Josh Fitzgerald on choosing effectiveness over ease

Josh Fitzgerald is General Manager at Revolution360, an Australian out-of-home advertising company working across Sydney and Melbourne.

I asked him what the industry gets completely wrong. His answer: it treats out-of-home like online advertising.

What does everyone get wrong about OOH?

Treating it like a one-to-one channel. OOH's strength is one-to-many. It's ubiquitous and non-intrusive. Stop obsessing over targeting like it's digital.

What advice hurts businesses?

Buy OOH programmatically. Price premium with no real-time optimisation. Can't demonstrate increased ROI. It's a scam.

What metric does no one talk about enough?

Audience method of transport. Walking vs driving changes everything. Creative should adapt. Most brands ignore this.

What's the industry's worst-kept secret?

Market rates are completely made up. No one pays those rates. Ever.

What will kill most businesses?

Inability to demonstrate bottom line impact. Online advertising raised expectations. OOH businesses that can't measure performance will be left in the dust.

Where will the industry be in 10 years?

Every shopfront becomes an OOH supplier. Panels on every available wall space. Buildings turn into advertising real estate.

What's one change that could 10x results?

Longer-term, simpler brand messaging. Commit to static OOH formats. Unlock significant opportunities.

What's the hardest lesson you've learned?

The industry chooses ease over effectiveness. Quick implementation over better results. Time and effort get ignored.

What problem are you solving?

Competing with smartphones for attention. Turning OOH assets into virtual points of purchase and augmented reality areas. Making billboards interactive.

What stuck with me

"OOH's biggest strength is that it's a one-to-many medium," Josh said. "But the industry treats it like a one-to-one channel with an obsession over targeting, measurement and market mix modelling."

Buying programmatically sounds sophisticated. Josh says it comes at a price premium without the real benefit, which is real-time optimisation. The industry chose ease over effectiveness.

He isn't fighting the phone in everyone's pocket. He's working with it, so a billboard can become a place to buy or try something. That's how you measure impact.

What are you choosing: ease or effectiveness?