Gas Pump Giant Gilbarco Buys Gas Pump Media Firm Outcast

January 13, 2014 by Dave Haynes

One of the big boys in the gas pump hardware business has bought one of the big boys in gas pump media.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Outcast Media, with Outcast operating as the media business unit of Gilbarco.

Says a release this morning:

Gilbarco’s Applause TV delivers high entertainment value to keep consumers coming back and effective advertising content to grow awareness and retail sales. Retailers will benefit from the acquisition as Gilbarco and Outcast introduce new forms of media designed to grow c-store sales and enhance a consumer’s experience while fueling.

This deal will fuel growth of Outcast’s national network currently reaching a monthly audience of 36 million viewers measured by Nielsen, which rivals the delivery of top broadcast TV shows. The network will now have more immediate access to Gilbarco’s customer base of over 60,000 retail fueling stations and will grow to more than 100 million monthly viewers over the next two years.

“In 2010, we chose Outcast as our media partner for its industry leadership and innovative vision: building the largest and most targeted video network for reaching the on-the-go consumer,” said Michael Schulte, president North America from Gilbarco. “The addition of Outcast to Gilbarco’s team allows us to work even more closely with them on technology innovations like consumer targeting that will help our convenience store customers reach and engage consumers and compete against other channels.”

Matthew Stoudt, CEO of Outcast added, “The deal represents an unprecedented investment in both Outcast and the fuel space from the clear leader in fueling technology. Today, Outcast’s network reaches the equivalent of a top-10 weekly primetime show. Based on current adoption rates of Gilbarco’s embedded fuel dispenser media solution, our advertisers will soon reach the same number of viewers as a SuperBowl ad every month.”

Gilbarco Veeder-Root, based in Greensboro, N.C., is very big in retail fuelling. Its gear is at 19 of the top 20 convenience store operators in the U.S. 

Based in Santa Monica, Outcast has some 20,000 screens nationwide.

No word provided on the dollars/terms of the deal. These guys have been working together for quite some time, so it is no shock. 

The fun will now begin, though, for a group of media people getting integrated into a company dominated by engineers and people who do fuel dispenser deals with retailers.  It CAN work, but there will likely be some BIG culture shock on the Outcast side. Some people will embrace the more disciplined engineer culture. Others will do the “I’m outta here …”

The whole media screens at gas pump thing has never really excited me, but networks like Outcast have grown pretty large in scale.