"DOOH is a cool medium, but ..."

Adtrac is a young startup, but it has big plans: The team led by CEO and co-founder Benjamin Wey used the lockdown to launch an entirely new platform for booking DOOH advertising. Why has Switzerland been waiting for this service? And what do Wey and his team have planned next?

M&K Adtrac aims to revolutionize the booking and delivery of DOOH advertising with a new platform. How did you come up with the idea?
BENJAMIN WEY DOOH It’s a cool digital medium, but the booking processes are still largely manual, error-prone, and linear. When Advertima then approached me with the challenge of smart targeting—that is, serving ads only when the target audience is in front of the screen—it was immediately clear to me: This is only possible with an automated marketplace. Exclusivity for publishers or excluding other providers isn’t an option for us. Anyone can flexibly offer a portion of their inventory through us, provided they still have available space. We see ourselves as a marketplace and aim to efficiently bring together supply, demand, and data.

What sets your technology apart?
Adtrac uses intelligent algorithms to combine supply, demand, and all available data, and transmits this complex logic to the ad serving systems in the form of simple orders. We are particularly proud of our user interface, which allows users to achieve successful planning with just a few simple decisions. The tool automatically handles the complex analytical and detailed planning work in the background using our AI forecasting model.

Is your offering aimed primarily at media planners—or also directly at companies?
If we build something that media planners don’t find useful, our chances are slim. The needs of media planners—whether at agencies or directly in a company’s marketing department—are largely the same: they want to keep clients as satisfied as possible with as little effort as possible and minimal risk of making mistakes. Adtrac makes it easy.

What other plans do you hope to carry out in 2021?
We’ve already demonstrated that it works and that it benefits customers. With TopPharm, we’ve been able to launch the first private marketplace. This year, we want to attract new inventory providers to make the marketplace even more appealing to agencies and customers. My big dream is for us to create an online store for SMEs and small business customers that
they can book campaigns in their catchment area quickly and easily. It should be so simple that a small business owner can book a few screens in their catchment area just before closing time. Adtrac for everyone!

About the Company

Adtrac is a Swiss technology platform specializing in the marketing of digital out-of-home advertising spaces. With the web-based Adtrac Campaign Tool, advertisers can plan, track in real time, optimize, and evaluate their campaigns themselves at any time.