T-Mobile is now an (even bigger) adtech company.
Today, the telco giant announced its acquisition of DOOH (digital out-of-home) adtech and media company Vistar Media for $600 million. Vistar operates a network of more than 1.1 million digital screens across nearly 370 OOH media owners, while serving over 3,000 advertisers.
The press release highlights the value of the partnership, with T-Mobile supplying first-party customer data for targeting and measurement while leveraging its connectivity capabilities for Vistar. (This feels somewhat reminiscent of Verizon Media’s Cooler Screens deal from a few years ago.)
At its core, this deal is about retail media. Vistar is expected to play a key role in expanding T-Mobile’s retail media network across its stores and beyond, as the press release describes T-Mobile as “one of the largest physical in-store retail media network operators.” And for good reason.
T-Mobile already boasts a growing DOOH presence in retail media, with over 20,000 screens in T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile retail locations. According to an Adweek story from last year, the company aimed to scale its ride-share screens through rideshare ad network, Octopus, to 100,000 by the end of 2024, bringing its total OOH reach to roughly 700,000 screens across the U.S. With Vistar, T-Mobile boosts that footprint tremendously, underscoring the opportunity it sees in retail media, in particular.
Why This Matters:
Hey, DOOH is hot. EMARKETER’s 2024 forecast projects that OOH ad spending in the U.S. will hit $10.58 billion by 2028. What isn’t factored in enough, in our view, is the growing focus on retail media and how physical RMNs are poised to become a massive growth channel in the coming years.
Perion CEO Tal Jacobson, who acquired DOOH player Hivestack in 2023, echoed this sentiment in a statement about the deal:
“DOOH presents a significant, undervalued opportunity. We welcome T-Mobile to this space, and their entry further validates its potential. DOOH is the next big hot thing in AdTech, and we were the first movers. We acquired Hivestack in 2023, recognizing the immense opportunity here, and we are now the global leader in this category.”
Experts React:
Here are some of the most interesting takes on the deal from X:
Our Take:
Will this deal work out? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Look, it seems like a powerful and sensible partnership. However, telecom companies leveraging user data for adtech have historically failed. A very recent example is Ericsson’s Emodo, which was sold for scraps. Also, in the U.S., these deals often seem promising, but regulatory and data privacy issues from overseas always pose obstacles. Perhaps with DOOH, a one-to-many channel, these issues will be less pronounced.
