"Use data, not gut feeling, for effective outdoor advertising."
Kim Dae-hee, CEO of Draft Type, made this statement during a recent interview with The Seoul Economic Daily at the company's office in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. Draft Type is a startup founded by Kim in 2023 that provides artificial intelligence (AI) advertising solution services.
Kim focused on the outdoor advertising market from the company's inception. "Outdoor advertising on buses, subways and other locations is mostly executed based on gut feeling," he said. "In many cases, companies place ads along routes frequented by executives or simply in areas with high foot traffic."
Draft Type has overcome these issues through data and AI analysis. The company cross-analyzes various data including regional, gender and age-based information provided by mobile carriers, as well as employee counts by company from sources such as the National Pension Service. The data is linked to location values on a proprietary map. With this map alone, the company can identify which customer segments pass by advertising boards on buses, subways and other locations in specific areas. "We spend 200 million to 300 million won ($150,000 to $225,000) annually to purchase data," Kim explained. "Data accumulated daily amounts to 100GB."
A notable case involves Beauty Company A, which executed outdoor advertising based on Draft Type's solution. Draft Type identified that the company's products lacked brand awareness and purchasing power among women in their 40s, and analyzed movement and activity data for this customer segment. The analysis revealed that many women in their 40s tend to commute between work and home via Subway Line 2 from areas including Mapo and Dongdaemun. Based on these findings, Company A placed outdoor advertisements near major subway exits along these routes. One year after the campaign, relevant metrics including brand awareness improved more than twofold.
Draft Type currently operates its own outdoor digital billboards in areas including Gangnam and Myeongdong in Seoul. The company also creates AI-generated advertisements for small and medium-sized enterprises seeking to enter overseas markets. As a result, revenue increased approximately 7.5-fold year-on-year to 3 billion won in 2024 from 400 million won the previous year. The company achieved operating profit of 300 million won last year, turning profitable. "We plan to enter overseas advertising markets as early as this year based on data from the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia," Kim emphasized. "We will change the paradigm of advertising."