EUROPE NEWS

FEPE NEWS: FEPE partners with international consortium to deliver Audience Measurement for Digital Out-of-Home

FEPE is delighted to announce that it is joining with APG|SGA, Clear Channel Outdoor, Exterion Media and JCDecaux to develop the first standardised industry approach to measuring digital out-of-home (OOH) audiences.

This unique industry collaboration comes in response to the continued global growth of digital outdoor advertising, estimated at 23% annually between 2007-2014, with further growth of 21% predicted in 2015.

The project will be presented at the forthcoming FEPE Congress, to be held in Budapest in June 2015, by two of the world’s leading experts in outdoor audience measurement: Urs Zeier, of Clear Channel Outdoor and Neil Eddleston of JCDecaux.

They will talk about the project’s origins, aims, timelines and international scope. They will also be showing the specially designed virtual environment that is being created for the project and explaining how this will be combined with eye-tracking to provide advertisers with robust benchmarks to evaluate digital OOH alongside classic OOH in the globally accepted Outdoor media planning systems.

FEPE is committed to continue working for the benefit of the Global OOH industry and to invest in research that furthers the success of Out of home across the world, such as the “Always On” research study in 2014.

FEPE International President, Mr Antonio Vincenti said;

“We are honoured to be working with our long term partners within FEPE on this landmark piece of research. As digital out of home revenues grow globally, we feel that this initiative will benefit the whole industry and help to continue OOH’s upward trend across the world”

FEPE 56th International Congress: Another 4 Speaker Announcements!

Along with Dave Trott, Nancy Fletcher, Annie Rickard, Rupert Day, Margit Kittridge, Nick Propper, Gerhard Louw, Stephen Freitas and Micheal Bayler we are pleased to announce four more speakers for the FEPE Budapest Congress.

Matthew Dearden, President of Clear Channel Europe
Chris Marjoram, Managing Director of Rapport UK
Adelaide McKelvey, Managing Director of Rest of Africa at Continental Outdoor Media 
Brendon Cook, CEO of oOh! Media in Australia.

All of these speakers will be sharing insights from their own markets and on the buying strategy and implementation of specific campaigns and other related issues. Next week we hope to issue a full (but provisional) programme of the whole Congress.

DELEGATE SPACES ARE NOW VERY LIMITED!

If you wish to attend and haven't yet booked please get in touch soon. We are close to reaching capacity for our Gala Dinner, so it will literally be a "first come, first served" system from now on.

The 56th FEPE congress, titled "Your Audience is Waiting", will be held between Wednesday June 10th and Friday June 12th at the Intercontinental Hotel, Budapest.

There will be 2 days of presentations and high calibre speakers from across the world, all of whom will be bringing their unique viewpoints on Out of Home and wider media and advertising industry insights. The Thursday night Gala Dinner, in keeping with the FEPE tradition of finding special locations, will be at the Buda Castle, one of Budapest's most iconic buildings, and the Friday night social evening will be at a dinner cruise down the river Danube, taking in all the sights of Budapest for 3 hours.

Delegate fees are unchanged from last year (and several years before) at €1500 for members and €1600 for non members. You can still register by following the link on the FEPE homepage and FEPE members all receive an additional €500 discount, so if you are considering attending with colleagues and are not a member, please get in touch so we can organise the most cost effective package for you.

Italy: Milan launches new electric bikes with Clear Channel in Piazza Duomo

Transport for London has begun the review process for its outdoor advertising contract, one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

To celebrate the launch of 1,000 new e-bikes in the city of Milan, many distinguished guests took part in a group bike tour – including Barbara Degani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment; Pierfrancesco Maran, City Counselor for Mobility; and Paolo Dosi, CEO at Clear Channel Italia.

BikeMi is Milan bike sharing system, managed by Clear Channel since 2008.

From now on 1,000 booster bikes will be available in Milan streets, complementing the 3,600 existing traditional bikes already used. This will turn Milan into the first city in the world having an integrated Bike Sharing system. It is an innovative project, which is unique in its scope and complexity. Designed and managed exclusively by Clear Channel, the system is strongly supported by the City of Milan and by ATM.

The arrival of Milan’s new electric bikes marks the start of the third phase of Bike Sharing in the city, at the start of the Milan Expo. Besides electric bikes, 70 new stations are being added. Out of these, 44 will be located on the route connecting the town center with Expo and will be moved to other areas of the town at the end of the event.

Also launched are BikeMi social network profiles, a mobile application to subscribe and check bike availability or free slots at closest stations. The service’s website has also been updated, including more features.

Paolo Dosi, CEO at Clear Channel Italia, commented: “Today I can be very proud of seeing what 20 months ago seemed a very risky project, maybe too ambitious.

When you finalized complex and innovative projects like this, you realize that people do make the difference. In this project, many of us have given their valuable and important contribution, but without Sergio Verrecchia and Giuseppe Mistretta, who guide and manage Clear Channel Italia’s Bike Sharing Division respectively, this small yet far-reaching example of project designed and implemented in Italy, would have not been possible."

UK: TfL and Wildstone launch tender for 'The London Landscape'

Transport for London (TfL) and Wildstone have launched the tender for ‘The London Landscape’, a new premium network of roadside digital advertising sites.

TfL is seeking a commercial partner to install, market, sell and manage a portfolio of digital underpass advertising sites. This is part of TfL’s plans to use its assets to generate £3.4bn in non-fare income over the next decade to reinvest back into the transport network to deliver improved services for customers and users.

Over the last two years, TfL has been working with Wildstone, the largest outdoor advertising consultancy in the UK to identify the advertising sites across the Capital. The underpass estate comprises of thirteen digital sites and twenty five digital screens throughout the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) which makes up 580km of London’s roads and carries a third of its traffic.

The sites oversail major arterial routes targeting over 20 million road users every week. TfL’s network of digital advertising sites will also enable it to communicate information to motorists to warn them of pre planned events and heavily congested areas.

Full story here

UK: Primesight promotes Chris Forrester to managing director

Chris Forrester has been promoted to managing director of Primesight, from his previous role as commercial director.

Forrester joined Primesight, one of the UK's largest suppliers of Out of Home (OOH) solutions, in 2012 and was instrumental in repositioning the business around the Results Are Our Culture ethos.

Since he joined the out of home specialist, he has been named as one of Campaign's top ten commercial directors and also helped Primesight win a two-star Best Companies rating for the last two years.

Naren Patel, Primesight's chief executive, said:

"Chris is a top class operator with tenacity and commercial acumen and has helped reposition Primesight and raise its profile. "The sales and marketing functions have benefitted hugely from his leadership and it is time for him to add our Development and Operations team to his remit. "The Out of Home industry has a number of important contracts that are coming up for tender and it will be invaluable to have Chris working alongside me on these developments."

Forrester said:

"I have had a phenomenal three years as Commercial Director and been lucky to work with some extremely talented individuals. "I'm delighted with the promotion and really excited about the next phase of my career with Primesight and feel privileged to be working closer with Naren and other members of the Executive across the broader business."

Source

Switzerland: APG|SGA ends its association with Geneva Airport

Following a non-public tender, Geneva Airport (AIG) has re-awarded the concession agreement for out-of-home advertising which was due to expire on 30 June 2015.

APG|SGA regrets Geneva Airport's decision to end its long-standing, highly successful cooperation with APG|SGA Airport (Bercher SA) in the area of analogue poster advertising after more than 60 years.

This decision entails the closure of the branch of APG|SGA Airport at Geneva, and new internal opportunities are being sought for its four employees. The effects of the non-renewal of this agreement on APG|SGA's operating result are minimal.

APG|SGA Airport remains active in this segment with offerings in and around the Lugano and Basel airports as well as in the railway stations at the Zurich and Geneva airports, and will make use of other opportunities.

Belgium: JCDecaux Punks Marketing Directors Into Taking A Meeting

If you've ever attempted to get time in front of a big name marketing director, you know they can be a bit...unavailable. If you're an agency trying to pitch one of these marketing directors then you know what I'm talking about.

But what if you were a "lowly" media outlet like JCDecaux? You can imagine just how frustrating scoring a meeting can be. Well JCDecaux in Belgium had had enough of the brush off and decided to do something about it.

The outdoor company posted photos of big name marketing directors from Coke, Mondelez, Brussels Airlines, Renault and others along with their name and an email address at JCDecaux. After an hour or so, the marketing directors began hearing about these placements from their friends, family and business associates. Some of the marketing directors thought their friends were playing a joke on them.

Others were simply angry. All came to the realization that, "Oh, hey. Outdoor advertising does actually work.

Which is exactly what JCDecaux has been trying to tell these meeting-averse people all along. JCDecaux responded to each and every one of the marketing directors who used the email on the billboard to reach out with an email which read, in part, "Our sincerest apologies if we scared you. We just wanted you to experience the effectiveness of outdoor advertising...As you said it yourself, you got so many reactions from only one billboard.

Just imagine what our entire network could do for your brand." The email contained a link to book a meeting with JCDecaux. Every single one of the marketing directors responded and booked a meeting.

Watch the video here

Netherlands: Shell Deploys Digital Signage Network Using BroadSign International, LLC's Software

Shell Deploys Digital Signage Network Using BroadSign International, LLC's Software 600 screens in the Netherlands and United Kingdom were operational as of March 2015.

The Hague, Netherlands. May 12, 2015. Shell is improving the refuelling experience in retail forecourts through the initial deployment of its digital signage network using BroadSign International, LLC’s cloud-based platform.

Contrary to in-store gas station networks, Shell’s screens are outside at the pump and make use of fuel dispenser triggers at the forefront of industry technology.

At the start of 2015, 50 Shell locations comprising 400 screens were fully operational in the Netherlands and another 25 locations featuring 200 screens went live in March as part of the network’s global expansion. A pilot program in Malaysia is currently underway.

Content provides visitors with helpful information and promotions to assist in refuelling safely and easily, and enhances the customer experience on Shell forecourts. A typical loop lasts 90 seconds with 10-second slots per message.

In selecting a digital signage software provider, Shell analyzed the market and determined that BroadSign’s platform was most qualified to handle the network’s specific and progressive requirements.

“Shell is a prestigious brand worldwide and its digital signage network attests this,” said Skip Beloff, Vice President of Sales at BroadSign. “As such, BroadSign has been happy to align our global footprint with their own, assist with advanced feature development relating to fuel dispensers and maintain reliable service for superior customer relations.”

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Sonic's 3-D Slushes Named the Year's Best Billboard Campaign at 2015 Obies

Adams Outdoor Advertising took home the Best Billboard Campaign award for its "Big Slushes" ads for Sonic Drive-In at the Outdoor Advertising Association of America's Obie Awards on Tuesday night.

The campaign turned billboards in the Charleston, S.C., area into giant slushes complete with 3-D straws.

Kenneth Cole Productions and the Seattle Aquarium won the other two major awards.

Cole won the 2015 Best Street Furniture/Transit/Alternative Campaign award for its "Be the Evolution" campaign in the New York subway, which urged men to perform good deeds throughout the day, like giving up a seat on the train or taking a photo for a tourist.

The ads promoted Cole's Mankind Fragrance. Seattle agency Copacino+Fujikado was presented with the 2015 Best Multi-Format Campaign award for the Seattle Aquarium's "Amazing Facts" campaign.

See all three campaigns here

USA: Ayuda Develops and Publishes the OUTFRONT app

Company publishes custom iOS app for one of the largest OOH media companies in the Americas

Ayuda Media Systems, an out-of-home (OOH) ad tech company announced at the 2015 OAAA\TAB National Convention that it has developed and published a new app to the Apple Store called the OUTFRONT app. The app was developed for OUTFRONT Media, one of the largest OOH media companies in the Americas, and is available today on the Apple AppStore for iPhone and iPad devices.

“We worked closely with OUTFRONT to develop this app” commented Andreas Soupliotis, CEO of Ayuda. “We wanted to develop a magical and beautiful experience that made it joyful and easy to browse all of OUTFRONT’s robust media assets from a mobile device.”

The app will be a valuable tool for both the local market and national buyers, as the mobile nature and vast catalog of information will enable easy access to the scope of information necessary to facilitate OOH programs. The app is a mix of location mapping, transit routes, and a product sheet. Items can be saved to iBooks, sent via email, or an RFP can be submitted to OUTFRONT via a familiar shopping cart experience.

Soupliotis further commented on Ayuda’s development of the app: “The OUTFRONT app builds upon the foundations of Ayuda’s ‘Zest’ product, which is part of the Ayuda Platform. Zest is a white-labelable product and framework that allows us to quickly build a custom iOS app for clients. Using Zest as a starting point allowed us to fast-track the development of the app, and focus on developing custom features with a custom user experience for OUTFRONT.”

Jodi Senese, Chief Marketing Officer of OUTFRONT Media commented: “The OUTFRONT app enables a wide array of prospects to have easier access to the information they need to make the planning and buying process simpler. We have a very client-centric approach, and these kinds of tools help especially with technology-savvy advertisers.”

Ayuda has been a long-time partner to OUTFRONT media, and has been providing services and products to the company since 2007.

Canada: Canadian Talent Rises to the Top at the 2015 OBIE’s

Last evening at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) held their annual OBIE Awards ceremony to recognize excellence in Out-of-Home Advertising. Rosanne Caron, President, OMAC had the honour of co-presenting the awards with John Ellery, Executive Director FEPE in the International Category.

Leo Burnett Toronto was a double winner in the international category taking a Gold for their Raising the Roof campaign and a Silver for their Ikea campaign.

The Raising the Roof campaign was designed to raise awareness on homelessness and that those with “normal childhoods” aren’t safe from the unfortunate events that, without the right support, can lead to homelessness. Click here for campaign details

For Ikea, this campaign was an extension to last year’s “There’s a Page for That” with messaging on billboards emphasizing that the various products, provide a service to make life easier from the Most Helpful Book in the World. Click here for campaign details.

There were also a number of Canadian finalists including: Juniper Park for Great Western Brewery, Juniper Park for Tropicana Farmstand, Zulu Alpha Kilo for Corona Extra, Zulu Alpha Kilo for Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill, SHOEme.ca for SHOEme.ca

“The winners and finalists are all memorable campaigns said Rosanne Caron, President, OMAC - congratulations to everyone on the great work.”

USA: Fliphound Brings Online Buying of Outdoor Advertising to Daktronics Digital Billboards

Fliphound, pioneers of real-time online buying for outdoor digital billboards, announced that Fliphound’s online buying and selling platform can now be accessed directly through Daktronics Visiconn® Display Management Solution to provide seamless and automatic configuration of Fliphound for Daktronics display owners.

With today’s announcement, digital billboard owners using the Daktronics Visiconn dashboard can now activate Fliphound to sell their digital inventory online.

“By working with digital billboard market leaders like Daktronics, we can grow the outdoor digital market by helping operators tap into digital advertisers and online buyers to access the $54 billion digital online advertising market. Millions of small and medium-sized businesses want to buy digital billboards the same way they buy internet and social media ads,” said Douglas M. Robertson, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Fliphound.

“Our platform demonstrates how we are working to bring solutions to operators, and Fliphound has a proven track record of attracting new, local advertisers to out of home advertising. Eighty-nine percent of Fliphound customers are local advertisers and more than 85% of the 500+ Fliphound advertisers are new to outdoor advertising.”

“Over the past several months, the interest in Fliphound’s service from our customers has been increasing,” said Collin Huber, Daktronics OOH Sales Manager. “We have integrated Fliphound into our Visiconn management software to facilitate easier use of the buying and bidding platform offered by Fliphound.”

Daktronics, headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota, is the largest manufacturer of outdoor digital displays. Since its foundation in 1968, the company continues to experience tremendous growth as traditional billboards are being replaced with the more versatile digital displays and as outdoor screens in stadiums are being upgraded to high-definition.

Source

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: Continental Outdoor launch Samsung’s S6 smartphone at the end of a rainbow

Continental Outdoor Media’s Contagious creative team conceptualised and actualised an innovative out of home (OOH) campaign in collaboration with Samsung’s media agency, the Starcom Media Vest Group, to launch the Samsung Galaxy S6 at Gautrain stations.

Synchronised rainbow coloured LED lighting was used to display the batteries on the phones charging simultaneously on platform billboards and on digital escalator displays, creating marketing message synergy. The campaign aimed to highlight the quick charge function on the Samsung Galaxy S6, 10 minutes charge provides four hours of power. The creative is up at Sandton and Rhodesfield Gautrain stations from 15 April until 31 May.

“The creative concept was drawn up by Continental’s Contagious division, with the Generic S6 creative provided by Cheil”, says Kirsty Carlson, SMV Group. “The Gautrain stations provide the perfect environment to showcase the new model.

The streamlined and modern aesthetics of the Sandton and Rhodesfield Gautrain Stations, reaching over 13 000 high LSM and techno-savvy passengers per day, provide the perfect platform to endorse the functions of the new Samsung S6.”

South Africa: The OOH essence of Africa

Out of home media is part and parcel of the African landscape, but it is moving with the times, says Adelaide McKelvey, managing director of Continental Outdoor Media’s Rest of Africa business.

Africa is a world of disparities, a continent with a complex history and varied demography, which makes it hard to fit it into a singular cultural identity. It is a continent that is welcoming, with immense energy, untold economic potential and unmet product needs.

Here, out of home (OOH) media platforms are interwoven in the fabric and history of the landscape. OOH’s ubiquitous presence speaks to the personality of each culture and environment, and echoes the aspirations and latent purchasing power of Africans of all races, religions and income levels. The middle class, growing at a rapid rate, is sustaining economic growth through increased consumption, and also through entrepreneurial integrity.

Nearly 45% of Africans are firmly entrenched in the new middle class, spending between $4 (R44.70) and $20 (R223.73) a day, according to the African Development Bank.

Informal markets, social networks, subsistence agriculture, microfinance and many other factors often bridge the gap between income and livelihood, allowing the $4 to go a lot further. Across the continent, city councils are ‘cleaning up’ their act and engaging media owners to inform, educate and participate in the improvement of infrastructure and ‘street furniture’.

Increasingly, we find bylaws are being enforced and there is a de-cluttering of large format ’questionable‘ sites, which are being cut down and de-flighted by council officials. We have also seen an increase in the need for private-public participation projects and the beautification of cities, which is a welcome change for regulated outdoor media owners.

Full article here

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Esprit Digital delivers landmark AUS $20m digital signage deal for Scentre Group

British technology to “fundamentally change” the marketing opportunities across Westfield shopping centres in Australia

Esprit Digital, Britain’s leading manufacturer of digital out of home displays, and Scentre Group, owners and operators of Westfield shopping centres in Australasia, are today announcing the launch of a bespoke digital signage network worth over AUS $20m that according to Bill Burton, General Manager of Scentre Group BrandSpace, “will fundamentally change the way brands can maximise the Westfield retail marketing environment.”

The Scentre Group deal is the latest international success story for Esprit Digital, a privately owned company which has been commissioned to design, manufacture, install and fully maintain the network of 1204 LCD displays across Westfield’s 37 Australian sites. The network is expected to reach 550 million shopping visits a year, and drive energy and sales to 12,700 retail destinations. This is the largest international deployment undertaken by a UK Digital Signage manufacturer.

Peter Livesey, Esprit Digital’s Managing Director, says: “What the Esprit Digital team has achieved with this project has surely never been done before. To install just under 800 units of this complexity in so many locations across a continent the size of Australia in three weeks is nothing short of a miracle. In one fell swoop we have essentially converted Australia's premier retail environments from a traditional paper-based advertising network to a digital one – amazing!

General Manager of Scentre Group BrandSpace, Bill Burton said: “The Westfield SmartScreen Network will fundamentally change the way brands can maximise the Westfield retail marketing environment. It gives them a level of quality, national scale, control and digital flexibility that they have been waiting for, enabling digital efficiency and effectiveness never before seen in Australian retail.

“The vision of BrandSpace is to connect brand and advertising partners with our 550 million shopping visits a year, and drive energy and sales to our 12,700 retail destinations.”