Product News | October 11, 2021

Digital Signage in a New York Minute: An interview with Susie Zimber

Women In Tech
Susie Zimber

I asked Susie Zimber, National Account Executive at Zoom Media, to pick a lunch spot close to her office. Nestled in Murray Hill, she opted for a diner that would be quiet enough for me to record our conversation about all things digital. As we sipped our matzo ball soups, a perfect dish for the chilly day, the svelte blonde dressed in a black ensemble candidly explained why she is so passionate about the digital out-of-home space. Her polite yet nimble nature makes such an excitement infectious.

“At the start of my career, the out-of-home industry was all about static media, like billboards, bus shelters and coffee sleeves,” stated Susie, as she recalled wondering what would be next to keep clients interested and wanting to spend money in OOH versus other media formats. “I remember playing a game of lacrosse when suddenly the football field’s Jumbotron was activated, allowing everyone to see my player stats on the big screen. From then on, I thought digital would be the way of the future.”

Upon graduating with a major in Communications from Boston College, Susie moved to New York City to become an Ad Sales Assistant for Men’s Health Magazine. The daughter of a professional tennis player and talented athlete herself (Susie had a full college scholarship thanks to lacrosse) Susie was naturally drawn to the magazine’s content. While working at the publication, her interest in outdoor media was piqued by her boyfriend-turned-husband’s internship at Clear Channel Airports, leading her to accept a position at Zenith Media as an out-of-home buyer for brands such as Verizon.

Embracing a “young and fun industry” along with a work hard, play hard attitude, Susie took on an opportunity at Kinetic where she spent several years working with clients like DKNY, Chanel and American Express. Jumping from the agency to network side of the business, Susie stayed true to the fitness root of her career path by joining Outcast Fitness Network before taking her current role at Zoom Media. “I love working for Zoom because I’m selling something I believe in,” gushed Susie. “I am a target consumer myself, visiting health clubs in the morning or on my way home after work.”

Like many young professionals, Susie goes to the gym and supermarket after her day at the office, gets home late, eats dinner and goes to sleep. “What I watch on TV is DVR and while I still read magazines, I consume the rest of media online through my computer and mobile. Content is up-to-the minute, relevant and serves the urgency created by people who want something right when they need it. Everything is merging into digital – it can only go up from here.”

Susie’s inclination toward the combination of digital, health and fitness became even more apparent as she spoke about Zoom Cardio, a network of touchscreens that track gym-goers’ workouts. “Zoom Cardio engages people by allowing them to plan their playlists at home, watch on-demand programming and live TV at the gym. It even provides a virtual interactive option to, for example, run through the Grand Canyon as the treadmill mimics its terrain,” said Susie. “At the end of the day, we want to help consumers get through their workouts, achieve their goals and leave the health club feeling good.”

People working within the digital signage industry should feel good as well. Susie believes it is an exciting time to be in digital and advises everyone to stay in the game to see what occurs from constant technology advances. “Hold on,” she grinned, “it’s going to be a crazy ride”.

About Susie

Susie Zimber took a position at Zoom Media & Marketing in October of 2012.  She brought to Zoom a blended background of OOH sales and agency experience previously from Outcast Fitness, Kinetic WW and Zenith Media.  At the end of the day she understands the shared struggles of her agency partners and clients and knows how important it is to be a resource to those in need of her help and enjoys working alongside them to deliver the objectives of the campaign from start to completion.  2014 has already proven to be a big year for Zimber as she is already pacing beyond her sales goal as of March 15th!

Zimber is a graduate of Boston College with a BA degree in Communications.  She currently lives with her husband on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and enjoys going to the gym (of course!), running in Central Park, watching movies and hanging out with friends and family.

Product News | October 11, 2021

What’s new in the Broadsign Platform: Sophisticated targeting, creative management and UI improvements

Spring has finally sprung, which means fresh air, greenery, and, most importantly, fresh updates to the Broadsign Platform. This season, we are bringing you sophisticated targeting tools, streamlined creative management, and major UI improvements to make the campaign planning and management process for directly-sold campaigns as seamless as possible for campaign planners. 

Why does this matter? While the activation process for digital out-of-home (DOOH) may only require a couple of minutes, the campaign planning and management process often requires much more time. Discovering available and relevant inventory, collecting data to prove the medium’s effectiveness in meeting campaign goals, and managing campaign creatives are all time-consuming tasks.

The new spring updates introduce a new level of automation that not only reduces the time and complexities of getting DOOH campaigns out the door but also helps make out-of-home (OOH) a competitive and attractive medium for buyers. Let’s dive in!

Sophisticated targeting tools that find the best inventory 

Granular targeting shouldn’t be exclusive to programmatic. That’s why last year, we introduced targeting tools for directly sold campaigns executed through the Broadsign Platform, giving campaign planners the same flexibility and comprehensive targeting capabilities as online and programmatic media buyers. 

The targeting tools included the ability to filter your inventory by location and key points of interest (POIs), enabling campaign planners to find the most relevant inventory for each campaign at the click of a button. An intuitive map view was also introduced, allowing you to better visualize your inventory with quick filtering options by area, support for bulk location uploads, and setting radius parameters. 

This year, we’re introducing two powerful targeting upgrades for directly sold campaigns: demographics and criteria targeting. With demographics targeting, you can filter inventory by attributes like age, gender, or occupation to find the screens that will maximize campaign impact. We’ve also enhanced criteria targeting, giving you more granular control over inclusion and exclusion rules. For example, when building a proposal for an alcohol brand, you can now quickly exclude screens that don’t allow alcohol ads from your inventory search in just a few clicks. 

These new additions to the Broadsign Platform not only reduce the manual work required for inventory discovery but also give your team the opportunity to be a more strategic partner to buyers. We’re also excited to share that these enhanced targeting capabilities are now available to Broadsign customers worldwide! 

Simplified creative management and centralized campaign planning

Media owners juggle multiple campaigns and creatives at the same time, and without the right tools, the creative management process can become complex and stressful for your teams. Last year, we released our in-platform creative management tools, which allowed you to create, edit, manage, and assign campaign creatives with ease. On top of that, we also made it possible for you to push your campaigns live through the Broadsign Platform, eliminating the need to go through Broadsign’s desktop tools. 

In this latest update to the Broadsign Platform, we’re introducing creative scheduling. You’ll now be able to apply multiple scheduling options to your creatives, making it easier than ever to deliver the right message at the right time. You can also target your content by time of day or event, making it easier than ever to adapt your messaging to dayparts or changing campaign goals. Finally, you can update your creatives in real-time, allowing you to plan and deliver up to 55% of your campaigns in one unified workflow directly in-platform. 

Additional management tools for an improved user experience

Along with comprehensive creative management and targeting tools for directly-sold campaigns, additional tools and UI enhancements have been added to improve the usability and user experience of the Broadsign Platform:

Inventory package accessibility

Access inventory packages effortlessly through the platform’s updated navigation bar, enhancing efficiency and ease of use.

Centralized settings management

Administrators can now adjust and manage all necessary settings for digital and static inventory, user management, and more directly within the platform’s web-based UI through a centralized hub for control and configuration.

Campaign monitoring enhancements

With the newly implemented progress indicator, real-time monitoring of campaign pacing is now possible, giving immediate insight into campaign performance. This allows for quick adjustments to be made, as needed, to meet campaign goals effectively.

Search functionality and filters

An improved search mechanism, complemented by additional filters like campaign, client or contract names, enables quicker and more accurate campaign retrieval, saving time and improving workflow.

Line item list

You can now access a list of all line items directly through the navigation bar. Operations teams now have a more precise and comprehensive view of all bookings made on your network.

Dashboard customization

Tailor the platform’s dashboard to meet individual needs, ensuring that the most relevant and important information is always front and center.

Interested in testing out these new features? Book a demo today