Rapid Growth for OOH Specialist billups

Independent out-of-home (OOH) ad agency billups has announced dramatic revenue growth of 73.8% in Q1 for its strategic, measurable campaign solutions; and says it has added 156 staff over the last twelve months, bringing total headcount to 365. The stats in part reflect a number of acquisitions.

New York-based billups describes its mission as 'making Out-of-Home as automated and attributable as the most effective digital ads'. The firm combines patented scientific targeting, OOH measurement and an AI-powered recommendation engine to help advertisers, agencies and media owners optimise their promotion and monetization of the medium. During 2024 it acquired Brussels-based independent OOH agency Outsight; expanded to ANZ with the acquisition of New Zealand OOH agency Billie Media and to the UK via the buying of Mediabridge Global; and launched attention metrics which assess how well traditional and digital OOH units stand out in their environments.

The firm says it plans major expansions to its technology capabilities and global scale before the end of the year, including the launch of an enhanced technology suite with 'breakthrough' advancements in measurement, creative and attention optimization.

The company now operates in nineteen countries with new operations in New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Mexico and India, and is due to add launches in Latin America and the Middle East shortly. Half of billups' 156 new staff are based in EMEA and the rest split between North America and APAC.

'As the world's largest independent out-of-home agency, billups is helping shift the channel from a secondary spend to a strategic pillar by delivering outcomes, not just impressions,' says Global CEO David Krupp. 'Our focus on best-in-class execution, data-led planning, and clear accountability builds the trust needed for brands to invest more confidently in the channel. billups is proving that a dedicated, strategic focus and proprietary technology can unlock greater value and better results. As a result, many of our clients now allocate up to 15% of their media budgets to OOH, well above the industry average.'

Ranganathan Somanathan (pictured), the firm's Global Chief Growth Officer says billups 'combines strategic planning, contextual creative, and advanced measurement tools to connect real-world exposure with real-world action', and comments: 'billups is reframing out-of-home as a performance-driven channel that can influence every stage of the customer journey, not just the top of the funnel... Leading-edge solutions, such as our attention and attribution tools, prove that OOH can do more than reach - it can convert.'

The firm has patents for viewability scoring, factoring in travel speed, obstructions, dwell time and viewing angles; predictive behavioral audience targeting using mobile data signals; and computer vision models that determine exact placement coordinates and viewing opportunities.

Web site: www.billups.com .