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Executive Summary — Q1 2026
Q1 2026 delivered 38 pieces of earned coverage driven by a mix of proactive SMG placements and strong organic pickup. Headline wins include ZDNet (5.3M UVM — Shawn Spooner AI thought leadership), IT Brew and UC Today thought leadership features, and the Billboard Insider AI/OOH feature. The HOKA "Night Run" UV mural campaign generated significant organic pickup across The Drum, Retail Gazette, MarTech Series and more. David Krupp's PPC Land quote on the Abu Dhabi billboard investment marks early progress on the intro briefings campaign. The AdTech Heroes and Agent Odyssey podcasts are recorded and pending posting.
Q1 2026 Goals & Focus Areas
Current priorities, key targets, and focus areas for Q1 2026.
Key NarrativeAI-native OOH leadership
Exec BriefingsDavid Krupp intro campaign
Thought LeadershipShawn AI + product positioning
Product Focusaudrai launch + Analytics 2.0
EventsPOSSIBLE (Apr 27–29)
Q1 2026 KPI Snapshot
Earned Coverage
38
pieces Jan–Mar 2026
On-Message Hits
9
Directly placed by SMG
Total Reach
4.03M
Unique visitors (UVM)
Ad Value Equiv.
$37.2K
$37,234.65 estimated
Coverage Analysis — Q1 2026
Coverage Theme Breakdown — Q1 2026
Company News34.2%
Industry News26.3%
Thought Leadership26.3%
Awards13.2%
Monthly Press Hits — Q1 2026
10
17
11
January
February
March
Feb peak driven by Shawn's UC Today commentary and HOKA "Night Run" organic pickup
Standout Coverage — Q1 2026
Four standout placements from Q1. Click to expand.
Month in Review
Jan 2026
10 pieces. ZDNet "Is AI's war on busywork a creativity killer?" — Shawn Spooner exec quote (5.3M UVM). Campaign Middle East year-in-review mention. PRovoke Media SABRE Awards (Converse/Shai 001). Digiday Awards Europe finalists x2. OOH Today anniversaries/moves x3. Ethical Marketing News OAAA awards.
Feb 2026
17 pieces. UC Today and VoIP Review AI thought leadership exec quotes placed by SMG. PPC Land Abu Dhabi billboard story — David Krupp quote. HOKA "Night Run" UV mural drove 7 organic pickups: The Drum, Retail Gazette, MarTech Series, MarTech 360, NewDigitalAge, Marketing Communication News, MarTech 360. BrandBeat Super Bowl OOH feature (Joss Roulet). Digiday Awards Europe winners. OOH Today moves x3.
Mar 2026
11 pieces. Billboard Insider "How billups is Using AI to Transform OOH" — Shawn TL feature (SMG placed). IT Brew "Good human in the loop" — Shawn TL feature (SMG placed). PPC Land Ströer AI story — Shawn predictions mention (SMG placed). Campaign US + Campaign Asia + Buff.ly drones vs OOH feature (Joss Roulet). BrandBeat Olympics ambush OOH feature (Joss Roulet). Marketing Magazine Asia Malaysia OOH feature. OOH Today moves.
Executive Summary — Full Year 2025
2025 was a landmark year for billups' earned media program. Salient MG delivered 185 pieces of earned coverage including 58 on-message placements, generating $4.81M in ad value equivalent and reaching over 519.53M unique visitors. Q4 was the breakout period with 73 mentions and $2.86M AVE, driven by the audrai launch and global hires release. billups secured placements in Adweek, Digiday, Campaign, MediaPost, AdExchanger and DailyDOOH while building dominant share of voice in the independent OOH space.
2025 Full Year Performance
Earned Coverage
185
Total pieces YTD
On-Message Hits
58
Directly placed by SMG
Total Reach
519M
UVM (519.53M total)
Ad Value Equiv.
$4.81M
Avg Domain Authority: 51
Quarter-over-Quarter Performance
Q1 2025Jan – Mar
Mentions38
Total Reach (UVM)1.47M
Ad Value Equiv.$13.5K
Q2 2025Apr – Jun
Mentions34
Total Reach (UVM)23.21M
Ad Value Equiv.$214.7K
Q3 2025Jul – Sep
Mentions40
Total Reach (UVM)207M
Ad Value Equiv.$1.91M
Q4 2025Oct – Dec
Mentions73
Total Reach (UVM)309M
Ad Value Equiv.$2.86M
Coverage Analysis — 2025
Coverage Theme Breakdown (2025)
Expansion31.5%
Industry News20.7%
Thought Leadership15.2%
Company News13.6%
Awards / Partnerships19%
Monthly Press Hits — 2025
19
10
9
8
13
13
7
10
12
32
30
11
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Q4 peak driven by audrai launch + global hires release
Standout Coverage — 2025
Key placements from across the year. Click to expand.
Share of Voice — Jan 2025 to Mar 2026
Share of Voice — 2025 Annual
Talon
Recent Moves
2025Maintained 34.8% share of voice vs billups' 32.9%. Talon's UK presence remains a significant media advantage.
Q4Active in European press with campaign-led coverage. Less visible in AI/tech trade positioning compared to billups' audrai narrative.
Q1 '26ECN — a Talon partner network — launched Luxe, a curated place-based DOOH package targeting luxury brands and high-net-worth audiences across Europe. Signals Talon's push into the premium European DOOH segment.
What This Means for billups
The ECN Luxe launch shows Talon doubling down on premium European inventory. billups' opportunity is to counter with its own global scale story and AI-driven performance narrative — positioning precision over prestige.
MiQ
Recent Moves
202520.5% share of voice — significant gap behind billups and Talon. Coverage largely tied to broader programmatic stories rather than OOH-native positioning.
Q1 '26Launched Sigma, an AI-powered marketing platform — MiQ's most significant product move in recent years, positioning the company as an AI-first media partner across channels.
Q1 '26Executive leadership changes reported — signals internal restructuring potentially tied to the Sigma platform launch and broader strategic repositioning.
What This Means for billups
Sigma shows MiQ is moving into AI narrative territory. billups must move quickly to differentiate audrai as OOH-native AI — not generic programmatic AI — and own the specificity of AI built for out-of-home performance.
AdQuick
Recent Moves
20258.9% share of voice — AdQuick's self-serve positioning targets a different buyer persona than billups' enterprise and agency focus.
Q1 '26Outfront Media entered into an exclusive multi-year commercial partnership with AdQuick — a significant supply-side move that gives AdQuick preferential access to Outfront's national OOH inventory.
What This Means for billups
The Outfront partnership meaningfully strengthens AdQuick's inventory position and could attract mid-market buyers. billups' response is its independence and neutrality — no exclusive supply deals means unbiased planning and access to the full OOH ecosystem.
Kinetic's low SOV validates billups' "world's largest independent OOH agency" positioning as a genuine differentiator.
Whitespace Opportunities for billups
Areas where billups can own the narrative that competitors are not occupying.
AI-native OOH
Competitors are not talking about AI meaningfully or position it as an add-on. billups has the opportunity to own the AI-native OOH narrative through audrai and Analytics 2.0.
European media dominance
Whitespace in European business media and AI-focused publications for billups to establish thought leadership around global expansion and AI innovation.
Independent vs holdco
Kinetic's low SOV despite WPP resources proves the independent story resonates. billups can tell a groundbreaking business story about modernising OOH without holdco constraints.
Mainstream business press
Many OOH companies underutilise mainstream business outlets. Clear opportunity to expand beyond trade press to AdAge, Digiday, Fast Company audiences.
Predictive intelligence
Moving beyond measurement to predictive intelligence — more forward-looking than competitor focus on attribution. From data-driven to AI-native.
Technical depth
Some competitors have weak spokesperson benches. billups' Shawn Spooner on AI + product and Ranga on global expansion provides a strong, credible thought leadership advantage.
Final Items to Close Out
Podcast
Shawn Spooner x AdTech Heroes Podcast (w/ Jon Wallett) — briefing doc delivered, prep call held, awaiting recording and posting (3–4 weeks).
POSSIBLE Conference (Apr 27–29) — SMG support options under review. billups to advise on support required.
Apr 27–29
Event
Cannes Lions 2026 (Jun 22–26) — strategy, event planning, media outreach and lunch event options in development.
Jun 22–26
Salient MG Deliverables — billups US PR Program
Proactive earned media outreach — pitch development, journalist relationship management, and placement across target verticals including OOH trades, broader advertising press (Adweek, Digiday, Campaign, AdExchanger), and mainstream business media
Executive thought leadership — ghostwriting, pitch support, and media training for bylines, expert commentary, podcast appearances, and speaking opportunities on behalf of billups leadership (David Krupp, Shawn Spooner, Ranga, Jaime)
Press release drafting, editing, and newswire distribution for product announcements, hires, awards, and company milestones targeting relevant OOH and advertising trade publications
Media relationship building — proactive journalist briefings, story development, and relationship cultivation across all four relationship tiers (Evangelist, Familiar, Friendly, Aware)
Competitive media monitoring — tracking share of voice vs Talon, MiQ, AdQuick and Kinetic; identifying whitespace opportunities; newsjacking coordination across Ranga and Shawn swim lanes
Events strategy — Cannes Lions planning and media outreach, POSSIBLE Conference support, UK event coordination, and identification of event activation partnership opportunities
Strategic positioning counsel — messaging framework development, corporate story refinement, AI and product positioning strategy, and 2026 PR planning
Monthly performance reporting — coverage logs, metrics analysis (UVM, AVE, domain authority), QoQ and YoY benchmarking, and strategic recommendations aligned to billups' communications goals
2025 Media Relationship Map
Evangelist
OOH Today — Brent Baer Adweek — Ryan Joe
Familiar
The Information — Catherine Perloff Adweek — Kendra Barnett AdExchanger — Joanna Gerber Digiday — Sam Bradley DailyDOOH — Adrian Cotterill
Friendly
Adweek — Robert Klara, Rebecca Stewart, Kathryn Lundstrom Advertising Week — Richard Larsson Campaign ME — Anup Oommen Campaign — Luz Corona Digiday — Michael Burgi
Aware
MediaPost — Fern Siegel, Joe Mandese AdExchanger — Anthony Vargas, Victoria McNally AdAge — Jack Neff Billboard Insider — Dave Westburg eMarketer — Jeremy Goldman Marketing Brew — Kristina Monllos