About the GON

Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 March 2009 16:56

Company Information:

The Great Outdoor Network Inc. is the parent company for Great Outdoor Network.com, GON Agency and GON Financial Services (GFS). The company was founded in May of 2003 and is a privately held corporation. The first of its online editions for Great Outdoor Network.com was a private database from which we referenced media vendors for new business.  Its public release was launched in November of 2003 to media buyers and vendors in our peer group as a free resource.  At that time there were only a few options for media planners and buyers to reference vendors and most incurred a cost to procure the data.  The public resources were lacking any significant information or communications to develop a program.

Education:

The foundation of any industry vertical is the education of the people who are employed within that vertical. Many of the planners and buyers to include the founders of the GON are trained on the job. In truth many of the personnel who will work on the Out of Home budgets received their training in this fashion. This is because there was very little education in the formal education settings on the subject of Outdoor Advertising.  The emphasis is placed on TV, Radio and Print than the Out of Home space. The conundrum with this fact is that most assistants and junior account executives will work on the smaller budgets of the Outdoor Advertising segment as their first job experience within the agency.  We saw this as an opportunity to shape the knowledge of the young planners to cement the future of planning.

Therefore, the network was tailored more towards the person who needed an easy reference tool. Further that they could reference some of the major and smaller media vendors in the space to become familiar with options and contacts.  To aid in their education we afforded media vendors the ability to publish case studies, research, articles, press and campaign news through our network. The purpose of which, is meant to provide real world examples of successful media executions. This is also meant to foster ideas for their own campaign uses for clients.  Research articles and content provided on the site is aimed at providing grounding for various forms of media, so the choices in media options could be explained and verified with clients. The basis of understanding the media could then be shared to reach a greater appreciation for this cost efficient means of advertising to mass or micro audiences.

Business to Business:

The outdoor industry of today is a rapidly changing vertical. This is due to a variety of reason to include billboard investments, new non-traditional forms of media and the infusion of digital out of home into several of the Outdoor Advertising segments.  With this expansion has also included more brokers and service provider companies as any vertical would. (i.e. Real estate, Banking) However, with these additional layers between advertiser and vendors there is an ever increasing need to define who you are buying from and at what rate.  Many services offer improved buying clout and preferred rates and some offer exclusive inventory from the companies they represent.  Most of these models were brick and mortar. As of late there are non-media professionals are entering the space to commoditize the industry from internet platforms.  

The Great Outdoor Network.com was intended to be a business to business platform for the Outdoor Advertising industry.  So our business model is such, that there is free access to companies who offer media space for advertisers.  As a B2B network we are not encumbered with account validation, commissions or conflicts of interest between other media buying firms or advertising agency groups.  Communications and requests made between buyer and vendor are performed daily, and at times our staff is required to assist in this direct communication. The service supports the interests of both groups in attaining information and conducting new business.

GON Agency:

The GON Agency is not your typical agency; this is what we refer to our customer service option. Over the years, many visitors and buyers of media have required additional assistance in various stages of their planning. Our role is to assist both media buyer and the vendors within our network. Offering programs, media reviews and institution of new technologies has proven effective for dynamic campaigns and satisfied clients from all vantage points. This is due, in part, to the fact that we are independent and provide an impartial view of media options.  Our media architects based your needs with our extensive and long standing relationships perform all work in-house.

GON Financial Services:

The GON Financial Service is a function of funding media programs between advertisers and media vendors. With the several layers referenced above in the buying process, often the media vendors are funding campaigns privately for 60-120 days. This may cause financial burdens for some smaller or mid-size firms. This is not the case for most of the larger plants as this is a normal business practice.

Advertisers are seeking even more effective media which can stretch their existing reduced budgets to previous lengths of reach. The GFS service provides additional liquidity to the advertiser and expedites payments to the media vendors for advertising space.  By providing this function, we are assisting the media vendors and the media buyers with the ability to procure larger more efficient outdoor advertising expenditures.  

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