- Google-owned navigation app Waze is making a bigger push into
advertising by pitching itself as a digital complement to out-of-home ads. - It announced new features last week, including the ability for advertisers to buy its Zero-Speed Takeover ads programmatically.
- Its sales representatives have been doing the rounds at ad agencies. We compiled slides from recent pitch decks to various agencies where it touts itself as a "digital out-of-home" platform.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Since launching its ads platform in 2012, the Google-owned navigation app Waze has run ad campaigns for several local and big-name advertisers. Now, it's trying to become a bigger advertising platform.
"It's really about coming of age and being clear on our value proposition," Suzie Reider, managing director of Waze Ads, said at a company briefing with reporters last week. "We do one thing incredibly well, which is getting people to locations."
To start, Waze made its Zero-Speed Takeover ad unit available through Google's programmatic suite. Media buyers can now buy the unit within Display & Video 360 - formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager - and target its 115 million users with first, second or third-party data.
Waze also integrated with Google's buy-side ad server Campaign Manager, which lets buyers measure their Waze campaigns against other buys for reach and frequency; and partnered with IRI to measure in-store sales lift for packaged goods.
Waze has been pitching itself as a digital complement to out-of-home ads
Finally, Waze is increasing its play for out-of-home budgets. Waze has been making the rounds with agencies in recent months and offering them incentives to spend more with Waze through its Display and Video Incentives Program, a media buyer told Business Insider.
Last year, Waze named Todd Palatnek as OOH business lead to get ad agencies to increase their OOH buys. It recently partnered with ad holding giant WPP to grow its ad business and make traditional mediums like radio and billboards more contextual and better targeted.
Palatnek admitted that he was "in a major education phase" with agencies, acknowledging that while a lot of buyers used Waze personally, its product and advertising were new to them.
"One of the first things I say is, 'We're not in here to tell you not to buy OOH. We are here to tell you to keep buying it, but utilize Waze as a complement,'" he said. "Traditionally, when you're trying to reach somebody in a car where you have a captive audience... you have radio, and then there's OOH. We view Waze as the third leg of that trifecta."
Business Insider obtained slides from pitch decks that Waze has recently used to sell the platform as "digital OOH" to US ad agencies. The decks tout Waze's audience - 30 million monthly active users in the US and 115 million around the world - and detail how it views the role it plays in OOH advertising, along with examples from brands such as Ikea and Disney.
Here's how Waze is pitching itself to OOH advertisers:
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