Chargefuze, led by Chief Media Officer Joel Martin, focuses on creating innovative charging solutions for mobile devices through partnerships with major companies in the entertainment and retail sectors. Their model facilitates targeted advertising by offering free battery rentals, enhancing user engagement and brand interaction while providing invaluable audience data. With international expansion plans and a strong foothold in the out-of-home advertising market, Chargefuze aims to redefine the advertising experience through technology and strategic collaborations.

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Chief Media O cer of
chargeFUZE / adFuze
Member Spotlight | chargeFUZE
A conversation with Joel Martin, Chief Media O cer of chargeFUZE / adFUZE
by Luke Barnwell / 11. March 1995 / Member Feature / 0
Tell us a bit about your background and what led you to become Chief Media O cer of chargeFUZE /
adFuze
Two years ago at South by Southwest (SXSW), Colin Duethorn,
Global Lead/Revenue Partnerships at Snap Inc., reached out saying
he had the perfect role for me and asked if I could join him at a
dinner after the expo closed. At this dinner, I met the early
chargeFUZE team and we spent the evening talking.
Toward the end of the night, they ended up offering me an early
advisory role. At rst, it began as weekly meetings with the
company, but as time moved on, I shifted my focus from charging
electric bikes with Swiftmile and eventually came on a full-time
basis with chargeFUZE.
What has driven chargeFUZE’s recent success? How do you look to
continue building on that success?
I think the most important part of our success would be rooted in the partnerships that our two founders,
CEO Brandon Afari and President Ryan Levy, started working on in 2018. Within the rst two years of
launching chargeFUZE, they were already partnering up with some of the biggest names in entertainment,
retail, and live events. As they started the organization, they didn’t see themselves as only a vending
company; instead, they saw the business opportunity as the rst stage in launching an IoT (Internet of
Things) hardware and software company.
These early relationships were the key to attracting some big names to join the team, including one of the
early members of Bird Scooters, Chan Nguyen, as our CTO. Most recently, our family was joined by
MobileQubes, an early pioneer in the space. Through this relationship, we added hundreds of locations to
give us the scale we needed to start selling advertising.
I work side by side now with Sean Carrigan, the founder of
MobileQubes, who transitioned to become our SVP Business
Development. chargeFUZE also brought in Shonari Smith,
the former head of operations at Brightbox, the rst company
I worked at when I got into advertising. With each of these
incredible individuals now in the same organization, we’ve
built essentially an all-star cast of OOH + Charging.
Our current success is fueled by partnerships with
companies throughout the OOH space. Big players like Live
Nation, ASM Global, and Intersection helped put us on the
map to get into larger venues like the American Airlines
Center in Dallas. I actually have a video clip of Mark Cuban walking around CES with one of the
chargeFUZE batteries that can be found in his stadium. Interactions like this get us brand recognition that
we didn’t have before and it’s so exciting. I got a hundred messages on Linkedin when I posted that clip
from Brand Innovators.
Since working with the chargeFUZE team, I’ve rekindled my interest in phone charging and OOH. There’s a
ton of momentum and this excites me more and more each day. Our solution is not just a One-To-Many
format as traditional billboards, but essentially a One-To-Many.
I see free mobile phone power as a way to set people on their daily journeys. We are giving individuals
power sustained through advertising that can connect them to the subway, their next meal, banking, work,
friends, family, and more. There is no limit to how we can connect these worlds and target audiences via
these batteries.
What makes chargeFUZE’s inventory attractive for advertisers? What makes it stand out from others?
We can run ultra-speci c ads on our inventory relevant to the venues. chargeFUZE can be in any type of
venue and do well. People need their phones, especially if they’re visiting somewhere new and will be away
from a charger all day.
Our variety of partners and locations make it an attractive
option for anyone looking to reach a particular audience or to
retarget guests as they go about their day.
Thanks to our audience segmentation capabilities through
Geopath, we can reach the right customers with the right
screens. Only chargeFUZE can offer the end-users a free
battery rental at a venue for engaging with your brand via our
screens. Watch the ad, engage, get a code for a free rental,
and come back and see the brand again to return the battery.
We deliver multiple impressions for the same ad. It is an
amenity and a memorable experience all in one that goes
beyond a traditional OOH sale. In my opinion, we offer media planners a much higher value than a regular
screen.
Our screens are part of an experience that can enable users to engage with your brand at a higher level of
Traditional OOH, which is known as a “one-to-many” medium. Our technology allows you to have a “one-
to-one”, message similar to how traditional digital channels work. By engaging with the “power” supply of
audience mobile devices we deliver a sought-after memorable experience in addition to DOOH media
campaigns. I truly believe we are the only company in the space that delivers multiple impressions while
providing an experiential activation using batteries.
What are the most exciting opportunities that exist for chargeFUZE today?
chargeFUZE’s growing number of partnerships have helped us go international. Many of the same
partnerships in the United States will help us grow at scale in Canada. chargeFUZE has made its way into
the UK, Germany, and Sweden. This presents us with an incredible opportunity and continues our upward
trajectory as we continue to scale into countries that welcome DOOH with open arms. I am incredibly
thankful for the opportunities our partnerships have created for us and expect continued success as time
passes. South America is one of the fastest-growing DOOH markets and I’m hoping we nd some partners
there soon.
How is Geopath membership valuable to chargeFUZE?
Buying Agencies have a wide range of software tools at their ngertips for their campaigns. Because of
this, they are expecting analytic tools with similar features to what they can get for their digital marketing
efforts. The reality is that the same technologies that have enabled mobile campaigns to take off in the
past ten years are now helping provide better OOH analytics. The apps and geolocation information from
our mobile devices have helped companies create real consistency across our industry. Opportunity to see
(OTS), impressions, reach, frequency, and deep dives into audience segmentation have all come from
embracing this standardization. This is only starting to become a
reality because of the data that Geopath is working on.
I go to a lot of trade shows and summits across the advertising
spectrum from the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the
Association of National Advertisers (ANA), MediaPost, and more. I can
say that the majority of the media buying side has legitimate
questions that relate to real-time or close to real-time as-delivered
audience impressions. They eventually want to see the backend for
OOH and expect the same instant reporting capabilities that they are
used to seeing in other forms of media digital, OTT, CTV, etc.
On a personal level, I have been attending the Geopath summits for the
past few years. Being a part of the organization and community has
been incredibly valuable. I’ve had some amazing mentors who have helped me get to where I am today in
the OOH space. That would not have been possible without this amazing network.
What’s the best OOH media campaign you’ve ever seen? What made it stand out to you?
My rst real job was driving a small truck for Coca-Cola. I’d go around and help grocery stores make those
complex Coke displays by stacking the cans. We were building pyramids, castles, or whatever they’d give
us with the schematics to build. It was the most fun to create these experiential marketing displays as a
rst job.
I’ve worked with other soda and energy drink brands over the years, but I’m always watching what Coke is
doing in the space.
Coca-Cola does an incredible job of pushing the envelope with their Out of Home ads, ranging from the 3D
billboard in Times Square to the different experiential activations worldwide. I’ve had the opportunity to be
a supplier at three different companies giving me a unique perspective on the most recognized bottle in the
world. Coca-Cola is constantly pushing the envelope. The Share a Coke to Hug a Vending Machine is one
of the many examples of their creativity. When I need to be inspired, I just log onto the Coke message
board and look for a cool activation.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Bio
Joel is currently the Chief Media O cer of chargeFUZE /adFuze, a father of three, and a proud Coke
Scholar. An active startup board advisor having helped several startups raise seed capital and advising
with go-to-market strategies. Currently an advisor to Swiftmile and a startup advisor to robotics delivery
company Ottonomy. He is a SxSw 2024 Panelist on DOOH Infrastructure.
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