When the company formerly known as Giggle Entertainment Network rebranded to Shoptalk at the end of last year, it signalled more than a name change.
The Wellington based digital out of home operator had spent several years building what is now a 1,200-venue national network, and the rebrand reflected a business that had outgrown its origins as a regional entertainment screen operator.
One of the more telling indicators of that growth is Medtalk, a dedicated healthcare-focused network that now spans more than 165 medical venues across New Zealand, encompassing pharmacies, medical centres, and collection and pathology labs.
It’s among the fastest-growing parts of the wider Shoptalk platform, and it points to how the digital OOH sector is increasingly finding its way into environments that have historically been underserved by out of home advertising.
Built to meet people’s needs
Founder Jazz Kiihfuss says the healthcare vertical wasn’t an opportunistic addition, it emerged from a deliberate view that certain environments demand a different approach to content and context.
“Healthcare settings aren’t like a gym or a café. People are there because something is going on in their lives, and the content they encounter needs to reflect that.
“Medtalk was built specifically to meet that need, not just as a channel to reach an audience, but as a network where the editorial environment actually makes sense.”
That framing has attracted a range of advertisers that might not instinctively reach for traditional out of home formats.
Campaigns across the Medtalk network have included work from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, the latter running activity around its Wegovy weight management treatment, alongside Health NZ and Smokefree.
Meanwhile, retail health brands such as Bargain Chemist and financial services provider Instant Finance have also run campaigns through the network.
Contextual relevance matters
The mix of advertisers reflects the audience reality of medical environments, waiting rooms and pharmacy counters draw a broad cross-section of Kiwis, often at moments when health and financial decisions are front of mind. For some categories, it’s a more direct line to a relevant audience than broader OOH placements.
Kiihfuss is direct about why contextual relevance matters here more than in other verticals.
“If you’re sitting in a medical centre waiting room, messaging about health, wellbeing or even financial pressure lands differently than it would on a roadside billboard.
“The audience is already in a mindset where that information is relevant to them. That’s not something you can manufacture, it’s something you have to build the right environment to support.”
Reflects the business
The wider Shoptalk network now covers 23 territories nationally and operates across verticals including hospitality, fitness, beauty, retail and petrol, in addition to healthcare.
Inventory is available programmatically through Vistar Media, which opens the network to agency trading desks and programmatic buyers alongside direct campaigns.
Kiihfuss says the rebrand from Giggle was about reflecting what the business had become.
“Giggle made sense for what we were doing when we started, screens in entertainment and hospitality venues. But the business has evolved into something much broader, with multiple distinct verticals and a national footprint.
“Shoptalk better describes how we think about these environments now: places where people are making decisions, having conversations and engaging with content in a meaningful way.”
Strong growth potential
For Medtalk specifically, the growth trajectory suggests there’s continued headroom.
The network has added venues steadily across pharmacy chains and independent medical practices, and the collection centre category, which includes pathology and diagnostic labs, represents a segment that few digital OOH operators have addressed at any meaningful scale in New Zealand.
Whether that translates into a dominant position in healthcare digital OOH locally will depend on how consistently the network can serve both the content requirements of medical environments and the campaign objectives of health-focused advertisers. But the early client roster suggests the positioning is landing.
