Turning Background Music into Buyer Influence: How Vibenomics Built a Scalable AdTech Network in Retail

Most SaaS and tech founders spend their days chasing attention through screens — banner ads, search campaigns, social feeds. Brent Oakley, CEO and cofounder of Vibenomics, took the opposite route: he built a tech-powered, audio out-of-home advertising network that speaks directly to buyers at the moment of purchase.

What started as an idea in a high-end carwash evolved into a platform serving 6,000+ retail locations — and a media network 6x the size of Pandora. For SaaS leaders, Oakley’s journey offers a playbook for spotting underutilized buyer touchpoints, productizing them, and scaling into new markets.

Lesson 1: The Best Ideas Come From Buyer Behavior, Not Brainstorms

The insight that sparked Vibenomics didn’t come from a marketing plan — it came from watching real customer reactions in his carwash business.

Oakley wanted the experience to feel like a W Hotel lobby — high-energy, modern, and memorable. When he started running custom in-store audio announcements (even personalizing them for local customers), he saw a different kind of engagement:

“Visual displays are easy to ignore. But with audio, you can catch people even when they’re buried in their phones.”

Consulting takeaway: Your best positioning insights come from observing what gets your buyer’s attention naturally — and building solutions into those moments.

Lesson 2: MVPs Should Be Embarrassing — and Fast

Vibenomics’ early MVP was clunky. Playlists couldn’t be updated remotely, so changing a song meant overnighting new devices to customers.

But speed beat perfection: within months they landed multi-location clients like trampoline parks, learned which operational pain points they could solve, and discovered bigger opportunities in retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG).

For SaaS teams: Early product friction isn’t failure — it’s the fastest path to refining your real value proposition.

Lesson 3: Know When to Pivot the Business Model

The original plan was pure SaaS: sell enterprise licenses to manage in-store music. But big customers like Kroger didn’t want to manage the tech — they wanted a managed service.

That shift forced a business model pivot:

• From selling software seats → to selling ad inventory.

• From serving retailers as the buyer → to serving advertisers as the buyer.

By controlling the network, Vibenomics could monetize through CPM-based advertising sales — targeting buyers at point-of-sale through programmatic audio.

Consulting takeaway: If your intended buyer doesn’t want the work, find the stakeholder who does — and reposition the offer around their goals.

Lesson 4: Domain Knowledge Is Powerful — Borrow It If You Don’t Have It

Oakley had no adtech experience. Instead of guessing, he partnered with industry veteran Paul Brenner, who built out the advertising strategy and revenue model.

This outside expertise didn’t just accelerate execution — it opened doors into agency and brand relationships that would have taken years to develop.

For founders: You don’t need to be the expert in every domain — but you do need to bring in people who are, and give them room to lead.

Lesson 5: Founders Must Learn to Let Go

Transitioning from “dictating every move” to empowering executives was one of Oakley’s hardest shifts. But letting go gave him time to focus on:

• Vision and long-term strategy

• High-value partnerships

• Potential acquisitions and funding

It also elevated his leadership team, creating more alignment and ownership across the company.

Consulting takeaway: If you want to scale, your role should shift from execution to influence.

Lesson 6: Everyone in the Company is in Sales

Even though Vibenomics has a dedicated sales team, Oakley insists that every employee is a salesperson — product engineers included. Knowing and being able to articulate the company’s value prop creates more referral opportunities, partner introductions, and internal alignment.

For SaaS growth, this cultural mindset ensures that every touchpoint — from engineering conversations to support calls — reinforces positioning.

Lesson 7: Position Where Buyers Make Decisions

By integrating with The Trade Desk (a leading demand-side platform), Vibenomics now sells its retail audio inventory programmatically. Advertisers can:

• Geo-target down to store level

• Sync in-store audio campaigns with web, social, and streaming ads

• Influence buyers as their wallet is already in hand

Strategic insight: For SaaS & tech companies, this is a reminder to map the entire buyer journey — and look for underused moments that directly precede conversion.

Key Takeaways for SaaS & Tech Founders

1. Observe, then build — insights from buyer behavior beat whiteboard sessions.

2. Ship fast, refine in-market — real usage data is worth more than perfect features.

3. Pivot when the money’s elsewhere — follow the buyer with budget and urgency.

4. Borrow expertise early — the right domain hire can compress years into months.

5. Lead through influence, not control — your execs should own execution.

6. Make sales everyone’s job — unify how the whole org talks about value.

7. Position at the decision point — align marketing with the moment buyers act.

Oakley’s journey shows how thinking beyond screens — and into buyer environments — can open massive growth opportunities. For SaaS and tech founders, the bigger lesson is that market positioning starts with where and when you meet your buyer, not just with what you’re selling.