On April 29, Vistar Media announced its acquisition of Adstruc, PJX Media’s tech platform. How did this all come to be?
“Everything starts with a drink,” Michael Provenzano, CEO of Vistar Media joked. He said that the conversation with Rick Robinson, CEO of PJX Media started about a year ago while they were catching up at a WOO event.
“At Vistar, we had an appetite to get our foot wet into the static side for a while,” Provenzano said. He asked Robinson if there would be any interest in selling Adstruc.
For Robinson, it was a serendipitous moment.
“It was not on the agenda of things to do that day. It was just a matter of timing and relationship and opportunity and openmindedness,” Robinson said. “We had wanted to unlock the power of Adstruc somehow, and this seemed to be a great way to do it.”
Provenzano said Vistar has consistently received feedback that programmatic is just a small piece of OOH investment. Clients wanted more options to do all of their buying in one place.
“Our clients were asking for it. It’s in high demand, and we’ve been kicking that can down the road,” Provenzano said.
Adstruc was not the first static platform Vistar Media tried its hand at. Several years back, Vistar Media had a free planning tool that Provenzano says was not brought to market correctly. In 2019, Vistar considered buying a business that merged with another company post-COVID.
This acquisition allows PJX Media to focus on what it does best, managed services, while Vistar Media can focus on the tech side and expand its services.
Robinson describes the acquisition as unique: “PJX Media started out as a tech company and built an amazing tool that has the opportunity to become the voice of the industry.”
“Traditional OOH is not our expertise at the end of the day. Rick and I have always gotten along over the years. PJX is the biggest client we have and getting their guidance and direction of where to go with it,” Provenzano said.
Robinson said that from the beginning, the engineering team followed the lead of user groups. Adstruc was not built for foreign investors but for what made sense for the users.
“I see that only being enhanced. [The engineers] went to Vistar. We are talking to them every day as we always have before. They will come to the PJX team instinctively and ongoing for feature feedback and all kinds of things,” Robinson said.
Vistar Media will add more budget and resources to the Adstruc platform. Provenzano says they brought over three engineers and one accounts person from PJX Media. He plans to double the engineering team immediately.
Adstruc has a strong brand name and is known across the buying and selling sides, so there is no value in changing the name quite yet. Some technical issues, like authentication and the ability for single-sign-on, will have to be considered and worked on.
“The bigger opportunity is really combining the workflows between traditional OOH planning and buying and programmatic strategy,” Provenzano said.” What we’re trying to put in front of the customer will be first to market if we do it right.”
They plan to heavily rely on Eric Justusson, who has been with Adstruc for over 10 years and has been instrumental in bringing the platform to its current state. He will also be involved in the recruitment process to expand the platform.
“For us at PJX Media, this gives us the opportunity to invest in our core expertise, our talent, our people and we are excited to see the tools of the industry evolve. In the end, as a managed service agency you win because of your thinking, problem-solving, and the trust you create with your clients,” Robinson said. “We’re creating certainty in an uncertain world, and that’s where our focus is going to be.”
The biggest complaint about OOH is that it is not simple, standardized, or easy to do. Provenzano hopes Vistar Media can be at the forefront of getting the OOH industry to use common language and standards.
“If we can take this best-of-breed tool and, instead of one agency using it, have our entire US-side use it and take that into our global portfolio, then we have an opportunity to standardize all of OOH globally,” Provenzano said
[…] 3. Adstruc Acquisition: Everything Starts with a Drink […]