If someone had told me thirty years ago that I’d be building a Digital Out of Home media network, I probably wouldn’t have believed them.
My career has always been centred around retail.
I’ve spent more than three decades designing, manufacturing, installing and supporting retail technology throughout the UK and Europe, working alongside some of the world’s best-known brands.
During that time, I watched Digital Out of Home evolve from simple digital signage into one of the world’s fastest-growing advertising channels.
But something always stood out to me.
Every town and city I visited had one thing in common.
- Busy high streets
- People shopping
- Meeting friends
- Waiting for buses
- Stopping at cafés
- Walking between stores
The audience was already there.
As the industry continued investing in shopping centres, roadside billboards and transport hubs, I found myself asking a different question.
What about the independent high street?
Not because it lacked advertising.
Because it had never been connected.
The more I travelled, the more convinced I became that independent retailers occupied some of the best locations in the country yet remained disconnected from the wider Digital Out of Home marketplace.
Eventually, my thinking changed.
I wasn’t looking at digital screens.
I was looking at media inventory.
I wasn’t looking at shop windows.
I was looking at audiences.
That simple change in perspective would eventually become High Street Media.
In the next Founder Journal, I’ll explain how that idea became a business built around one simple principle—putting retailers first.
