Zoom Media and Marketing [1] has a local sales force in the UK in addition to all of their national efforts and it seems that Zoom is now putting that model in place across the US, the UK, and Canada.
Here we see one of North America’s leading networks acquire the assets of California-based company Sports Display, Inc (SDI).
Dennis Roche, President of Zoom Media & Marketing told us “The acquisition of Sports Display immediately provides Zoom with one of the top local sales organizations in the advertising industry“ .
This local sales organization, combined with Zoom’s existing digital infrastructure of approximately 2,000 digital and 9,000 static venues across the US and Canada, will undoubtedly allow them to bring local advertising partners and revenue to their seemingly ever growing venue footprint.
Sports Display’s local field force, consisting of over 100 sales executives, currently sells advertising into a network of traditional, static displays in over 3,000 venues across over 100 DMAs we believe.
Over the past year, SDI has built out over 150 digital venues as they began converting from more traditional, static formats to digital displays – of course this acquisition supercharges that process by instantly giving SDI’s sales organization access to Zoom’s 2,000 digital venues across North America!
SDI co-founder Terry Parkin, along with co-founder Ron Benjamin, and the existing SDI management team are going to be joining Zoom as part of the transaction.
Ron Benjamin told us “Zoom’s growth has been fantastic over the last few years. We believe the addition of a strong local sales organization will only further their growth and we look forward to being a part of it.”
For Zoom, the addition of local sales capabilities is the latest in a number of steps the company has taken to consolidate its presence in its chosen industry verticals having accomplished 6 acquisitions (including SDI) in the past 18 months.
Zoom CEO François de Gaspé Beaubien told us “In the out of home industry, local advertising can account for as much as 70% of revenue. The addition of the Sports Display team to Zoom is a perfect complement. We plan on investing in and growing our local sales organization quickly to meet the needs of local advertisers as well as our venue partners. Local sales will also enable us to build out deeper coverage into our 150 existing DMAs, plus add even more markets, giving national advertisers unprecedented reach and terrific national coverage for their buys.”