FEPE NEWS

57th FEPE Congress in Barcelona: Delegate bookings close at the end of today!

The FEPE Congress is now closing for delegate bookings

We have completely sold out the Congress hotel and half filled another one close by. If you haven't registered with us by emailing today we will be very unlikely to be able to accept your booking.

A pdf version of the 2016 Barcelona programme is available to download on the FEPE homepage.

Speakers and panel members already confirmed are Kester Fielding of Bacardi and Stephen Sargeant of Diageo, Tom Goodwin, James Murphy, Michel Sara, Mark Boidman, Bob Wootton, Annie Rickard, Abe San (Dentsu), Ben Milne (Dentsu), James Mitchell, (Mcgarrybowen) Nancy Fletcher, Rosanne Caron, Noomi Mehta, Alan Brydon, Mark Craze, Tim Bleakley of Ocean Outdoor and Charmaine Moldrich.

FEPE Board members and guests including Matthew Dearden, Christian von den Brincken, John Ellery, Shaun Gregory and Brendon Cook will also be moderating panels and facilitating sessions along with FEPE President Antonio Vincenti.

The Gala Dinner will be held at the Codorniu wine making facility, just outside Barcelona. Codorníu is synonymous to the history of a family of winegrowers which goes back to the XVI century. It is the oldest family business in Spain and one of the oldest in the world. It now has 450 years of history behind it.

The 57th FEPE Congress, which will be held between Wednesday June 1st and Friday June 3rd 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Fira Center, Barcelona.

UK: JCDecaux completes digitisation of Oxford Street’s bus shelters

On 23rd May JCDecaux launched its digitisation of Europe’s busiest shopping destination, Oxford Street with 50 new double-sided digital 6-sheet sized screens at bus shelters located near premium retailers such as Selfridges, John Lewis, House of Fraser and Debenhams.

The digital transformation of Oxford Street’s bus shelter network is part of JCDecaux’s London Digital Network (LDN) roll out of 1,000 84-inch fully connected, dynamic HD screens after being awarded the world’s largest bus shelter advertising concession by Transport for London (TfL) earlier this year.

Oxford Street, offers its half million daily visitors a choice of more than 300 retailers and accounts for an annual retail spend of one billion pounds. JCDecaux’s LDN is fuelled by data and allows brands to utilise its media planning and buying tool SmartBRICS and its recently launched SmartCONTENT platform allowing advertisers to make dynamic, contextual ads.

Spencer Berwin, Co-CEO at JCDecaux UK said: “We are committed to making London the global showcase of digital Out-of-Home and of course the flagship area Oxford Street is a huge part of this transformation. Brands can target affluent shoppers and now even make use of real-time data to deliver the right messages.”

Graeme Craig, TfL Director of Commercial Development, said: “JCDecaux’s new digital screens provide tailored, dynamic advertising and will brighten the journeys of our passing customers and other road users. Our partnership with JCDecaux is generating at least £300 million over eight years to reinvest in transport.”

Steven Medway, Managing Director Trading Environment, New West End Company said: “Oxford Street offers one of the best shopping experiences in the world. The introduction of these state-of-the art digital screens across our iconic streets will add to the overall visitor experience in London’s retail heartland.”

UK: How Bauer Media uses real-time digital ads to bolster its data-driven marketing

Bauer Media has been taking advantage of data-driven outdoor ads over the past few months to build on its own digital marketing. The formats are the result of a partnership with digital out of home media owner Kong Outdoor and creative technology provider Flux.

Kiss, Hallam FM and Radio Aire are among the first of Bauer's brands to utilise the companies’ outdoor digital ad screens and real-time updates to target consumers with personalised content streams. As part of Bauer Media’s recent partnership with the Brit awards, the media group promoted Kiss FM’s ‘Live At The Brits’ show through Kong’s 12 digital portrait sites in London, offering passers-by real-time updates on nominations, winners and stories from the Brit Awards 2016, using Flux’s technology.

Flux is also set to run 12 month campaigns for both Hallam FM in Sheffield and Radio Aire in Leeds, across Kong screens throughout each city. The sites possess the functionality to display intelligent messages that are easily edited. These will focus on such things as event and feature news, listener shout-outs and traffic updates. Bauer also hinted at working with commercial partners through the digital out-of-home technology, that will see the brand run adverts alongside its own content on the sites.

Kong Outdoor’s sales and marketing director Mark Catterall commented on this: “We're confident that our audiences and advertisers will see real value in combining great content with ads”. The campaigns come as part of Bauer’s ambition to take advantage of local opportunities and scale them globally, as well as building data-driven products centred on audience needs. This strategy is driven by the brand’s digital arm, Bauer Xcel Media, which launched in the UK last year to drive the brand’s digital development and growth.

Ali Wilkinson, head of content and partnerships at Bauer Radio said: “The collaboration with Kong Outdoor and Flux provides huge potential for audience development. They have a considerable network of influential locations across key territories for Bauer. We’re particularly excited by the scope to include the tech as part of future commercial partnerships, working with advertisers to deliver curated content for outdoor sites.”

Liam Rushforth, director of Flux, said: “Our technology allows advertisers to be reactive, disruptive and creative with digital out-of-home. Brands need no longer rely on carpet coverage; they simply advertise when it makes sense.”

Source

UK: JCDecaux UK hires Mashable’s Ben Maher and promotes Dallas Wiles in a joint succession of MD Sales role

JCDecaux announceD the appointment of Mashable’s Ben Maher as Sales and Partnerships Director, and the promotion of Dallas Wiles to Commercial Director. Both roles will report into Spencer Berwin, who was recently promoted from MD Sales UK to Co-CEO at the company.

Ben Maher will be joining JCDecaux from digital media website Mashable, where he held the role of Executive Director EMEA, in a bid to further strengthen JCDecaux’s digital expertise. Maher brings 15 years of experience in the digital industry; previously working at Weve as Agency Director. He will be looking to significantly strengthen the company’s relationships and partnerships with clients and agencies. Ben is an active mentor across UK start-ups, and has been involved in many areas of new technology and innovation from Space Tourism to initiatives including The Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace.

Dallas Wiles has worked at JCDecaux UK for 17 years across every sales division, and has been promoted from his most current role as Director of Trading.

As Commercial Director, Wiles will be responsible for trading, specialist relationships and campaign and inventory management. Importantly Wiles will also oversee JCDecaux’s SmartSUITE, which includes the audience and media planning tool SmartBRICS, and the recently launched dynamic creative delivery platform SmartCONTENT.

Spencer Berwin, Co-CEO at JCDecaux UK said: “Both Ben and Dallas are exceptional assets to our company and bring a wealth of internal and external industry experience. JCDecaux has rapidly changed into a digitally-focused business. Our London digital roll-out will add 1,000 digital screens to our offering, and we expect 50 per cent of UK advertising revenues to be coming from digital. Having both Ben and Dallas on board in these key positions will propel our digital offering and potential to the next level.”

Ben Maher said: “With digital being my passion, I’m excited to be joining JCDecaux which is transforming and innovating by the day. Out-of-Home advertising is a powerful and impactful medium and the only medium currently benefiting from digital disruption, so it’s the perfect time for me to get stuck in with the market leader.”

Dallas Wiles said: “I’m delighted about my promotion to Commercial Director within our business, and look forward to taking the next steps alongside Ben. Digital Out-of-Home now reaches 50% of the UK population, and JCDecaux is leading the way – so the sky really is the limit for us as we look to the future.”

UK: Launch of Partisan Communications

This week sees the launch of Partisan, a contemporary communications agency that places Out of Home media - in all its formats, environments and emergent technologies - at the forefront of communication solutions they devise for Advertisers.

Partisan is the creation of Kevin Shute (pictured) and Richard Blackburn, two experienced opera-tors with a unique perspective on the medium honed via senior board level roles with market leading companies on both the media buying and media owner sides of the sector. Separately, they have both created and led market-changing businesses in the sector from initial start-up through to their successful trade sales.

Partisan’s solutions - a combination of the unrivalled experience and insight of its man-agement and aligned to smarter data analytics and audience planning - will deliver a more effective and efficient communication strategy for an Advertiser’s investment in the medium irrespective of the size of the budget or the scope and complexity of the communication tasks.

The agency will focus on establishing direct Advertiser relationships with the emphasis on growth by attracting new, lapsed or infrequent users of the medium via more com-pelling, coherent and measurable solutions.

Kevin Shute commented: “Both Richard and I are versed in the OOH media sector from both sides of the commercial divide. We are unapologetic advocates of its evolution, its limitless capabilities and prowess to deliver an Advertiser’s message in a changing so-cial, urban and media landscape”.

Partisan has also forged a partnership with Talon Outdoor, the independent OOH media agency working with a number of direct clients and agencies. The two businesses will share some foundation services and Talon’s buying resources, whilst partnering on other client initiatives.

Eric Newnham, Talon’s Chairman and CEO commented: “The future success of OOH in this digital world is predicated on expanding the client base and showing many varied advertisers the opportunities that now exist. We believe that Partisan with Talon's support can open avenues for both large and small clients to use the medium in an intelligent and dynamic fashion. Having worked with both Kevin and Richard for many years I ad-mire both their approach and aptitude when it comes to getting the best of Out of Home.”

UK: How my spoof anti-Trump billboard went viral around the world

When art director Stephen O’Neill put together a poster for an internal creative competition, he never expected it to go global. But that’s exactly what happened with his ‘ghost’ ad opposing Donald Trump.

At AML, we have regular side projects around the agency positioning of simple ideas for complicated problems. One such project is to create topical spec ads – and nobody is more topical right now than Donald Trump.

I quickly put together a spoof political billboard ad, slap-bang in the middle of a screengrabbed Times Square. Lots of red and white – popular colours among US media – highlighting the ‘Don' and ’T' in the US Republican presidential candidate’s name to get ‘Don’t’ – sensible advice to American voters I thought. It won me an internal award (a 12 year-old bottle of sherry, finished off in 12 minutes). We blogged about it (the poster, not the sherry) and moved on to the next simple idea. But then things started to go a little bit viral.

A tweet about the billboard was picked up by an agency staffer in Singapore over the weekend. On Monday, I was amazed to see that the ad had been posted from Taiwan to Texas, and was the most-shared story on The Poke in the UK. A day later and it had been picked up by US advertising site AdWeek and instantly became its most-read lead story.

Often with traditional media, we humble creatives don’t get to see how effective our work has been unless we hear planners and account people chatting about the figures in the kitchen. But now I was seeing the share, view and like counters ticking round in a blur. With hundreds of thousands of shares, views had quickly gone into the millions, flooding newsfeeds on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

By this time, my seriously switched on workmates in AML’s social team were making sure the ad was being attributed to the agency, and not to the Economist; some observers had assumed it was part of that newspaper’s campaign despite not carrying a logo and being in a different typeface (a distorted version Caslon – a criminal offence in typographic circles).

Full article here

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Outdoor Ads Up In Q1, Spurred By Digital OOH

While other traditional media have their ups and downs, outdoor advertising has enjoyed slow but steady growth for the better part of a decade, a trend that continued in the first quarter of 2016.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, total out-of-home ad revenues edged up 3.3% from $1.59 billion in the first three months of 2015 to $1.64 billion during the same period of this year.

That marks the 24th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth, the OAAA noted – a recent record unmatched by any other local media when measured on a national scale. The OAAA’s measurement is based on an analysis of data provided by Kantar Media and Miller Kaplan, and includes billboards, street furniture, transit ads, alternative formats and cinema ads.

As in previous quarters and years, the industry organization attributed this growth to growing demand for digital out-of-home ads, as well as print formats. Out-of-home ads are also benefiting from ubiquitous mobile devices, which allow consumers to interact with billboards and provide a new way for outdoor advertisers to both target and measure audience response to their ads.

Fast-growing categories for OOH in the first quarter included miscellaneous local services and amusements, restaurants, automotive dealers and services, media and advertising, and retail, per the OAAA.

Full story here

USA: Havas Village New York drops the mic on Post-it wars

Havas Village has declared victory in the great ad agency Post-it war of 2016.

The agency that started the paper massacre against its neighbors last week on Canal Street has fired its final shot, replacing all of its Post-it war creations with a single, colossal symbol of triumph — Post-its forming a "mic drop" that covers the entire façade of its Canal Street building.

The team worked late Monday night to create a giant yellow, cartoony hand dropping a blue mic across all seven floors of windows. The creatives began work on the design at the end of the business day, and finally left the building after 11:30 p.m.The final design consists of about 6,000 Post-its.

Havas Village New York President Laura Maness says that the design harkens back to old times. "What made Canal Notes special was that it was completely analog," she said, "it brought us back to simple communications even in today's overly digital world.

Given that, we wanted to bring it back to where it started - with a simple Post-It message and design." Directly above the hand is a row of windows containing Post-it art left over from last week, perhaps a reminder of the damage done.

The Superman symbol, Squidward, a David Bowie tribute and the BB-8 droid from ‘Star Wars,’ survived last night. This could be the end of the 2016 Post-it war. But Maness did leave the battleground with one challenge. "We’ll see what our neighbors can pull off," she said.

But because the building across the street from Havas contains several agencies, it may be more challenging for them to pull of a single, multi-floor design. Putting the competition aside, Maness says the Post-it wars not only brought together employees, it has been "a channel to showcase our collaborative spirit and unmatched creativity."

Source

USA: How Advertising Can Move Beyond the Bottom Line

by Andy Sriubas, EVP, Strategic Planning and Development OUTFRONT Media

Don Draper’s poetic ad slogans wouldn’t stand a chance in today’s digital world. No matter how compelling the copy, consumer apathy to advertising is on the rise. In fact, the latest report from comScore says 10% of Americans use an ad blocker.

So what does that mean for today’s AdMan? We can’t rely on the message alone. We can’t bully consumers into clicking on us by stalking them from website to website. We must create a new consumer experience and provide a benefit. That means taking on new risks and thinking about the content creation and delivery to catch consumers’ eyes. When you make consumers a part of the experience, brands can cut through the noise and give more than a pitch.

An interesting manifestation of this mindset is the trend among retailers toward what AdAge recently coined “unstore experiences.” Samsung, Staples, Target, Reebok, Tory Burch — brands old and new, tech and non-tech are all upping their game to make the in-person store visit an opportunity to add value, personality and demonstrate their mission, rather than just another way to make a purchase.

Gatorade’s latest Snapchat campaign offers another example of taking an experiential approach to social. The sports drink virtually immersed Snapchatters everywhere in the Gatorade dunking experience through a sponsored lens consumers could overlay on their selfies. It wasn’t a heartwarming story or cutting-edge graphics that resulted in the 165 million uses of this ad; it was going to their audience and enhancing their social presence.

These are just hints at the possibilities. As every surface from billboards to taxi screens becomes connected, advertisements can become a public utility — a messaging platform that adds tangible value to our everyday lives, not just the latest Snapchat story.

Think about this scenario: A New Yorker enters a subway station in the winter and a digital sign flashes a blizzard warning with the latest train delay updates. Suddenly, the screen changes and JetBlue is advertising discount flights to the Bahamas with the latest last minute seat availability. That’s no longer about shouting a message, that’s providing a real service that even discerning Manhattanites can appreciate.

Or, on the opposite coast, imagine driving in Los Angeles during peak traffic hours. You look up and see a billboard for the Dodgers, but rather than promoting season ticket sales, the ad shows you a flurry of helpful information. It alternates between the latest game stats and the real-time, quickest routes for getting out of traffic and on your way home. You might not be attending the game, but at least the Dodgers have built some goodwill with you.

So how will we make every surface an opportunity to earn consumers’ attention? Developing app-based content, storing it in the cloud and making all screens connected. Brands will need to think like developers, creating content that connects to social feeds and gives consumers the opportunity to engage and be rewarded in real-time just as they do with apps on their smartphones. It’s creating hardware that’s durable, yet energy efficient, and purpose-built for its environment.

Consumers are erecting ad-blocking walls all around them, but these barriers are not impenetrable. So long as you can give consumers value, fun, help or the ability to engage, they will let you in.

Source

Canada: OMAC Website Provides New OOH Planning Resources

OMAC has launched a new bilingual website (www.omaccanada.ca / www.amcacanada.ca) that offers access to the latest OOH research while providing enhanced functionality for media planners.

Users can access the results of a new Canadian DOOH study which reveals strong perceptions on the value and effectiveness of the medium.

In addition, a new case study library allows users to quickly access case studies related to specific advertising objectives.

“The enhanced navigation and search capabilities will enhance the tools and insights that have helped planners over the years. The changes to the site reflect the growing importance of OOH and the need to provide information that meets the industry’s needs,” commented Rosanne Caron, President of OMAC.

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Adshel brings out-of-home advertising experience to IAB Australia

Adshel has joined the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia, signifying the importance of digital to the outdoor advertising sector and affirming its intention to deliver and contribute to best-in-class digital outdoor advertising solutions across Australia.

Adshel sales and marketing director, David Roddick said: “We are pleased to join the IAB. This membership is consistent with our vision to support the development of out-of-home digital advertising solutions. The association’s influence and leadership in shaping Australia’s digital economy is second-to-none in this market. We look forward to working with IAB Australia and its members and bringing another out-of-home advertising voice to discussions.”

IAB Australia’s director of marketing & operations Nina Nyman said: “As our industry continues to grow, it is important the IAB continues to represent a broad range of views and opinions. We are delighted to welcome Adshel to the IAB and look forward to collaborating with them as we work to support the future of Australia’s digital economy.”

The membership follows Adshel’s concerted efforts to enhance its digital capabilities and offering to clients. In October 2015, Adshel successfully launched Adshel Live – the world’s first national digital street furniture network with over 270 digital screens across Australia’s main capital cities giving advertisers scale and access to promote their digital out-of-home campaigns with increased flexibility and creativity. This was followed by the appointment of digital and technology specialist Andrew Brain who joined the team as head of digital and technology sales to support the growth of Adshel’s digital products.

Earlier this year, Adshel announced its plans to expand its digital roadside network with an additional 250 digital screens bringing the total of its digital roadside screens to over 500. The Company also has over 200 digital screens across the Sydney Trains network.

Australia: Sportsbet uses Adshel digital screen to engage Sydney commuters for State of Origin Twitter campaign

Sportsbet is engaging commuters ahead of the NRL State of Origin kick-off by launching a unique guessing-game on Adshel’s large format digital screen at Central Station in Sydney.

The game, which is live today until State of Origin day, combines the power of Sportsbet’s twitter following @sportsbetcomau with the high-traffic, key interchange Central station environment to slowly reveal daily ‘sledges’ against the Queensland Maroons team.

Through its twitter account each morning, Sportsbet encourages its followers to either Like, Retweet or tag a NSW Blues fan to reveal a letter from the ‘sledge’ phrase. As followers Like, Retweet or tag a friend, the Adshel digital screen is instantaneously updated to reveal a letter within the phrase. Once all letters are complete, a sledge to the Maroons is revealed on the big screen.

By using Adshel’s high impact large format digital screen at Central train station in Sydney, the campaign will reach up to one million commuter journeys during the week, providing entertainment, engagement and good old fashioned rivalry.

Brigitte Lowsby from Sportsbet.com.au said: “Through its digital out-of-home network, Adshel was able to offer us an engaging, live digital solution to amplify our social campaign while reaching commuters in the lead up to the game and on the day. What impressed us the most was the ability to upload and control our creative delivery based on commuter engagement.”

Adshel's sales and marketing director David Roddick sees this as part of an increasing trend on digital out-of-home: “Adshel's digital network has allowed advertisers to add live content, optimisation and creative depth to their campaigns through real-time price information, event-triggered messages, countdowns, tickers, or, as in this case, live social engagement. We're pleased to be working with Sportsbet and their agencies to engage audiences.”

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: ROAD, set to revolutionise OOH planning

Out of home media has long been undervalued in relation to other media, simply because it is so difficult to measure. As everyone knows, marketers no longer buy media, they buy audiences, and the more a medium knows about its audience the easier it is to sell good margin inventory.

With the buzz surrounding the hyper-granularity of online measurement plus ongoing improvements in broadcast media measurement, OOH has been the laggard at the back of the pack, stunting its growth prospects. Not any more. In a decidedly radical galactic-scale stride, South Africa’s OOH industry is on the verge of a long overdue boost that will undoubtedly lead to a renaissance of sorts and a deserved seat back at the main media planning table.

This is thanks to the commendable efforts of a bunch of industry stalwarts persisting for decades in their search for long-term measurement solutions, a highly ambitious and technically difficult research project and the deployment of state-of-the-art technology that rivals Google’s. The Outdoor Measurement Council (OMC) is an industry body that in some circles is tipped to replace OHMSA.

With compelling measurement tools, multiple data inputs and the major OOH media players’ support, it’s difficult not to see this eventuality. The players collaborating through the OMC to achieve this are JCDecaux, Primedia Outdoor, Ad Outpost and Outdoor Network, representing about 75% of all sites countrywide, Ask Afrika and Kuper Research, and a Spanish company called Cuende Infometrics.

On the ROAD

They make a comprehensive and formidable team, having created a startlingly good planning tool called ROAD, or Roadside Outdoor Audience Data. Put simply, the tool is built on the complex intersection of three data sets: (i) each OOH panels’ geo-location data, (ii) the demographic and tracked travel behaviour data-sets representative of 24 million adults (using stratified random probability samples of communities of 8 000 + population weighted to the latest census data), and (iii) the latter modeled against the enormous geo-spatial satellite traffic data measured by Cuende Infometrics.

The outputs will obviously be exceptionally reliable and empirical, and also fascinating. ROAD literally promises to peel the familiar layers of opaqueness in one hit to reveal a level of visibility and measurability only previously dreamt of.

Full article here

EURASIA NEWS

Russia: Why Samsung Turned a Russian Building Into a Massive Digital Billboard

Samsung makes big smartphones and now has a clever way to advertise just how big they are in Europe.

This week, the brand installed a massive 80-by-40 meter digital billboard onto the side of a building that runs alongside the Volokolamsk highway in Sokol, Russia that plays up the size of the Galaxy S7 Edge phone, which has a 5.5-inch screen and weighs roughly 5.54 ounces. To compare, Apple's iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch screen and clocks in at 5.04 ounces.

The building-sized billboard is positioned in a spot that Samsung claims gets seen by 800,000 people every day and can be seen as far away as 2.2 kilometers (or about 1.3 miles) away. A rep for Samsung Russia said the brand worked with Starcom MediaVest to secure the media placement on the biggest "media façade" in Europe.

It's not the first time that Samsung's gone big on out-of-home advertising. Last year, the brand worked with Leo Burnett Argentina to design a truck with wireless cameras and outdoor monitors around it to help truckers better keep tabs on other vehicles on the road.

"Safety Truck" also nabbed Samsung Adweek's Gravity Award, the top award in the Project Isaac Awards.

Source