Why a Streaming TV Ad Platform Is Buying Billboards
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is increasingly becoming a channel for B2B technology companies looking to reach decision-makers in the real world. As SaaS platforms compete for the attention of enterprise marketers, AI founders, and venture capital firms, some are turning to highly targeted billboards and transit campaigns in tech-heavy markets.
Streaming ad platform Vibe.co is the latest example. The company has launched a bicoastal campaign across New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area aimed specifically at enterprise ecommerce marketers, SaaS leaders, AI companies, and venture capital insiders. The effort combines high-visibility placements—such as Times Square billboards, subway ads, buses, and taxi tops—with creative messaging designed to resonate with highly specific tech audiences.
Lyft, Babbel, Clash Royale, and HAIRSTORY are among the Vibe.co customers featured in the work which launched recently in out-of-home placements on both coasts.
In New York, the campaign runs across subway stations, Times Square billboards, buses, and taxi tops. With AI and VC companies as the OOH customer targets in the Bay Area and those ads featuring images that refer to Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen, among others.
To better understand the thinking behind the campaign, Street Fight spoke with Vibe.co CEO and co-founder Arthur Querou about how the company used hyper-local out-of-home placements and culturally specific creative to reach enterprise marketers, AI founders, and venture capital insiders.
The Bay Area creative references high-profile figures like Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen. How did you use culturally resonant tech icons to localize the message for that market?
Our core product is precision targeting that allows brands to reach specific people on streaming TV. The Bay Area campaign is essentially a live demonstration of that capability. We asked ourselves: who does every AI company and VC in the Valley want to get in front of? And then we made billboards that only people who know those names would decode. The references were chosen because they’re instantly legible to our exact audience and completely opaque to everyone else. That’s both the point and the product pitch. It’s like saying, if we can micro-target a billboard, imagine what we can do with your streaming budget.
Why did Vibe.co choose out-of-home (subways, billboards, buses, taxi tops) as the primary channel for reaching enterprise ecommerce and SaaS marketers in NYC?
We sell streaming TV advertising, so there’s something deliberately ironic about using out-of-home to reach people who buy media for a living. OOH is unavoidable in a way that digital isn’t. You can’t scroll past a subway ad. Enterprise marketers are sophisticated buyers who tune out most noise, but a well-placed physical ad in the middle of their commute cuts through the noise. It also signals that we’re serious. A brand willing to buy Times Square isn’t just another SaaS tool, it’s a platform that understands how attention works.
The NYC creative features eight of your current customers like Lyft, Clash Royale, and HAIRSTORY. How does that influence credibility and performance?
Social proof is the fastest shortcut to credibility, especially in B2B. When a marketer at a mid-size ecommerce company sees that Lyft and HAIRSTORY are using Vibe.co, the question shifts from “should I trust this platform?” to “why aren’t we on it yet?” In a hyperlocal context, that effect is amplified and feels less like an ad and more like a recommendation from a peer. The brands we featured are recognizable proof points that Vibe.co performs for real companies across various industries like transportation, ecommerce, apps, and gaming.
What differences in messaging or creative strategy distinguish the NYC campaign targeting ecommerce/SaaS marketers from the Bay Area campaign targeting AI companies and VCs?
The audiences have completely different currencies. In NYC, marketers want to know who else trusts you, so credibility comes from client names and demonstrated performance. In the Bay Area, credibility comes from cultural fluency and insider recognition. VCs and AI founders don’t want to be sold to directly, they want to feel like you’re in the room with them. So in SF, instead of customer logos, we led with cultural references that only insiders would catch: a forehead, a leather jacket, a kitchen sink. Same underlying message (Vibe.co can reach the people you want to reach), but the creative language is completely different.
Did Vibe.co use any localized data—such as foot traffic, commuter patterns, or proximity to tech campuses—to inform media buying decisions in either market?
Absolutely. Proximity was central to placement decisions in both markets. In the Bay Area, we specifically targeted corridors like US-101 and Market St., Battery Wall and others that are close to A16Z’s offices that VC firms and tech campuses cluster around. In NYC, subway line selection and station proximity to the neighborhoods where our target audience works were key inputs. We approach OOH the same way we approach streaming, which is that you don’t just buy reach, you buy relevance. Location data is how you make a physical ad feel targeted.
Are there differences in KPIs between NYC’s enterprise focus and the Bay Area’s AI/VC audience?
The KPIs reflect the nature of each audience. In NYC, we’re tracking more traditional demand-gen signals including inbound inquiries, demo requests, and whether we can tie pipeline to campaign exposure. In the Bay Area, the campaign was more of a brand play, so we’re paying close attention to earned media, social virality, and whether the right conversations are starting.
The viral moment the SF campaign created online was a meaningful signal that the creative landed. Our web traffic doubled in less than a week of launching the campaign, and we also track mentions on sales calls (e.g. billboards, OOH). Ultimately, both markets feed into the same question: is Vibe.co becoming the default choice when someone in our ideal customer profile (ICP) thinks about streaming advertising?
The campaign ultimately serves as both a marketing effort and a demonstration of Vibe.co’s core promise: precision targeting. If the company can reach the right tech insiders with a billboard, the message suggests, it can likely do the same with a streaming ad budget.
