Introducing long time staffer and keen golfer Areef Vohra - he is our Commercial Director. He has spent the majority of his career in media working on the commercial side and has been in OOH a whooping 15+ years - we consider him our resident expert (but we have a few more don’t worry 🤓).
How many years have you worked in OOH? More or less 15 years.
Can you give us a brief history of your career highlights? I have always worked in Media on the commercial side. Starting as a sales exec and moving up through the ranks. My career in OOH started in the UK working for JCDecaux and CBS outdoor (now Global). When I moved to Australia, I worked at APN Outdoor (now JCD) and Eye (now oOh!). I was also ANZ MD of Global barter business Active International. I have run small and large teams, managed multimillion dollar budgets and company P&Ls both here and in the UK.
What interests you most about OOH?I love its uniqueness. As is often said its un-turn-off-able, you can change channels, skip stations, turn the page, turn the page (online or offline), but you can't turn off OOH! In my opinion it's the medium that demands the most out of creative. There is no content to wrap around it so all you have is the quality of the message. A great creative execution can make a campaign transcend the medium. You can't say that about many channels!
What’s your favourite activity outside of work? If I'm not at home with the family, you can usually find me on the golf course. 🏌️♂️
Favourite TV series to binge on or movie you have on repeat? I'm a bit old school…I love the Soprano's, Breaking Bad and also The Newsroom.
Why is transparency so important in OOH? I think that to grow as a medium we need to be able to pull dollars from other channels. As we become more and more digitised and sophisticated in the way we deliver audiences we also need to be better able to deliver the same levels of accountability and trust as the channels that we are hoping to pull dollars from. Independent verification is a cornerstone in delivering that.
How does independent verification at Veridooh work? Without going into the technicalities of it, Veridooh allows agencies and clients to track and verify that every single play on every single panel of their entire campaign has been delivered exactly as booked, 24/7. This level of transparency and accountability, we believe will build greater trust and encourage increased investment in DOOH.
What future predictions do you have for the OOH industry? I think that the inherent immediacy that DOOH can deliver will allow planners to utilise the medium with both proactive and reactive strategies. Such as campaigns that can link POS data to drive traffic as and when needed. Add in updated audience data from multiple access points and we can see DOOH being planned and bought with the same metrics that we use for online campaigns. Then you have a medium that can be used to deliver mass reach through to one that can be fine-tuned to deliver tailored, narrowcast audience impressions.
Want to be featured in our next Q&A? Send an email to thrive@veridooh.com and tell us briefly about your love of OOH.
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