In the past, Kiwi-owned outdoor media solutions company, Go Media, has typically held more of a back stage role in some of the nation’s most memorable outdoor campaigns. Now the company is putting itself in the spotlight and is on a mission to become a household name. StopPress catches up with Managing Director Mike Gray and Director of Development Dean Shaw to find out why it’s time to tell their story.
With 23 years in operation, Go Media has a long history of supporting other brands to tell their stories via outdoor advertising. So when Go Media was tasked with finding a sponsor for the stadium previously known as Mt Smart, the company decided it might be a perfect fit.
This, along with launching the ‘Way to Go’ digital screen network across Greater Wellington rail station platforms, and extending support to New Zealand Football by partnering with the Ford Football Ferns for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, Go Media is doing what it does best – getting people’s attention – but for its own brand this time.
“We want to become a household name, but it’s only through repetition that you achieve that,” says Managing Director Mike Gray.
Given Go Media’s sponsorship of sports across various markets and codes, it seemed a logical step for the company to secure naming rights for the stadium where the tenants played, and the Auckland-based stadium, where they were viewed as a neutral naming rights partner presented a prime opportunity, says Gray.
“By having your story told, by taking the naming rights, we got to start to tell the story of the business.”
These sponsorships aim to demonstrate the growth that the business has enjoyed, particularly over the last three years, as well as building the largest large-format digital OOH network, a talented team, and an audience measurement system.
Since the beginning, Gray and Shaw have been on a mission to position the New Zealand company as a leader in the outdoor industry, despite being told it was impossible.
In the face of rivalry from international corporations, they remained steadfast in their belief that a New Zealand-based company could secure a prestigious contract like the Wellington train and bus agreement.
“We wanted people to realise we’re not a small business,” Gray emphasises. “We’re the largest New Zealand-owned [outdoor media company], and we’re actually world-leading in many respects.”
Their determination is evident in the meticulous design of the ‘Way to Go’ network, comprising 49 top-of-the-line 4K 75″ LCD screens strategically positioned at the most bustling train stations in Wellington, providing an unparalleled platform for captivating advertisements.
The network also supports the display of six-second full-motion videos as well as animated or still artwork. It’s ad-spec is also optimised for compatibility with smartphones, enabling the effortless integration of smartphone creative into an outdoor campaign.
“All of the screens are 3X40 by 60 format which is like your phone in portrait mode, so any creative that’s designed for a mobile phone will scale to these screens easily,” says Shaw.
Reach, Frequency, and Total Audience volumes have also been thoroughly evaluated and qualified for this network and to facilitate programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) buying, Impression Multiplier data is available for every hour of the day of the week through platforms like Hivestack and Vistar.
As for the future, “watch this outdoor space”.
“For us, we want to keep going. We want to win more of these major contracts,” says Gray. “We’re tenacious, we’re determined, we’re ambitious, we’re persistent, we work really, really hard, but we’re also innovative. We want to become number one, and I think we are already number one in certain aspects of our industry and category.”
