Hivestack, a global ad tech leader in the programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising, today announced that it has expanded sales and operations to the United Kingdom, the fourth largest out-of-home advertising (OOH) market in the world.
The expansion includes appointments of two new senior members to Hivestack UK, with Lee Cutter as Vice President of Sales and Will Brownsdon as Managing Director.
Will Brownsdon brings a wealth of agency experience, having previously held roles at Publicis Groupe as OOH Business Director and at Posterscope as Strategy Director.
Lee Cutter brings deep commercial and business development knowledge with over 20 years of experience working on both the buy and sell-side of OOH, including sales leadership roles at Global Radio, Metro and CBS Outdoor.
Andreas Soupliotis, Founder & CEO of Hivestack commented: “Hivestack’s international expansion continues today with the exciting launch of our UK business. We feel fortunate to have, not one, but two, incredibly experienced OOH UK leaders joining Hivestack. With these senior hires, we are setting the table for what we believe is an imminent comeback for programmatic DOOH advertising. In the near future, we believe that UK audiences will be outside again in full force. We want to be able to service UK marketers and publishers in anticipation of this recovery.”
In recent months, the seismic economic shift ignited by the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for advertisers, agencies and DOOH media owners. More than ever, marketers are cautiously considering allocating budgets towards DOOH activations that minimize spill impressions and offer the ability to attribute business outcomes to DOOH exposure. The challenging economic climate coupled with the ability to easily pause campaigns in a “self-serve” manner has further ripened the market for programmatic DOOH buying.
With its UK expansion, Hivestack is investing and doubling-down on a key market in its journey and vision of growing programmatic DOOH advertising globally.
Lee Cutter, newly appointed VP of Sales of Hivestack UK shared: “I’ve been blown away by the Hivestack platform and the phenomenally talented team behind it. I look forward to sharing this with the market and truly making tangible enhancements to campaigns through unparalleled insights into audience movements that translate into real business outcomes through various measurement capabilities.”
The UK market is one of the most advanced DOOH markets in the world, with more than 50% of total OOH ad sales coming from digital. DOOH buying is usually transacted directly between buyers and sellers. Programmatic DOOH is rapidly evolving as an incremental complement to directly sold DOOH, and Hivestack’s UK expansion is a testament to this belief.
Will Brownsdon, newly appointed Managing Director of Hivestack UK commented: “I am delighted to be joining the Hivestack family and developing our operations in the UK. Programmatic DOOH continues to evolve and develop at a rapid pace, and Hivestack’s highly-skilled team is at the cutting edge. Now, more than ever, technology will be the enabler as we try to get an understanding of real world behaviour.”