Doug Pearce reveals post-OMG venture in digital OOH

Doug Pearce, Greater China CEO at OMG until last summer, has launched a digital out of home (DOOH) company called Doohken Network in China.

The venture will build a China-wide network of premium screens that leverage technology to provide measurement, transparency and data while providing demographic ad targeting through programmatic buying, he said.

“Outdoor is the last of the traditional media to transition to digital, and our role is to connect screen owners with advertisers, agencies and DSPs on one platform," said Pearce, who will wrap up his role as non-executive chairman at OMG soon to focus on Doohken.

Doohken intends to be a premium play, focusing only on screen in the best locations. “We want to move away from the current practice of buying screens in numbers or quantities to buying quality of screens, so have set a target to have 20,000 premium measured screens across tiers 1 through 4, with a focus on tiers 2 and 3," Pearce told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "This is exactly what happened when TV ratings came in. Measurement put a value on an audience, so buyers moved to target buying rather than spot buying, and we think DOOH will go the same way. It should be very appealing to advertisers.”

The company will incorporate blockchain technology—the "ken" in Doohken is meant to evoke a blockchain "token"—to ensure accountability and accuracy. "The overall outcome will be a dependable measured outdoor media buy that will deliver an improved ROI for advertisers," Pearce said.

In addition to Pearce as CEO, the company also includes Jason Perry as COO, Cameron Peters as CTO, Ava Gao as marketing manager and Jason Liu as director of business development.

The company is making data privacy and measurement major points of focus, according to Perry. “Being GDPR compliant, our technology and platform ensures complete privacy protection, while our automated software delivers insightful data by means of fully anonymous, accurate real-time measurements in an aggregated format,” he said.

Doohken has been working with a global and local tech team to develop an "all new" integrated hardware platform. “It has features that will appeal to all stakeholders, location and screen owners, advertisers and the DSPs," Peters said, adding that the platform is "unique and thorough".

"After 30 years in creative and media agencies and four years consulting with Accenture, I wanted to be part of building something new," Pearce said.

He claims the company has received a "great reaction", with over 20 OOH companies and major advertisers interested. "Agencies are supportive too, while the key DSPs, who will sell the platform, are keen to integrate offline and online data to assist advertisers in getting greater returns from their media investment."