Billboard industry robust in Las Vegas

Back in the late ‘60s, Jonathan Fine’s grandfather was the valley’s second largest billboard owner through his company Sun Outdoor. Today, Fine and his partner Jonathan Gudai are working to change the out-of-home advertising space through their Las Vegas-based digital signage company, Adomni.

Founded in 2016, the company offers an open, online marketplace where advertisers of all sizes can purchase digital out-of-home advertising. The software lets advertisers choose when and where they want the ads to run, and now provides insights into audience behavior to make targeted campaigns more effective. The platform has more than 50,000 digital screens across North America, Europe and Australia, including more than 150 in the Las Vegas valley.

“My grandfather told me that as long as you give back to your community, you take care of your community, your community will take care of you,” Fine said. “The fact that we’re carrying around a legacy, it’s very important to me.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What does Adomni add to the out-of-home advertising industry?

Gudai: Jonathan Fine approached me with the idea in 2015. E-commerce and Google and Facebook were already in full force. When he said he was building an easy, online platform that opened up billboards and other digital screens to anyone, I thought that there had to be a solution already out there. Even up until recently, there wasn’t an online way to buy digital out-of-home advertising. I thought it was interesting that we would be a first mover in the space.

What’s the digital advertising industry like today?

Gudai: TV, radio — all have been suffering at the hands of online digital. The one segment of traditional advertising that’s growing is the out-of-home landscape. In out-of-home, if you separate digital and static, digital is the second-fastest growing advertising medium. We knew we were in the right time, right place as far as being on-trend with something that wasn’t going away. The last two-and-a-half, three years, it’s been constant growth.

What’s driving this growth?

Gudai: We’re in an age where there’s a lot of different online and digital channels popping up. Advertisers are looking for a safe bet, something you can’t turn off or use ad blockers. If you pair out-of-home ads with a mobile app campaign, there’s a 48 percent higher click rate. Different channels influence each other. Digital out-of-home is really undervalued.

Who are your clients?

Gudai: It’s a wide mix of users. Our idea is to make it available for small businesses. They’re going on Facebook today, but not billboards. Our goal is to make it available for them. They may have only a $30-, $40-a-day budget, but they can target the time and locations and get the exposure they’re looking for. Then we have big brands and big agencies using the platform. UFC is one of our clients, and they promote their pay-per-view events.

What’s the future of the advertising industry in Las Vegas?

Gudai: This is a unique market in that as a community, we’re growing like crazy. There’s new hotels and sports teams and all these dynamic events that are happening. Las Vegas is perfect for us. We’re seeing more static screens being converted to digital. It unlocked opportunities for more advertisements, more revenue.

Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233. Follow @bailey_schulz on Twitter.