Samsung Expanding Its Programmatic Ads Platform To Include Digital OOH Screens

August 23, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Samsung is getting directly into the Digital Out Of Home space as more than just a major supplier of commercial display hardware – bringing on an industry veteran as its first Director of Programmatic DOOH.

The electronics giant has appointed Matthew Mercuri to the gig, banking on his recent experience running the Broadsign Reach programmatic platform.

I just saw this on Linkedin as a new job announcement, and it did not come with an explanation of what that all means. But a little Googling got me to a job posting referencing Samsung expanding into DOOH:

Samsung Electronics is driving innovation in the media landscape through its proprietary Samsung Ads platform, which leverages unique first-party data to help marketers reach audiences across desktop, mobile, and TV. The Samsung Ads platform is now expanding its capabilities into the DOOH market, leveraging its unique ads platform and its market position as a leader in digital signage hardware.

The Services Partnership Group is looking for a Business Development Director to help lead Partnerships efforts for the Samsung DOOH Ads platform. This role will be responsible for engagements with key strategic partners that will enable the Samsung DOOH Ads platform offering and ensure solutions are best-in-class.

This position will drive partnership negotiations from beginning to end, including:

The Director will also be expected to have a well thought-out point-of-view on Samsung’s DOOH GTM strategy, industry trends. and market opportunities for the business. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in DOOH advertising, with a strong understanding of ad technology, data, and the programmatic ecosystem, as well as existing relationships across partner categories.

This is Samsung adding a new market or platform to an existing business, as opposed to getting into something brand new. The Samsung Ads platform and ecosystem is already in place for smart, connected TVs and mobile devices. If you have a reasonably new Samsung TV that’s connected, chances are you have seen ads in the navigation/start-up areas at the bottom.

The big pitch is that the platform offers: “The Power of TV Meets the Precision of Digital: Our powerful combination of Samsung Smart TV and mobile device ecosystem means the reach you love in linear, plus the precision of digital.”

I dunno how all this works, and based on the job posting, that’s part of Mercuri’s charge to figure that out. But I assume it means venues that have Samsung displays with embedded system on chip smarts, commercial or consumer, can conceivably monetize those screens by opening up the inventory to programmatic advertising. I also dunno if this only works if the network is on MagicINFO or the entry-level CMS it has for its Business TV program … or if the CMS being used (or maybe even hardware) is a determining factor.

In theory, Samsung Ads could enable placements all the way from single screens in hair and nail salons to vast LEDs in Times Square, or at sports venues. Samsung has, in recent years, become a major competitor for large format LED, both indoor and outdoor.

We can assume getting into DOOH advertising reflects an effort to broaden revenue sources for the B2B side of Samsung’s display business. In the digital signage sector, Samsung has evolved from just being a hardware supplier to one that also provides CMS software and services.

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