FROM UNMANAGED SCREENS TO TWO MILLION MONTHLY VISITORS: HOW SMARTCAST IS MAKING INDOOR ADVERTISING MEASURABLE
Screens were appearing in pharmacies, clinics, stores and restaurants across Uzbekistan, but many remained unmanaged and difficult to measure. Venue owners had no simple way to control what appeared on them, while advertisers lacked reliable evidence of who had seen their campaigns.
Temur Kuronboev saw an opportunity to bring the transparency and measurement of digital advertising into physical locations. That idea became Smartcast, a technology platform for remotely managing screens, and Smartcast Media, an indoor advertising network that now includes more than 240 screens and reaches over two million visitors every month.
The company works across pharmacies, clinics, Makro stores and restaurants, helping advertisers measure campaign performance while giving venue owners an opportunity to generate additional revenue from their existing customer traffic.
In this conversation, Temur speaks about building the technology, winning the company’s first customers, measuring advertising results, learning from decisions that did not work as expected, and exploring a partnership model that could bring Smartcast to Georgia.
- Take us back to the moment you first saw a problem Smartcast could solve. What happened?
Screens were appearing in pharmacies, clinics, stores and restaurants across Uzbekistan, but they were largely unmanaged and impossible to measure. Owners had no simple way to control what played on them, and advertisers had no evidence of who actually saw their message.
We wanted to become the first indoor advertising platform with screens that are managed remotely and that give advertisers real analytics. Our goal was to make out-of-home advertising as transparent and measurable as digital advertising.
- What was the first decision that turned the idea into a real business project for you?
The first decision was to build the technology ourselves. We developed software that manages screens remotely, and even before we had our own network, companies were already interested in using the software on its own. That early demand gave us confidence that the problem was real.
The idea became a real business when we raised our first round of investment. It gave us the resources to grow both the software, Smartcast, and our own advertising network, Smartcast Media. Today the network has more than 240 screens across pharmacies, clinics, Makro stores and restaurants, reaching over two million visitors a month.
- How did you win your first paying customer in Uzbekistan?
Through our network. Our first customer came through personal and professional relationships, from people who already knew us and understood what we were building. For a new company, trust and proof matter more than price, so we offered a clear package of screens and locations with transparent reporting on plays and results.
- In a large chain, who actually decides whether to buy your service?
Our experience is that if we can reach the director or CEO, the deal is usually easier to close, because they understand the value of the service to their business more quickly. Marketing teams are important champions, but the final decision on budget and contract sits at the top. We therefore aim to bring the marketing team and the decision-maker into the conversation together, with a clear media plan, a price per screen and a reporting format they can rely on.
- How is advertising revenue shared between Smartcast, the screen owner and the local partner?
It depends on the location of the screen, the venue, and the average check size of the business hosting it. In practice we have agreed splits of 30/70, 40/60 and 50/50, with the venue’s share ranging from 30% to 50% of the advertising revenue.
Where a local partner leads sales in a new market, we agree the structure to fit the model: either a fixed licence fee per live screen, with the partner setting its own prices and keeping the upside, or a share of advertising revenue. In both cases the figures are transparent and shared with all sides.
- Which local cost has the biggest impact on the profitability of one screen?
The venue share. It is the largest single cost of operating a screen, up to 50% of the advertising revenue, and it varies with the location, the venue and the average check size of the business. That is why negotiating the right terms with each venue is one of the most important decisions in the model.
- What does your team do when a screen stops working during a live campaign?
We monitor screens remotely on the Smartcast platform, so we usually see a problem before the client does. Our media operations team identifies the cause, whether connection, device, power or the venue, and fixes it remotely or sends someone on site. We inform the client proactively, and because we count every play, any missed airtime is compensated with additional plays or a credit.
- Which campaign gives the clearest evidence of the value customers receive?
The campaign of Uysot, a platform that advertised with us. Within one month, in one of our packages, they were exposed to more than one million impressions. That gave them brand visibility with the right audience and the trust that comes from seeing measurable results.
- Can you recall a sales or partnership decision in Uzbekistan that did not work as expected?
Yes, hiring. We tried to build the sales team around outbound business-development hires. Two of those hires did not work out: one left within days because the role was too sales-driven, and another never started. I realised it was a pattern in how we defined the role, not bad luck.
We paused cold outreach, covered the gap with inbound leads, a sales-development representative and account management, and redesigned the role around what the business actually needs.
- How has your own approach to leading the business changed since the early days?
In the beginning I did almost everything myself, including outbound sales to warm contacts. As the business grew, I moved from doing to building systems: we wrote an operations playbook covering sales, media operations, product, HR, finance and escalation, and defined who owns what.
Today my focus is the expansion of the business into new markets, and I have learned that hiring the right team makes a huge difference. The right people, clear roles and good processes are what allow us to grow beyond a single market.
- What would a Georgian partner need to take responsibility for in a possible pilot?
The commercial side: finding and winning the first venues and advertisers, managing those relationships, local invoicing and collection, and first-line support. They would also bring local knowledge of how decisions are made and how business is done.
Smartcast would provide the platform and toolkit, technical support, training and sales materials. We would agree a short launch plan with target segments and first customers, and review progress together every quarter.
- If you could recommend just one first step to a Georgian company entering Uzbekistan, what would it be?
Do proper market research before entering. Market analysis and competitor analysis are vital to avoid spending a lot of money on expansion that does not work. Then test before you scale: run A/B tests on your marketing and advertising to learn what resonates with local customers. This is also an area where we can help.
- What figures from that campaign can you share to support the result?
For the Uysot campaign, the headline figure is more than one million impressions within a month in one of our packages. Our platform reports the estimated impressions, number of plays, number of views and unique views, and the demographics of the audience, including age and gender distribution. We can also measure how long people looked at the advertisement, which shows how engaged the audience was.
- How do campaign payment terms compare with settlement terms for screen owners?
Advertisers pay in advance, and we pay our venue partners at the end of the month. This keeps our cash flow healthy and means we settle with venues only once the campaigns have run.
- Which real case led you to give that market-entry advice?
From my own experience, Nexia International wanted to enter the Uzbek market and waited until the law on audit and accounting changed and became more international. When they entered, they had a clear advantage: there were few accounting firms able to deliver reporting to international standards. Patience and preparation paid off, because they entered at the right moment instead of the earliest one.
SMARTCAST’S STORY SHOWS HOW AN OVERLOOKED PHYSICAL ASSET CAN BECOME A MEASURABLE BUSINESS PLATFORM
The screens were already present in pharmacies, clinics, stores and restaurants. What was missing was the technology to manage them, the data to demonstrate their value and a commercial model that could benefit advertisers, venue owners and operating partners.
Smartcast’s experience also highlights an important principle for cross-border expansion between Uzbekistan and Georgia. Technology alone is not enough. Successful market entry requires research, local relationships, clearly divided responsibilities and a willingness to test the model before scaling it.
A potential Georgian pilot would combine Smartcast’s technology and operational experience with a local partner’s knowledge of venues, advertisers and local business practices. For Georgian companies working in advertising, retail technology, media sales or digital signage, this could offer a practical route into the measurable indoor advertising market.
We are grateful to Temur Kuronboev for sharing Smartcast’s story, lessons and partnership model, and we look forward to following the company’s next stage of growth in Uzbekistan and beyond.