APG|SGA establishes new segment brand

This is based on the conviction that mobile media will become an increasingly integrated part of the out-of-home media market. The growing use of mobile internet in the context of digital and analog out-of-home advertising enables effective targeting and new interactive forms of advertising along the customer journey. With the establishment of the new segment brand APG|SGA Interaction as of February 1, 2017, the market leader intends to offer its advertising customers and partners highly qualified services in the planning and execution of mobile advertising campaigns and to develop new products.

Beacon network planned

In the course of this, APG|SGA has acquired a start-up specializing in beacon technology and its employees and will roll out a beacon network in the near future. Proven industry expert Raphael Bratschi, who already started working at APG|SGA on September 1, 2016, will become the new head of APG|SGA Interaction. Behind these developments lies a fundamental change in media usage behavior, because consumers today communicate, work, read, store, and inform themselves in many different ways. The way he makes contact with the world or manages time has also changed. As soon as they have a break or have to wait for something, be it at the bus stop, on the train or in the shopping center, they almost automatically reach for their smartphone. Studies show that average users today turn to their smartphones up to 100 times a day. That's why APG|SGA is banking on the considerable growth opportunities offered by mobile advertising for the successful extension of the communication chain of analog and digital billboard advertising. Mobile technologies can combine the advantages of high-reach outdoor advertising with the added value of digital content. The smartphone or tablet is thus establishing itself as a kind of "out-of-home medium," which is also becoming increasingly important for advertisers.

APG|SGA sees its strengths and its unique market position in the combination with its diverse, regionally and nationally wide-reaching out-of-home products and the promotion space business. New technologies such as NFC and beacons are an integral part of this. Precise location data of people in real time are a prerequisite for a meaningful combination of Out of Home and mobile media. APG|SGA is therefore currently developing its own targeting solution. This will enable advertisers to display relevant advertising messages based on a person's location in real time on their smartphone in the future. Under the leadership of Alex Zimmermann and Jan Berchtold, this business unit is being developed and expanded for out-of-home campaigns - with or without a combination of analog and digital posters. The two mobile experts are the founders of the start-up "Blinq" and launched the dating app of the same name based on beacon technology.

APG|SGA Interaction has a team of a total of five specialists at its disposal for servicing the advertising market. Based in Zurich, the new segment brand will act as a national competence center and, together with APG|SGA's existing sales organization, will look after both national and local customers.