25:05.589 --> 00:25:09.767
I love what you guys do.

00:25:09.767 --> 00:25:11.085
I would love to buy it.

00:25:11.085 --> 00:25:16.306
I want it on every screen, though I don't care whose network it is.

00:25:16.306 --> 00:25:19.226
I want the technology on every screen.

00:25:19.226 --> 00:25:32.017
There's so many of these place-based CTV networks, and programmatic does a great job of aggregating the supply into one format that I can buy over and over and over again.

00:25:32.017 --> 00:25:34.806
But everybody kind of has their unique thing, right.

00:25:34.806 --> 00:25:37.887
Reach TV they're a great place-based CTV network.

00:25:37.887 --> 00:25:40.527
Their hook is that they have exceptional content.

00:25:40.527 --> 00:25:43.886
You guys are the AI channel changer.

00:25:43.886 --> 00:25:46.747
Atmosphere TV might talk about something else.

00:25:46.747 --> 00:25:46.967
Right?

00:25:46.967 --> 00:25:51.730
There's all of these different USPs from all of these different networks.

00:25:51.730 --> 00:25:56.489
How do you think about simplifying that for buyers?

00:25:56.489 --> 00:26:00.786
Where do the networks come together to make it easy for us?

00:26:04.220 --> 00:26:07.606
Every network needs to have a way to talk about themselves.

00:26:07.606 --> 00:26:26.912
but maybe there is a catalog or something like that, because the programmatic networks are doing a fantastic job of facilitating that and allowing people to buy certain screens, but they do end up missing what makes every kind of screen unique.

00:26:26.912 --> 00:26:36.891
It's impossible It would be an impossible task for them to encompass what makes everybody special and unique and pass that on programmatically to the open advertisers.

00:26:36.891 --> 00:26:38.905
I'm just spitballing ideas.

00:26:38.905 --> 00:26:41.488
This is probably a billion dollar question or above.

00:26:43.402 --> 00:26:48.711
Someone listening right now is scribbling on a notepad on how to solve it.

00:26:48.711 --> 00:26:49.313
I don't know.

00:26:49.313 --> 00:26:52.969
I'm just going to continue asking people until we figure it out.

00:26:52.969 --> 00:26:57.550
I appreciate you entertaining it and then fielding it.

00:26:59.743 --> 00:27:22.361
Yeah, but I think if there's a catalog it sounds like a catalog where it's like here are all your options, if you were purchasing furniture and there was one place that you could see all the different furniture pieces and you could see all the different prices and all the different aspects that make each coach unique different materials and construction and sizes and things like that.

00:27:22.361 --> 00:27:26.090
For as soon as it has an analogy, that would be, i think, what's needed.

00:27:26.090 --> 00:27:27.984
It would have to be done through software.

00:27:27.984 --> 00:27:32.448
It could be an interesting product.

00:27:32.448 --> 00:27:33.471
Everybody gets listed.

00:27:33.471 --> 00:27:41.183
It's getting enough adoption that if the buyers end up being the ones to use it, then the sellers will make sure they're on it.

00:27:43.484 --> 00:27:43.967
I like that.

00:27:43.967 --> 00:27:46.766
If the sellers are all on it, then the buyers will make sure.

00:27:46.766 --> 00:27:50.105
There needs to be incentive for both sides to use it.

00:27:50.105 --> 00:27:52.567
Ultimately, i think that would be it.

00:27:52.567 --> 00:27:54.865
Hey, maybe it's an AI thing.

00:27:54.865 --> 00:27:59.601
Maybe you get AI to understand it good enough that you can see that chat, gpt or prompt of like.

00:27:59.601 --> 00:28:02.904
Here's what my business is, here's what I'm trying to achieve.

00:28:02.904 --> 00:28:04.826
Maybe you can make some recommendations.

00:28:04.826 --> 00:28:05.080
Oh.

00:28:05.161 --> 00:28:06.244
I like that one.

00:28:06.244 --> 00:28:07.087
I like that.

00:28:07.087 --> 00:28:13.444
It was funny getting to this point in the conversation, remembering back that Avi and I had talked about this.

00:28:13.444 --> 00:28:20.032
We recorded this episode a few months ago, but I was already thinking about AdScout at the time.

00:28:20.032 --> 00:28:30.388
It's cool to hear us talking about something that was percolating, but that is the mission, the purpose and intent of AdScout.

00:28:30.388 --> 00:28:34.230
What Avi just described that's literally what we're building.

00:28:34.230 --> 00:28:45.749
Last night I was working on a chatbot that is built off of generative AI and it scanned every page on triadscoutcom.

00:28:45.749 --> 00:28:52.324
I was having intelligent conversations with it about what partners were the best fit for the use case, et cetera.

00:28:52.324 --> 00:28:56.088
Very cool to hear that section.

00:28:56.088 --> 00:28:59.988
I just wanted to share that little bit of an editor's footnote with you.

00:29:00.147 --> 00:29:01.371
That'd be interesting Yay.

00:29:02.442 --> 00:29:05.721
I'm over here talking to chat GPT every day, trying to teach us something new about Ad Home.

00:29:05.721 --> 00:29:11.589
Maybe in my next conversation with the computers I'll teach them about you guys.

00:29:11.589 --> 00:29:14.184
Where are you focused right now?

00:29:14.184 --> 00:29:17.549
You said Florida, texas, these Southeastern states.

00:29:17.549 --> 00:29:19.325
Where are you scaling to next?

00:29:19.325 --> 00:29:21.203
How quickly are you growing?

00:29:21.203 --> 00:29:23.886
Give folks an idea of the expansion plans.

00:29:25.111 --> 00:29:45.667
Yeah, we're about 1,500 screens today, 200 million monthly impressions, expansion plans are the big media networks, our big media DMAs New York, chicago, la, our Lady Dallas are slated next.

00:29:45.667 --> 00:30:00.961
That we're planning on doing in the near future We're just going to continue to try to provide brands the ability to do a click over on all the to do, because if they haven't seen it, it's like it's freaking cool, it's and it drives a lot of results.

00:30:00.961 --> 00:30:07.320
I think that there are very few and this is just a shameless plug that I'm just going to go ahead and talk about ourselves with.

00:30:07.320 --> 00:30:19.567
But what makes us unique and what makes us special compared to maybe, other players is I think we're one of the few networks in a home that people actually go to watch those screens.

00:30:20.095 --> 00:30:20.837
I can't think of a very many.

00:30:22.298 --> 00:30:35.525
I think I think movie theaters, you know, so like for the previous, people are actually there to watch that screen And I think in a sports part, people actually go to the sports part of watch to watch the screen and there's screens, people are there everywhere.

00:30:35.525 --> 00:30:41.768
So the amount of engagement we get and being able to, like, play on 40 screen simultaneously throughout the entire venue, i think about that.

00:30:42.075 --> 00:30:47.192
The channel changes to commercial and 40 screens flash to this synchronized creative.

00:30:47.211 --> 00:30:49.539
Yeah, we'll have to link some of the.

00:30:49.859 --> 00:30:51.164
YouTube videos that you get.

00:30:51.164 --> 00:30:55.166
It's like a takeover of the bar during commercial break.

00:30:55.166 --> 00:30:56.029
It's pretty cool.

00:30:57.334 --> 00:31:05.434
Yeah, i think so too, and ultimately, i think it's just an elevator and it's mixed in during premium content.

00:31:05.434 --> 00:31:14.085
I mean, you can't get much more premium than like the current NBA playoffs that are happening right now being able to insert your ad during that kind of creative.

00:31:14.085 --> 00:31:25.448
So what we found is that, you know, once we started doing this and started measuring the success is that, like, we were absolutely blown away with the success that we started for our advertising.

00:31:25.448 --> 00:31:26.900
I think people really do notice the ad.

00:31:26.900 --> 00:31:27.875
It's not.

00:31:27.875 --> 00:31:38.059
It's not an ad that happens to be playing where people are, so if they might notice it, it's an ad that is definitely going to be noticed where people actually are there to watch the screen And it makes a pretty big difference.

00:31:38.954 --> 00:31:46.044
There's someone listening to this podcast right now who's about to start, or has just started, a company in out of home.

00:31:46.044 --> 00:31:54.016
What would you, what advice would you give to the next founder starting a company in the space?

00:31:59.214 --> 00:32:14.621
I really like focusing on the value that you can give to all the parties, both where the inventory is, so, like you know, whoever owns the screens or business where your screens are in the advertiser and the consumer.

00:32:14.621 --> 00:32:18.199
And I would challenge that.

00:32:18.199 --> 00:32:32.709
You know, because of the way the nature of our business, it's not very hard to, you know, talk about a big story, fudge the number slightly.

00:32:32.709 --> 00:32:36.284
You know you can't really prove exactly how many screens the network actually has.

00:32:36.284 --> 00:32:40.023
It's hard to prove that the ad actually plays as much as you say it's going to play.

00:32:40.023 --> 00:32:43.002
It's hard to prove that you know the result actually happens.

00:32:43.002 --> 00:33:07.445
But I'm willing to bet that and my prediction is that that, as you know over time, the more honest and close to the truth you can try to be which is often a challenge as an entrepreneur and as a company you are it will get recognized and will ultimately get rewarded with the trust of the agencies and the advertisers that you ultimately are working with.

00:33:08.596 --> 00:33:11.723
You can think of a better exclamation point to end on my friend.

00:33:11.723 --> 00:33:12.325
Thank you.

00:33:12.325 --> 00:33:14.038
Thank you for an incredible conversation.

00:33:14.038 --> 00:33:15.523
Give folks the Latin long.

00:33:15.523 --> 00:33:17.321
Where do they learn more about TAIV?

00:33:17.321 --> 00:33:18.638
Where do they connect with you?

00:33:18.638 --> 00:33:20.319
Where should folks go?

00:33:22.134 --> 00:33:22.214
go.

00:33:22.214 --> 00:33:25.119
If you want to learn more about TAIV, you can visit.

00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:26.461
our website is TAIV.

00:33:26.461 --> 00:33:33.398
TV, so AI inside the word TV.

00:33:33.398 --> 00:33:35.844
that's kind of where you put that AI in TV.

00:33:35.844 --> 00:33:40.097
That's right, and they can.

00:33:40.097 --> 00:33:40.578
you know.

00:33:40.578 --> 00:33:47.009
if they want to reach out to me, it's my name is Avi AVI at TAIVTV.

00:33:47.009 --> 00:33:49.701
Shoot me a message, add me on LinkedIn.

00:33:49.701 --> 00:33:52.364
I'm happy to have conversations with anybody.

00:33:52.364 --> 00:34:04.407
I love learning And I think it's yeah, i think what we're doing is really cool And I think we can provide some really unique experiences that hasn't been available before for anybody.

00:34:04.974 --> 00:34:06.422
I think that what you're doing is very cool.

00:34:06.422 --> 00:34:11.286
I'm so glad that we've connected and we were able to capture this conversation here today.

00:34:11.286 --> 00:34:13.161
Avi, I can't thank you enough for being here.

00:34:14.297 --> 00:34:19.402
Yeah, i'd really appreciate the time and opportunity, tim, and yeah, it's a lot of fun.

00:34:20.355 --> 00:34:25.547
Very exciting that for the first time ever, I can tell you out TAIV on tryadscoutcom.

00:34:25.547 --> 00:34:27.179
It's linked in the show notes below.

00:34:27.179 --> 00:34:28.740
You can check out TAIV's profile.

00:34:28.740 --> 00:34:34.027
You can go directly to the site and search TAIV or check the show notes.

00:34:34.027 --> 00:34:36.061
It's linked there for your convenience.

00:34:36.061 --> 00:34:39.744
If you found this episode to be helpful, please share it with somebody who could benefit.

00:34:39.744 --> 00:34:41.215
See y'all next time.
Avi Stoller Profile Photo

Avi Stoller

Co-founder, CRO TAIV.tv