EUROPE NEWS

FEPE: FEPE International Congress Report Stockholm June 7-9 2017

By Stephen Foster

The 58th FEPE Congress – this is certainly a body with a few miles on the clock – played to a packed Congress hall in windy Stockholm from June 7-9.

Out of Home is an industry with a distinguished past and, so far as one can tell, a rosy future as the only traditional advertising medium to have embraced digital to grow its business.

This was reflected in FEPE’s decision to make two creative awards at Congress for the first time: Classic, which went to Twitter in the US for a striking billboard campaign produced in-house (below) which also won the Outdoor Grand Prix at this month’s Cannes Lions awards and Digital which went to Ocean Outdoor and MediaCom for ‘The Secret Lives of Pets’ from Universal Studios.

This dual nature of the global Out of Home industry also surfaced in a number of presentations. Sky Head of Media Planning Barry Louth (Sky is the UK’s biggest advertiser and leads the Out of Home category too) expressed his concerns that the digitization of UK posters head left his company short of static billboard options.

Adrian Skelton and Nick Mawditt from leading UK outdoor specialist Talon also revealed their own research which suggested strongly that the most effective Out of home solutions came from a balance of digital and classic.

Digital, though, is where much of the action is in Out of Home currently and a number of speakers pointed to the convergence of media, with broadcast and Out of home, for example, coming closer together and competing for each other’s business.

Keynote speaker William Swayne from Carat said, in a rousing address, that Out of Home should lead media as a whole as it alone had the capacity to adapt and benefit from the growing digitization of the world around us; from the “internet of things (IOT)” to smart cities.

Christian Schmalzl described how Stroer in Germany had transformed itself into a digital all-rounder with a substantial web publishing business alongside Out of Home.

Mark Boidman of New York based investment banker Peter J Solomon caused a degree of consternation among some in the hall when he suggested that further consolidation was likely in Out of Home as other media owners eyed its prospects. The good news was that Out of Home was attracting many more investors as the financial community became aware of its potential for growth.

Where there’s media these days there’s also programmatic, the automated trading of digital inventory. It’s a contentious topic, notably on the internet with many advertisers uncertain about exactly what they’re buying and how the price is computed.

In a panel moderated by FEPE’s new Executive Director Bob Wootton, Dallas Wiles from JC Decaux and Stefan Lameire from Clear Channel International stressed their determination to keep programmatic in-house rather than handing it over to third parties which would, Wiles said, mean a “race to the bottom” in terms of price.

Programmatic’s role in Out of Home was described by a number of speakers as being in the “baby step” phase with no industry-wide agreement on trading practice and platforms. Incoming FEPE President Tom Goddard from Ocean Outdoor asked the panel how big programmatic would be in the near future, the $64,000 Question nobody yet seems to have an answer to.

The theme of the Congress was ‘A time of revolution – earning the right to win’ and the balance of classic and digital and the role of programmatic are certain to be on the agenda at next year’s Congress and, probably, in years thereafter.

But the mood of the Congress was determinedly optimistic, welcoming the challenges as well as the opportunities for the industry in the years ahead, encapsulated in outgoing President Matthew Dearden’s “Four pillars of Out of Home’s future success.”

Noteworthy too is FEPE’s now established status as a truly global industry body, which makes it unique in the media landscape. Congress heard from speakers from Africa, India, Russia and the United States as well as Europe, underlining its vital role in bringing together this buoyant worldwide media industry.

UK: Thanks John!

At a FEPE executive meeting in London this week, former Executive Director John Ellery was presented with the whiskey-related gift we promised him at the FEPE gala dinner in Stockholm recently.

As previously announced, John will remain with FEPE, but with a reduced day to day involvement while Bob Wootton takes on the role of Executive Director with immediate effect.

Pictured with John are outgoing FEPE President Matthew Dearden and new President, Tom Goddard.

UK: Billboards: the strong and stable element of advertising

By Nick Mawditt and Mungo Knott

Out of home advertising was not a significant feature of the general election, but given the critical importance of communicating core messages to a broad electorate, was this a mistake?

We still remember and reference the iconic political billboards of bygone days as perfect illustrations of political branding: from the almost mythical Labour Isn’t Working of the late 1970s, through to more recent images of Dave Cameron sat on a car bonnet.

Out of home (OOH) advertising continues to broadcast reach, simple messaging and create public reference points - think ‘strong and stable’ - that can both prime or amplify the effects of other channels from TV to online and social and many in between. As a medium it forces the very essence of the message to be delivered succinctly so that it is instantly understood.

FEPE Stockholm: A Time of Revolution: OOH must earn its place as a core media buy

By Rubbi Bhogal-Wood , Head of Airport Sales, Primesight

A Time of Revolution was a bold title to lead the 58th FEPE congress of the world’s out-of-home markets who met in Stockholm last week. Yet these are indeed times of significant change as marketers are challenged with the requirement to choose which channels can be trusted to be most effective in helping them build their brands and grow their businesses.

FEPE President Matthew Dearden was clear that the ‘right to win’ cannot be assumed but must be built upon four pillars of: Making the case for OOH in a digital world; Taking the digital revolution out-of-home; Making OOH easy to plan, buy and deliver; and Reclaiming the creative crown.

The theme of revolution was central for Nancy Fletcher, CEO Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and Sean Reilly, CEO Lamar Advertising as they shared key insights into the American marketplace, which is benefitting from $7.6bn of investment in advertising estate and has been rewarded by an all-time high of 28 months of consecutive growth. Fletcher and Reilly highlighted how the industry had collaborated with a clear vision to increase its share from the current 4% and grow by an additional £10bn by 2021. A single proposition of making OOH a core media buy for advertisers will be driving the initiative.

UK: 5 ways to improve programmatic OOH

As automated systems continue to be talked about and developed within OOH, there are five key pillars around which we need to deliver improvements.

2017 has been widely reported in the industry press as the year the programmatic juggernaut rolled into the OOH sector. With digital panels expected to account for 43% of total OOH spend this year (over double the figure of five years ago)*, many feel this has been an inevitable and perhaps overdue evolution.

As we realise that growth there are two key issues OOH needs to overcome as we really move into the world of something approaching automation, let alone programmatic. Firstly, the audience currency which pure programmatic needs in order to function within OOH is more difficult to define than in the online world.

OOH is a one to many medium – one ad play is not representative of one eyeball (many would argue this isn’t true within online too). Although Route data does offer an industry standard audience measurement, its use as a trading metric is very much in its infancy and until it or another data set or currency is universally adopted to this end, programmatic audience buys remain difficult.

France: 2017 Outdoor Lions Winners Revealed

Joint Grand Prix winners were Twitter San Francisco and McCann New York

The winners of the prestigious Outdoor Lions Awards - sponsored for the eighth consecutive year by Clear Channel Outdoor – have been announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Joint Grand Prix winners were: Twitter, for their brand campaign through Twitter San Francisco, and McCann New York for State Street Global Advisors’ ‘She ETF’ campaign and ‘Fearless Girl’ statue.

USA: DPAA Elects Ayuda[x]'s Andreas Soupliotis to Board of Directors

The Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA) announced today at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity that Andreas Soupliotis, Founder & CEO of Ayuda[x], has been elected to the Board of Directors. The DPAA is leading a contingent of digital out-of-home (DOOH) executives on a customized Cannes Lions experience, including high level brand meetings, access to VIP events and yacht hospitality.

"Andreas is a great addition to our Board of Directors," said Barry Frey, President & CEO of DPAA. "Our Board meetings bring together some of the most innovative, creative and forward-thinking minds in the DOOH industries, and Andreas' presence will add great value to our discussions. I am so appreciative of the Board's counsel, support and friendship as we work together to help our sector grow and garner its rightful share of advertising budgets."

Soupliotis commented on his election: "I am thrilled to join the DPAA Board of Directors. Over the past few years, the DPAA has grown into the most advanced association for DOOH media. The association has aligned our industry with mobile, video and data partnerships that are paving the foundation for a new generation of programmatically enabled DOOH advertising. I graciously accept this election and look forward to assisting the Board on this exciting trajectory for our industry."

USA: OUTFRONT Media Announces Acquisition of Dynamic Outdoor

OUTFRONT Media Inc. has announced the acquisition of Canadian digital billboard firm, Dynamic Outdoor, from All Vision LLC, creating a preeminent portfolio of out-of-home assets across Canada.

As an established leader in the Canadian out-of-home advertising market, this acquisition will serve to transform OUTFRONT Media's presence in the fast-growing digital segment, adding key assets to OUTFRONT's existing inventory in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

"The acquisition of Dynamic Outdoor demonstrates OUTFRONT Media's commitment to the Canadian market. This is a strategic investment that will immediately transform our Canadian operation," said Jeremy Male, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, OUTFRONT Media. "It also reflects our mission to elevate the entire out-of-home medium, by connecting advertisers with the best assets, audiences, innovations, and people in the business."

USA: Giant Times Square Amazon Echo breaks OOH record

Amazon has teamed up with outdoor companies Outfront Media and Rapport to install a 24 metre Amazon Echo above New York's Times Square.

The company says the advertisement breaks the record for the largest installation, a title previously held by Pepsi in the 1940s. The Echo replica includes an LED light ring, programmed to replicate the pattern activated when a user asks Alexa a question in real time.

Outfront Media executive VP and CMO Jodi Senese says:

“Amazon Music's gigantic deployment is a key example of the creative possibilities out-of-home offers brands and we are very excited to be a part of this unique campaign.”

Times Square remains one of the most prominent advertising hubs in the world with brands such as Canon, Coke and LG leveraging the high visibility space.

USA: Lamar spreads wings, acquires another airport ad agency

Baton Rouge-based Lamar Advertising is continuing its growth in the airport advertising business with the acquisition of Atlanta, Georgia-based Corey Airport Services, a boutique advertising agency that specializes in airport advertising displays.

The acquisition, which will close July 1, will nearly double the number of airports in which Lamar is doing business. Corey Airport Services has contracts with nine airports in seven southern states, including Dallas Love Field. Lamar currently has concessions in 11 airports, most of which are in the west or southwest.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, though Lamar President and CEO Sean Reilly characterizes the deal as “relatively small”—several million dollars. It’s significant, however, because it will give Lamar—already the largest outdoor advertising company in the world—a larger footprint in the lucrative airport advertising sector.

Australia: Out of Home – shifting the paradigm and creating a reaction

Out of Home (OOH) advertising has undergone something of a rebirth. Led by the digital revolution, it offers real canvases with incredible potential to tap into creativity and amplify culture and identity.

This is the story told in OPEN3, the third in a series of books on OOH creative developed by the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) in collaboration with the Federation Publicité Exterieur (FEPE) International, Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) and Outsmart UK.

“By producing a project such as OPEN3, it allows our industry to ignite a conversation about creativity, in part due to some fantastic local and international OOH campaigns, but also in the 10 short essays written by a variety of creative heavyweights from across the globe,” said Charmaine Moldrich, CEO, OMA.

Featuring 74 OOH campaigns from across three continents, OPEN3 showcases how OOH is the perfectly positioned broadcaster, allowing advertisers to create a reaction, to get noticed, to titillate, inspire, infuriate, or shock, which is so deftly shown in the book’s cover image Look at me by Women’s Aid UK.

Australia: oOh! Wins Tender for SA Government Billboards

oOh!media has strengthened its Out Of Home market leadership in South Australia by winning a major government contract for 40 large format billboards across Adelaide’s metropolitan area.

The competitive tender by the SA Government’s Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure was successfully retained by oOh!, which has held it since its acquisition of Russell Ads in the early 2000s. oOh!’s Group Director Road, Noel Cook, said today the long-term agreement gives oOh! the rights to deliver advertising on the existing suite of 40 classic billboards and upgrade key strategic locations to digital.

Lebanon: Bombs, Bullets and Government Seizure

Prologue by Nancy Fletcher, OAAA President & CEO

Antonio Vincenti is the former President of FEPE, the international OOH organization which convened in Stockholm last week (OAAA Chairman Sean Reilly and I spoke there).

By sharing his story, Antonio gives us perspective. We all have problems, but Antonio has faced war and government seizure.

The government bulldozed more than 3,000 of his billboards. In a sense, we all are builders. We build sales, relationships, teams, and growth. Antonio is a re-builder. His story – from halfway around the world — reminds us of key fundamentals:

The power of persistence The importance of constitutional protections in the US Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and the Fifth Amendment’s safeguard of property rights

Thank you Antonio, for your gift to your colleagues in the US industry: perspective.

China: JCDecaux wins the contract to design, build and operate the advertising concession at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

JCDecaux SA has announced that following a competitive tender, its wholly-owned subsidiary JCDecaux Advertising (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has won the contract to install and operate the advertising concession at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (GBIA) Terminal 2 and Ground Transportation Centre (GTC). This contract will cover advertising spaces within GBIA Terminal 2 and GTC for 5 to 8 years starting from 1 February, 2018. As part of this strategic contract, it will further expand JCDecaux’s airport media platform in China (currently covering Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenyang, Hong Kong and Macau), and consolidate JCDecaux’s leadership in China’s outdoor advertising market.

Together with Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou is one of the three integrated gateway cities in China mainland. Located at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, the country’s most dynamic economic zone, it is also the economic, cultural, financial and technological centre of Southern China. In 2016, GBIA registered a passenger traffic of 59.73 million, ranking third in China and fifteenth in the world. To satisfy the rapid growth of passenger throughput, Terminal 2 of GBIA will open in February 2018. Upon completion, Terminal 2 will reach 45 million passenger throughout per year. Meanwhile, a large-scale integrated traffic hub, the GTC, will be built to support this terminal integrating means of transport such as high-speed rail, urban rail, subway, highway and civil aviation.

India: Advertising makes the leap outdoor

Companies are pushing agencies with outdoor solutions that target right audience at right location

About a year ago India’s largest telecom operator by subscribers, Airtel, was aggressively pushing its ‘Open Network’ campaign that sought to put into perspective the issue of network strength, given that the problem of call drops across carriers was rampant. Airtel wanted to address the issue head-on and climb on to the plank of transparency for its brand communication strategy. The company used the familiar route of television and digital advertising, but interestingly, it also turned to OOH advertising, for effective and real-time engagement with customers.

In New Delhi, through its outdoor agency Milestone Brandcom, which is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, Airtel set up a digital kiosk at a busy bus-shelter in Nehru Place. Consumers were asked to come in and find out about telecom towers in the city. Type in any location within the city and the details would pop up instantly on the kiosk. The kiosk was bursting to capacity at almost all hours of the day.

Malaysia: Death of the traditional billboard?

Kinetic Malaysia is set to introduce its new framework which targets consumers on the move called Active Journey in Malaysia, come August this year. The framework which has been implemented by the agency globally is said to bring a new way of approaching out of home (OOH) media via a context-based planning approach that connects consumers’ physical and digital journeys.

Kinetic, which is the OOH unit of one of the world’s largest communications services group WPP, said this new model offers the agency an ability to execute against a new OOH paradigm that is, moving from targeted attention to targeted action. It wants to strengthen its OOH advertising market in Malaysia via the new technology and innovation.

FEPE OOH News 22nd June 2017