Next time you’re queuing at a ticket office, and the temperature is sweltering, your eyes may be drawn to a digital display showing a tempting ice cream available in the shop a few metres away.
DIGITAL: Vizulink, led by Managing Director Callum Steward, pictured, and Tom Musker, Head of Engineering, specialises in software applications and installations of high-resolution digital advertising displays, including touch screens for retail stores, office screens and outdoor concert screens.
The firm is based at Ocean Village Innovation Centre, Southampton, one of 45 companies operating out of the services offices run by Oxford Innovation.
Next time you’re queuing at a ticket office, and the temperature is sweltering, your eyes may be drawn to a digital display showing a tempting ice cream available in the shop a few metres away.
Conversely, when it’s freezing cold, the same interactive screen will be filled with an image of an enticing hot chocolate – in effect, a temperature-dependent ‘playlist’ of consumer products and goods.
If you’re on an outbound ferry, geo-targeted digital advertising may be entirely different to what you would see on your return. After all, no-one wants to read about a pub if it’s in the wrong direction of travel…
Delivering this technology is Vizulink, which provides bespoke, digital advertising displays – ones that engage millions of eyes on behalf of the firm’s portfolio of clients.
These include Southampton Football Club, Red Funnel, RNLI Lifeboats, British Marine, The EatGood Club and OTRO, the premium service app which provides subscribers with exclusive content about global football legends such as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and David Beckham.
Vizulink, which harnesses GPS technology for location-specific advertising, specialises in software applications and installations of high-resolution ‘infotainment’ hubs, including touch screens for retail stores, office screens and outdoor concert screens.
Now, following expansion due to a growing order book, the company is to double its office footprint at Ocean Village Innovation Centre (OVIC) in Southampton, home to 45 start-ups, early-stage firms and more established businesses.
The firm was co-founded by Callum Steward, Managing Director, and Tom Musker, Head of Engineering, four years ago and moved into OVIC just over a year ago.
With 20 people, including five head office staff at OVIC and 15 outsourced IT programmers in Romania, Vizulink will be signing a licence for eight desks.
Callum said: “Companies looking to advance the future of advertising and marketing, in order to capture consumer attention, are increasingly utilising Vizulink. Hence the need for more space here at OVIC to accommodate extra staff and hardware.
“We supply and install customised digital displays via a sophisticated cloud-based content system which ensures that the advertising you see is adaptive, depending on a variety of factors.
“These include the temperature and weather to location and consumer calendar dates such as St Valentine’s Day or Black Friday. An advertising playlist is perhaps the best way of summing up the offering.
“There are a myriad of reasons to upscale at OVIC – there is a healthy ecosystem of like-minded businesses, with everyone sharing ideas, insights and best practice, you can draw upon the expertise of the in-house innovation director and occupancy costs are competitive.”
Services by Vizulink include bespoke display solutions, in-house design and animation, web and native apps, exhibition signage, digital wayfinding (virtual walkthroughs), digital billboard blanket advertising, in-house sponsored sales team and technical and content delivery.
Stephen Deller, OVIC Centre Manager, said: “Vizulink is one of 45 businesses based at OVIC and is another great example of an early-stage firm making inroads into markets with technology, innovation, flair, determination and energy.
“As an example of our ecosystem, Vizulink exhibited at the inaugural Hampshire Business Show 2019, which was successfully established by OVIC occupier Mitchell & Stones and sponsored by Oxford Innovation, which operates OVIC.
Other Oxford Innovation centres in Hampshire are BASE Bordon Innovation Centre, Fareham Innovation Centre and Portsmouth Technopole.
To find out how your company could benefit from OVIC’s ecosystem of entrepreneurs and serviced office support, please contact Stephen on 02380 381920 or email s.deller@oxin.co.uk Web: www.oxin.co.uk/ovic