Author

James Heller

Why a Media Titan Is Investing in Wrapify

by James Heller September 10, 2018

OOH and media industry veteran, Bill Apfelbaum, has been following Wrapify’s growth, and most recently, invested in the burgeoning gig-economy startup. Mr. Apfelbaum has enjoyed an impressive career in the advertising business, spanning over thirty-five years in the out-of-home and media industries.

We thought we would sit down and share a quick Q&A with one of our biggest influencers:

Why Wrapify? Why Now?

“The advent of the gig-economy paired with tech that allows marketers to measure their media spend makes a ton of sense. Brands are always looking for new ways to reach an audience, and I think Wrapify accomplishes that while also complementing other media formats.”

How important is data and attribution in today’s media landscape

“The idea of being able to track ad exposure to attribution has been top of mind for years, but it wasn’t really possible with OOH until recently. Wrapify is a technology platform first, and a media platform second. I think that is the key to making OOH more of a performance driven buy.”

Why did you invest in the company?

“Wrapify is taking a novel approach to harnessing technology to change the way outdoor advertising is measured and most importantly … valued. I also invest in people and Wrapify is good people!”

We are excited about the future, the growth of our company and the advancement of measurement in the OOH industry. We’re also excited about putting cash back into the pockets of drivers across the US!

We couldn’t do it without great people and great investors believing in our brand promise.

Drive. Earn. Live.

September 10, 2018 0 comment

Ad Industry News Tech

Wrapify Partners with Mira and Barometric For New Retargeting and Attribution Features

by James Heller December 8, 2017

written by James Heller

San Diego (December 5, 2017) — Wrapify, the technology-based marketing platform that provides brands with the ability to measure and scale ads on vehicles, today announced a new partnership with respected attribution companies Mira and Barometric to yield better insights from the campaigns displayed by their vehicles.

Wrapify is piloting three distinct features powered by Mira and Barometric in public beta nationwide:

Physical Retargeting – The ability to retarget the audience exposed to wrapped vehicles.
Offline-to-Online Attribution – The ability to attribute wrapped vehicle exposures to online engagement and conversion.
Retail Foot-traffic Attribution – The ability to measure in-store foot-traffic lift resulting from wrapped vehicle exposure.

Wrapify is the hybrid platform that closes the gap between digital and out-of-home (OOH) advertising, says CEO James Heller. “Providing this kind of data granularity while allowing brands to extend their digital footprint from OOH exposure is a big step towards understanding how Wrapify impressions ripple outward.”

Mira and Barometric will work with Wrapify to better identify and connect with consumers and their devices, through public and private data the OOH tech company has assembled and aggregated.

Mira has pioneered a process called Crowd Analytics which allows them to optimize Digital OOH based on a real time audience and measure the effectiveness of Digital and Static campaigns. Barometric, MRC-accredited provider of the industry’s most advanced cross-environment tracking and attribution solution, combines both online and offline tracking to provide a singular view of ad performance. Barometric’s proprietary technology attributes exposures from Wrapify vehicles to all conversion environments.

“Barometric has redefined attribution and Wrapify has built an incredible ad platform that is helping to advance the way the OOH industry thinks,” says Jonathan Frangakis, Mira’s CEO. “We’re glad to bring our brand of analytics to the equation. We have the best solution for stationary OOH inventory, but no one has cracked the code around inventory that moves yet. This is a true first-of-its-kind solution.”

“We are excited to team up with such a revolutionary, on-vehicle ad company like Wrapify,” said Anthony Iacovone, CEO and President of Barometric. “Wrapify is a great platform to amplify offline advertising and marketing initiatives and we are proud to supplement that with our holistic, comprehensive tracking and reporting platform.”

Heller praises all of Wrapify’s partners, brands and drivers for supporting and pushing the company towards new improvements.

“Wrapify continues to listen to the companies and people we work with and rely upon, and one thing we keep hearing is how we need to drill down more on the numbers and analytics,” says Heller. “People like what they’ve seen so far, our brands and drivers are both happy, but we can’t rest or get complacent, and these partnerships with Mira and Barometric will give people what they’ve been asking for.”

About Wrapify

Wrapify® is a disruptive out-of-home (OOH) advertising platform and a player in the sharing economy. Through its technology, Wrapify connects drivers and brands to create powerful on-vehicle advertising, impressions and real-time data insights. Wrapify is live in 30+ US markets and has 60,000+ registered drivers on the platform nationwide.

December 8, 2017 0 comment

Employee Features Tech

Wrapify Names Stephen Phillips Director of Engineering

by James Heller November 6, 2017

written by James Heller

SAN DIEGO (November 6, 2017) — Wrapify, the technology-based car wrap company, has hired Stephen Phillips as director of engineering. Phillips, was co-founder of Votion, a SaaS company that offers a suite of products that build dialogs between brands and consumer. “I know Steve from Jason Calacanis’s LAUNCH Incubator, which Votion was part of a few sessions after Wrapify,” Wrapify CEO and founder James Heller explains. “I’ve always been impressed by his business savvy and smarts, and when this opportunity opened up, he was my first choice.” Prior to launching Votion, Phillips’s engineering and ecommerce background led to building online stores for global retailers including Google, Adidas, Godiva Chocolates and Hot Topic. “I think Wrapify is in a great spot, and a place where I can especially help,” Phillips says. “They’ve found their market, and now they need to scale. That’s what I’ve been doing: Helping enterprise companies scale.” Phillips steps into the position replacing the company’s first director of engineering Tim Flack. Phillips and Heller say the role will be dedicated to finding efficiencies to streamline the Wrapify process, as well as hone product development. “Steve knows startup life as well as he knows digital life,” Heller says. “He will be a good fit for the company and his broad skill set will help Wrapify continue to improve our experience for both brands and drivers.” About Wrapify Wrapify is the ad platform that leverages the gig-economy, paying drivers to wrap their cars in brand messaging while providing brands with the ability to track and measure performance online. Trusted by Bud Light, Google, eBay and Microsoft Wrapify was named one of Inc. Magazine’s’ hottest startups of 2015 and CEO James Heller named “Feature Honoree” for this year’s Forbes “30 Under 30” list. San Diego-based Wrapify is currently in 30 US markets with more than 55,000+ registered drivers.

November 6, 2017 0 comment

Ad Industry News

OOH Works … Period

by James Heller October 31, 2017

written by James Heller

Magna Global, the strategic and analytics media unit of the marketing conglomerate Interpublic Group, recently released a “Media Economy Report” focused specifically on the out-of-home industry: its current market share, its predominant trends, and its future.

The biggest and best takeaway from Magna Global reinforces other studies and reports we’ve highlighted in this space–unlike most other forms of advertising, OOH’s market share is growing and so is its influence.

Magna Global details ten key reasons OOH continues to overdeliver. Even while still holding only 6% of the worldwide total ad spend of $500 billion, that percentage has held stable for five years while most other forms of advertising are losing out to digital (which in itself is now starting to waver).

The reasons are varied and diverse, but they all make sense and you can see them playing out in our daily business life. Not all ten points are immediately relevant for Wrapify, but we’ve highlighted the ones that are:

> OOH is Unfragmented and Offers a Growing and Attentive Audience

Time spent outside the home is increasing.
OOH has been mostly unaffected by audience erosion due to the continuing proliferation of media channels.
OOH remains a mass reach advertising strategy; half of all consumers in the majority of markets and up to 90% in some.

> OOH Audience Measurement is Progressive and Accurate

OOH audience measurement is increasingly sophisticated, driving innovation in the industry as a whole.
Measurement integrates the latest technologies, like GPS, location data, WiFi and eye tracking, ensuring the accuracy of audience data.
The best OOH audience measurement delivers actually viewed impressions, unlike most other media which provide only viewable impressions,

> OOH Helps you “Feel the Real”: It’s part of the urban landscape & immune to ad blockers

OOH is already part of consumers’ lives, a natural and accepted role in the urban landscape
Its material and physical presence in the real world means it cannot be blocked like online ads can or skipped past like recorded television programming.

> Digital is driving OOH revenue growth

DOOH is the second fastest growing medium and it is predicted to account for over 30% of OOH revenue in some mature markets eg UK and Australia.
Digital OOH (DOOH) allows more advertisers to benefit from premium sites, which increases the revenue that each screen generates.
DOOH global share of OOH revenue is projected to grow to 24% by 2021

> Data-Driven OOH: The ability to deliver real-time data is now part of outdoor advertising

Online platforms and CMS for OOH allow more targeted campaign planning and instant delivery to appropriate environments and audiences.

> Buzzworthy creative creates memorable visual cues for brands

The broadening of what OOH means has opened up a whole new range of creative potential, which includes Wrapify’s colorful car wraps.

In short: OOH advertising gets increasingly noticed as people spend more time outside the home, while advances in technology are creating many new opportunities for brands to get their messaging in front of consumers.

Wrapify is one of those ways. If you’re not already on our platform, we urge you to contact us for more information about how Wrapify’s success is emblematic of OOH’s overall increased status in any marketer’s quiver. And if you are on the Wrapify platform….well, you already know!

October 31, 2017 0 comment

Tech

Look for ESET’s Wrapped “Cash Car” During Cyber Security Awareness Month!

by James Heller September 29, 2017

written by James Heller

Wrapify is stoked to be part of ESET’s October “Cyber Security Awareness Month” promotion, and not only because it’s gratifying to see a digitally savvy-and-centric company using Wrapify’s revolutionary out-of-home platform to market its message.

ESET develops industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. But as much as you may think people are aware of fakes, frauds, phonies and criminals online, ESET has shown us that people still don’t know it enough.

So, the San Diego IT security firm is putting eight wrapped ESET/National Cyber Security Awareness month-branded vehicles on the city’s roads and freeways for fall–but wait, there’s more!

One of the eight Wrapify-wrapped vehicles will be a designated “Cybersecurity Cash Car”; the car and its Cybersecurity Awareness Team will park in various places around the city in October, giving cash cards to people that correctly answer cyber-related questions. Anyone passing by the designated Cybersecurity Cash Car can play, and has a chance to win hundreds of dollars.

People can follow ESET on Twitter and Instagram (@ESET) to discover where the Cash Car will be. As part of the program, ESET will also match players’ winnings with a donation to the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), the nation’s top cyber awareness nonprofit

All the wrapped cars sport a URL, eset.com/cybersecurity, which is a page that contains free cybersecurity tools and resources for businesses and individuals, including ESET’s popular free Cybersecurity Awareness Training.

Wrapify is always jazzed when digital companies use our ad-tech platform to market themselves, and we salute ESET for using their advertising budget to raise awareness of an ongoing and important digital issue as much as their business.

September 29, 2017 0 comment

Wrap Industry News

Wrap. Earn. Live. At WrapsCon 2017 in Long Beach

by James Heller September 22, 2017

written by James Heller

It’s been a few months since Wrapscon 2017, but we still want to give you a glimpse of what putting together the largest cash prize wrap competition was like.

After eight weeks of meetings, several test runs and a last minute total change of format, we felt ready to debut our Wrapify style installation competition at WrapsCon.

Excited and early in the process, we’d extended an offer to compete to all Wrapify Certified Installers. However, with two weeks until WrapsCon we still had lots to do before being anywhere even close to having a full roster. We reached out to the Masters of Branding, and Daren Merkle of Shadow Graphix…

…We had the competition full that day, with alternatives to spare.

Morning of, at breakfast with the Wrapify crew, we all had jitters. We discussed worst-case scenarios of judges missing their flight or contestants backing out at the last minute. Even after the mandatory pre-contest meeting with the judges and contestants, we still had no idea if the competition would be a success.

After the first heat, we collectively gave a sigh of relief. The judges were on point and the competitors were riveting to watch. I was at the edge of my seat for the whole 30 minute heat. The first two competitors, Vincent Staats and Jeremy Conner, were neck and neck until the end.

The crowds watching were 4 rows deep. Following the lead of MC John Duever, they never had a chance to look away. Judges Caroline Shaw and Austin Smith had the tough job of scoring these tight heats.

The purpose of this event was threefold. We wanted:

– To give back to the installation community, who have helped us achieve our goals of outsourcing 100% of Wrapify installations
– Teach our style of installations on consumer vehicles
– Sign up new installers at Install.Wrapify.com

The NBM show with WrapsCon was the perfect venue. Long Beach brought a new crowd that might not have been able to travel so far in the past. All the leaders of the industry were on hand, ensuring its recognition as the most relevant industry event. So, you know, lots of added pressure for us to make this competition epic.

After all the pre-work that went in this event, it was the 8 competitors who truly made it a huge success. Everyone brought their own unique style. Sometimes, speed won. Other times precision did the job. Ultimately, Istvan Hargittai beat out Dimas Brasil by just 2 points for the $2,500 Grand Prize. We want to thank all competitors for showing up and showing us all just how amazing you are at your craft.