Regional out-of-home (OOH) advertising provider Bishopp Outdoor Advertising has announced a significant expansion in 2024, launching 126 new OOH sites across the country. This bold move includes 14 roadside digital sites and several key partnerships, strengthening its regional presence.
Chatting exclusively with B&T, Dominic Lis, sales director, and Nick McAlpine, commercial director at Bishopp Outdoor Advertising, unpacked the strategy, innovation, and vision behind this growth.
Bishopp’s growth story this year revolves around strategic partnerships. Collaborations with Hobart and Launceston airports provide advertisers access to 95% of Tasmania’s incoming air passengers, while a move into the cruise market via the Port of Airlie terminal in the Whitsundays opens new avenues, reaching 700,000 passengers and 125 cruise ships annually. Furthermore, nearly 100 new advertising opportunities have been introduced in regional New South Wales, thanks to the partnership with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC).
“We see enormous opportunity in the airport space. Obviously, there’s a lot of competition between listed and international out-of-home providers in the capital city and major airports across Australia. We see enormous opportunities in regional centres, and that’s the very nature of our business, that opportunities outside capital cities predominantly drive us. But that lines up really nicely with our airport strategy,” said McAlpine.
“Hobart and Launceston specifically are amazing opportunities. 95 per cent of people arriving in Tasmania come through those two airports. They’re airports that are a real opportunity to showcase an amazing tourist destination at the front door to an incredible place”.
This year, Bishopp launched an average of more than two new sites every week, supported by a growing team. Its workforce expanded from 65 to 83 employees, with the addition of James Beadman as General Sales Manager and Phil Neely as National Commercial Manager.
When asked about the company’s momentum, McAlpine said: “Over the last five years, we’ve really honed in, partly through a process of trial and error, but also through the volume of experience across our airports portfolio, and have developed a product which we believe is best in market which matches the size and scale of an opportunity”.
Bishopp has this year picked up the award for the Concessionaires of the Year from the Australian Airports Associations in October and more recently was named business partner of the year at Cairns airport.
“We’re fortunate now that we’re in a position where our product is quite well sought after, and that’s reflected in our recent awards,” said McApline.
“This is a testament to the work that’s been done across the whole business, from the commercial team to the operations team, which develops best-in-class assets and obviously does an amazing job in the local market to drive new opportunities for the airports and our advertising clients”.
Bishopp is transforming regional advertising by introducing 3D anamorphic capabilities and large-scale video walls in key regional hubs such as Cairns, Gold Coast, Mackay, Sunshine Coast, and Whitsunday Coast Airports.
These advanced technologies are complemented by Bishopp’s adoption of programmatic advertising, which enables advertisers to optimise campaigns across its digital platforms.
“The programmatic space is really new for us. We’ve just started in the last few months, and it’s a space that we hadn’t played before. But watching the industry and watching what other players are doing is obviously the future. And if you look overseas, the way in which programmatic out-of-home is going, it’s really exciting,” said Lis.
“We’ve opened up our roadside assets to this space, and in the very near future, we’ll start in our airports, giving that offering to people that previously hadn’t considered these assets. We are already seeing the inquiries coming in, and some of the brands that hadn’t considered us previously are able to buy us and buy it easily, which is really exciting”.
Bishopp’s ambitious expansion and adoption of cutting-edge technology are reshaping the regional OOH landscape in Australia. With partnerships that target high-traffic locations and innovations that set new standards in advertising, Bishopp is poised for even greater success in the years to come.
