You see the ad on the side of the bus, a blur of color and copy as it passes. The ad buyer, however, sees a polygon on a map, a route, and a number: 1.2 million estimated impressions, 65% against target demographics, a cost-per-mile. This is the translation StreetMetrics is selling, turning the physical, fleeting exposure of a moving billboard into a spreadsheet cell that looks and feels like any other digital campaign metric.
A bet on moving media
StreetMetrics is not trying to measure every billboard. Its wedge is moving out-of-home (MOOH) media, the ads mounted on buses, trucks, and digital trailers that snake through city grids. For decades, planning and measuring these campaigns relied on rough estimates and manual audits. StreetMetrics’ platform uses geospatial and mobile data to map vehicle routes against population movement, calculating estimated impressions and audience composition in a dashboard [StreetMetrics website]. It’s a bet that bringing digital-like accountability to this analog corner of advertising will unlock more budget from brands and agencies skeptical of opaque, old-school buys.
The company reports it has now measured over one billion miles of MOOH ads, a milestone that speaks to both the scale of the opportunity and the early traction of its method [Media4Growth, Billboard Insider]. Its partnerships, announced via its blog, suggest a focus on embedding its analytics directly into media operators’ sales stacks. Companies like StreetLevel Media, Adkom, and Accretive have integrated StreetMetrics’ data to offer clients what they call "next-generation" measurement [StreetMetrics blog].
The team building the yardstick
Founded in 2016 by Drew Jackson, StreetMetrics has operated for nearly a decade, a long gestation for a seed-stage company [Tracxn, Crunchbase]. The leadership team has been built out with industry veterans, a signal of its go-to-market priorities. Michael Steinberg, who joined as Chief Revenue Officer in July 2021, brought 25 years of OOH sales experience [StreetMetrics blog]. Breeze Dake serves as Chief Product Officer [StreetMetrics blog]. This pairing suggests a company focused on building a product that fits the existing workflows of media sellers and buyers, rather than attempting to disrupt them with a wholly new paradigm.
| Role | Name | Key Background / Note |
|---|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | Drew Jackson | Founded the company in 2016 [F6S, StreetMetrics blog]. |
| Chief Revenue Officer | Michael Steinberg | Joined July 2021 with 25+ years in OOH advertising [StreetMetrics blog]. |
| Chief Product Officer | Breeze Dake | Leads product development [StreetMetrics blog]. |
The quiet climb in Birmingham
Based in Birmingham, Alabama, StreetMetrics raised a $2.2 million seed round in mid-2021 [Birmingham Business Journal, Jun 2021]. It operates with a team estimated at under 50 people and revenue under $5 million [ZoomInfo]. The lack of splashy, national tech press coverage is notable, but perhaps strategic. Its growth appears tied to the trade press of the OOH industry and direct partnership announcements, a path for a company selling a tool, not a consumer story. The funding was modest, but sufficient to build the core platform and sales team for this niche.
Where the wheels could come off
The bet is clear, but the road ahead has its potholes. The primary competitive pressure comes from Geopath, the long-established industry ratings body for OOH advertising. Geopath provides the foundational audience metrics that much of the U.S. OOH industry transacts on. StreetMetrics must convince the market it is a complementary layer of real-time, campaign-specific measurement, not a replacement for that foundational currency.
Other risks are inherent in the model itself:
- Data fidelity. The entire value proposition rests on the accuracy of its geospatial and mobile-derived impression models. Any significant, public discrepancy between a StreetMetrics report and a client’s own perception of a campaign’s performance could undermine trust.
- Sales motion. The company must sell both to media operators (to integrate its tool) and to the agencies and brands that buy the ads (to demand its data). This two-sided adoption is slower and more complex than a single-customer-type product.
- Market size. While MOOH is growing, it remains a subset of the broader OOH industry. StreetMetrics’ expansion into static OOH with products like StreetCity shows an understanding of this ceiling, but each new surface requires its own measurement nuances [StreetMetrics blog].
For now, the company’s measured progress,partner by partner, billionth mile by billionth mile,suggests a focus on depth over hype. The cultural question StreetMetrics is implicitly answering is whether our physical environment, in its constant motion, can ever be made as legible and accountable as the digital feeds we scroll. Its platform argues that it can, one moving polygon at a time.
Sources
- [StreetMetrics website] About & Platform Description | https://www.streetmetrics.com/
- [Media4Growth] MOOH metrics specialist StreetMetrics goes past 1 billion miles of ads | https://www.media4growth.com/metrics/audience-data-measurement/mooh-metrics-specialist-streetmetrics-goes-past-1-billion-miles-of-ads-6210-58344
- [Billboard Insider] Street Metrics Hits One Billion Measured Miles | https://billboardinsider.com/street-metrics-hits-one-billion-measured-miles
- [StreetMetrics blog] Partnership announcements | https://www.streetmetrics.com/blog-posts
- [Tracxn] StreetMetrics Company Profile | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/streetmetrics/__xQ7PZNE_BcEkD5snylW2L3NY2CtJOVg-2LjMZFOAzIc
- [Crunchbase] StreetMetrics - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/streetmetrics
- [F6S] Drew Jackson | CEO at StreetMetrics | https://www.f6s.com/member/drewjackson1
- [Birmingham Business Journal, Jun 2021] StreetMetrics raises $2.2M seed round | https://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2021/06/08/streetmetrics-raises-2-2m-seed-round.html
- [ZoomInfo] StreetMetrics - Overview, News & Similar companies | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/streetmetrics-inc/452549731