EUROPE NEWS

FEPE 56th Annual Congress in Budapest: Dave Trott to be Key Note Speaker

FEPE are very pleased to announce that our key note speaker in Budapest will be UK advertising creative guru Dave Trott.

Londoner Dave won a Rockerfeller Scholarship to Pratt Institute in New York to study advertising and trained mainly at Carl Ally Inc on Madison Avenue.

In 1980 he was a founder Gold Greenlees Trott, who were voted ‘Agency of the Year’ by Campaign and ‘Most Creative Agency in the World’ by Ad Age in New York.

In 1990 Dave founded Bainsfair Sharky Trott with the managing directors of Saatchi & Saatchi and in 1993 founded Walsh Trott Chick Smith w

ith the managing director of WCRS. In 2003 this merged with The Gate and Dave became Chairman in 2005.

He was given the D&AD President’s Award, for lifetime achievement before leaving The Gate in 2014. Dave has written 3 books: ‘Creative Mischief’ - ‘Predatory Thinking’ - ‘1+1=3’ (to be published in June).

In the 1970s Dave set up the ‘D&AD Creative Workshop’ course which ran for thirty years. Since then he has trained hundreds of young creatives, many of these are now London’s top creative directors and teachers.

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

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.

There will be an exclusive exhibition area attached to the main congress hall, and spaces are now available to reserve. If you are a supplier who wishes to get your product in front of an audience of global OOH decision makers please email us soon so we can hold a space for you. The cost for exhibition spaces is lower this year, to offer best value to our industry suppliers.

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.

As usual we have negotiated a special delegate rate for the hotel rooms and delegates are able to pay by credit card or bank transfer, which we hope will make bookings easier for some overseas delegates.

Delegate fees are unchanged from last year (and several years before) at €1500 for members and €1600 for non members.

You can 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.

We will announce further speakers in coming weeks

Ireland: Digital screens pop up everywhere as out-of-home advertising market grows

As new screens are launched in train stations, cinema lobbies and shopping centres, advertisers are stepping up their investment in digital out-of-home formats, although traditional billboards remain popular

Digital advertising formats were the standout performer in the out-of-home sector last year, with their share of media spend in the market growing from 5 per cent to 8 per cent following the launch of new screens in train stations and cinema lobby areas.

“These new formats are strategically located in high-footfall environments and, as a result, deliver a premium audience,” out-of-home media agency Kinetic notes in its review of 2014.

Available digital inventory swelled last year with the addition of Exterion Media’s new “dPod” screens targeting rail commuters and the launch of CineD digital units from cinema advertising company Wide Eye Media.

Investment

JCDecaux has also recently stepped up its investment in its “iVision” digital screens in retail centres including the St Stephen’s Green and Frascati shopping centres in Dublin, Douglas Village in Cork, Eyre Square in Galway, MacDonagh Junction in Kilkenny and Scotch Hall in Drogheda.

More locations are “in the pipeline”, it says, with a network of screens expected to be added to Tesco stores.

Simon Durham, director of Kinetic, says digital out-of- home formats “performed strongly” in 2014, as expected.

“However, advertisers remain committed to the traditional large format, which accounted for 32 per cent of total spend.”

Recession has delayed innovation in the Irish out-of-home market because digital infrastructure requires significant upfront investment that media owners were slow to make at a time when the market was shrinking. In the UK, one of the most advanced digital advertising markets in the world, digital formats account for almost 30 per cent of the out-of-home market.

Buoyant

However, after posting growth of 5 per cent to 6 per cent in 2014 (estimates vary), the Irish out-of-home market is looking more buoyant again, which has in turn renewed attention on digital formats that allow for more flexible, interactive campaigns that use technology such as near-field communications (NFC), QR codes and touch screens.

Clear Channel Ireland now has more than 2,000 bus shelters equipped with NFC tags, while shopper marketing group Visualise has introduced the technology to its portfolio of supermarket trolleys.

Media-buying agency Carat says advertisers are keen to exploit digital out-of-home screens as a direct response medium. “Where historically digital out-of-home might have been seen as a luxury, it now forms a key component of out-of-home plans.”

Core Media, meanwhile, expects a “sustained comeback” in the out-of-home sector, with a 7 per cent growth in spend this year driven in part by the “explosion of digital screens”. Its analysis suggests the share of digital in the out-of-home market across the Republic and Northern Ireland will grow from 9 per cent last year to 12 per cent this year.

While traditional billboard site owners will try to prolong their lifespan with HD printing and illumination, Core Media argues these older formats “must be prioritised for conversion to digital at the earliest opportunity”.

The Irish industry is eagerly anticipating the advent of real-time advertising that can be automatically updated and facial recognition technology that would allow for personalisation in out-of-home campaigns.

Source

Belgium: Clear Channel delivers a buzz in space for advertisers

In 2016, ESA will launch a rocket into space with a Belgian CubeSat on board. The mini-satellite will serve as an advertising billboard and will be operated by Clear Channel. This will give brands the unique opportunity to advertise in space.

Billboard in space

Three engineering students from Leuven University are behind this plan to give companies the opportunity to send their logo into space – their way of raising funds for their scientific projects, while stimulating space research. The University’s funding programme was already receiving support from a number of multinationals, but they want to keep the technical and commercial aspects separate.

“The setup of an advertising billboard is something we have no experience in”, explains Maarten Decat. “So we are glad that we can call on the expertise of Clear Channel to find advertisers so that we can raise funding for our project. Panel advertising, in the widest sense, is their core business, just as space research is ours …”

An ‘OOH buzz’ in space...

Numerous campaigns will be organised in order to raise awareness and to deliver a ‘buzz’ for those advertisers who have registered. Social media will play an important part, but the traditional communication channels will also be exploited to keep everyone informed on the evolution of the space mission.

Bart Demeulenaere, sales director of Clear Channel Belgium: “While the dream of interstellar travel is still on hold, it is possible to advertise in space from today. Even the sky is no longer the limit. It’s now possible to reach the stars with any brand that wishes to push the boundaries of its communications together with us. This is about taking the first step towards the future – by supporting a scientific project initiated by young people. And it’s about the glory: not just anyone can send their company logo into space. At Clear Channel we are entirely convinced of the possibilities of the project. We already feel like space pioneers.”

Clear Channel claims space!

The project is representative of the company’s ambition to put ground-breaking, out-of-the box concepts on the market, in support of advertisers who are looking for that little bit extra. Manuella Hoste, Manager Creative Solutions at Clear Channel Belgium adds: “The Create department brings ideas to life, from start tot finish. With the right expertise and technical groundwork, we turn a concept into a real success story. We do this in all environments and within all the Clear Channel networks: billboards, megaposters, in supermarket car parks, in railway stations… and now, uniquely, in space.”

Advertisers who wish to register in the project are welcome to take a look at the website (www.spacebillboard.com) of the four students, where they will find further information on the project. For bookings or commercial questions, Manuella Hoste is the project manager at Clear Channel who is following the developments. One advertising spot on the satellite is valued at € 2,500.

UK: Forrest Media Extends Digital Portfolio with Second Newcastle Offering

Forrest Media have opened up 2015 with a flurry of exciting new digital developments.

Following on from the recent launch of two new Scottish screens in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, Forrest Media are delighted to announce the imminent arrival of a second spectacular Newcastle screen.

As the only operator of large format digital roadside screens in Scotland, additionally with exceptional digital presence within the North of England, Forrest will shortly unveil another stunning giant screen in central Newcastle.

Planned for May 2015, ‘CityScreen Newcastle Central’ will dominate Newcastle’s Times Square, delivering an impressive 50 sqm of digital platform to its advertisers. The screen will sit proudly on Newcastle’s famous Life Building, at the forefront of Times Square in the centre of the city, and will be perfectly positioned to be seen by those departing from Newcastle’s bustling main rail station.

Located in the central hub of the city ‘CityScreen Newcastle Central’ offers the perfect platform to advertisers looking to showcase their display in the heart of the action.

In partnership with Talon Outdoor, and Manning Gottlieb OMD, Forrest are proud to announce Virgin Trains East Coast as the launch advertiser for the screen. Virgin Trains East Coast have elected to run a spectacular domination display during its first two live weeks at the beginning of May.

Sandra Hernandez, Client Director at Talon Outdoor says “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Forrest Media on the launch of this great new digital location. Newcastle is still relatively new territory for digital OOH, and Forrest’s latest development, at Times Square, fits the quality bill for our client Virgin Trains East Coast. The location also delivers them an ideal audience given its proximity to Central Station”.

With this latest digital addition set to increase Forrest’s portfolio to a total of nine digital screens throughout Scotland and the north of England, Forrest UK Head of Sales, Sarah O’Sullivan, said:

‘Our experience and commitment to Scotland and the North has put us at the forefront of Newcastle’s digital awakening. We are delighted to be continued pioneers of digital in Newcastle and to be bringing agencies and their clients both progressive and highly targeted opportunities to advertise in this key city. This most recent development further strengthens Forrest’s ownership of prime OOH digital sites in the north of Britain.’

Delivering almost 1 million impacts per 2 weeks Forrest’s “CityScreen Newcastle Central” will fast become an iconic OOH opportunity in this much sought after northern city.

Switzerland: Clear Channel launches digital pilot project at Stauffacher

Clear Channel is positioning a digital screen in the window of the Coop Pronto Shop at Stauffacher.

Clear Channel is conducting a pilot project with a digital advertising display at a central location in the city of Zurich.

From the end of March to the end of May, a digital screen will be positioned in the window of the Coop Pronto Shop at Zurich's Stauffacher, with its advertising display directed towards the street.

Advertisements will be run during the shop's opening hours, from 6 am to 11 pm, and will reach 40,000 passers-by every week.

At the end of the pilot project, it will be decided whether to install digital screens at further Coop Pronto Shops.

Also from Clear Channel Switzerland: Online planning of POS and filling-station campaigns

Clear Channel is also launching two new online calculators for planning poster campaigns, making life easier for media agencies and direct customers with tools for rough planning of point-of-sale and filling-station campaigns.

Thanks to the new online tools, with information on filling-station operators, shopping centres and prices, planning based on individual requirements can be taken care of and a corresponding quote obtained quickly and easily online.

With over 1,650 displays, Clear Channel is Switzerland’s leading provider of billboards at filling stations. Poster sites at Coop Mineraloel AG, Migrol, Shell and Tamoil are offered exclusively through Clear Channel.

Further sites are available at Avia stations. Advertising on Clear Channel's displays at points of sale enables advertisers to reach 25 million contacts within two weeks. For example, in over 90% of all Coop megastores and 80% of all Migros MMM centres

pos-kalkulator.clearchannel.ch

tankstellen-kalkulator.clearchannel.ch

UK: Why is digital out of home not ubiquitous already?

In a little over five years, digital out of home (DOOH) has exploded from being a small part of outdoor advertising to become quite possibly the most important part of its future.

Media owners are investing vast sums in dramatically increasing their digital estates across the out of home environment and the opportunity being generated for innovation and creativity is vast.

Media agencies, creative agencies and brands are starting to clearly see the opportunity for everything from data-driven dynamic campaigns to right-time marketing and extraordinary campaigns integrating digital billboards and experiential.

It's almost as if a perfect storm has been created to finally empower brands to communicate and broadcast campaigns outdoor with the same level of relevance that has become so commonplace online.

Yet with all of the signs, momentum and opportunity being created we are still absolutely scraping the surface of what can and will be achieved by DOOH in driving the outdoor advertising industry forward in the battle against TV.

Going from £66m in spend in 2008 to £214m in 2013 isn’t bad but real challenges still remain if DOOH is to become ubiquitous across the industry and be the principle part of the outdoor plan for every brief – not just the ones who want to do something that little bit special.

The key challenges are starting to be overcome and the market is evolving incredibly quickly. Where the cost of producing dynamic digital campaigns used to be prohibitive, competition and volume of demand means that agencies are rethinking how they can charge and lower prices means more campaigns. We have gone beyond the tipping point from DOOH being niche and have entered the stage where it is about to become mainstream.

Full article here

AMERICAS NEWS

Canada: Ayuda Launches Programmatic Solutions For DOOH Media Owners

Ayuda Media Systems, an ad tech company specializing in software for digital out-of-home (DOOH) and static media owners, has introduced multiple new products to help DOOH media owners embrace new programmatic revenue streams while exerting total control on the sell side.

“Ayuda is transforming. We are evolving from an OOH ERP platform to a supply-side-platform (SSP). This change touches all of our products – from proposal generation, to CMS and digital playback, right up to invoicing” commented Andreas Soupliotis, Founder and CEO of Ayuda.

“This transformation manifests today with the introduction of several new products that programmatically enable the Ayuda Platform. The first, is an SSP that allows our clients (the sellers) to create packages of targeted impression inventory that can be published to one of four, distinct private marketplaces: a premium guaranteed marketplace, a deals marketplace, a performance-based marketplace, and an auction marketplace, all of which are controlled and operated by the seller.”

Soupliotis continued by explaining each of the private marketplaces: “The premium guaranteed marketplace streamlines and automates the current direct sales process by pricing guaranteed inventory impressions with a fixed price, while the deals marketplace allows the seller to create deals, such as ‘pay a discounted CPM for three times as many impressions’. The performance-based marketplace is based on Ayuda’s patented Pay Per Look algorithms, where an indoor media seller can set up a rate card based on how long people look at the ad. The last marketplace, the auctions marketplace, allows the seller to set up a real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace that uses a seller-operated private ad exchange with soft and hard auction floor pricing control.”

Joe Cotugno, Partner and Senior Vice-President of Global Client Services at Ayuda, commented “For the past 11 years, Ayuda has focused on streamlining and automating processes for DOOH media owners. The juxtaposition DOOH media owners face today is they’d like to be part of programmatic buys in pursuit of incremental revenue, but are nervous about losing control of their inventory and driving down CPMs. With the Ayuda Platform, the seller has total control over the entire process.”

When asked about the engineering investment on programmatically enabling the Ayuda Platform, Pierre-Yves Troel, Partner and Chief Software Architect at Ayuda, commented “We’ve had a dedicated team of developers and data scientists working on this for over a year. In particular, we’ve spent a lot of energy developing algorithms and pricing models from second-price auction theory to power the private RTB marketplace and private exchange. In addition, since ad serving is a core component of the programmatic model, significant development effort has been expended on enhancing our Nirvana ad server originally launched last year.”

In addition to offering private marketplaces and a private exchanges for media sellers, the Ayuda Platform will also offer a seller-branded iPhone and iPad app that media buyers can use to buy programmatically, directly from the media sellers’ private marketplaces.

Daniel Fleischer, Vice-President of Global Business Development at Ayuda, commented: “This is a natural and organic transformation of an ERP product we have spent 11 years building. We are evolving from an ERP + CMS + player platform to an ad tech platform in anticipation of a new programmatic world where automation is king.”

Source

USA: HBO Inducted into OBIE Hall of Fame for Exemplary Out of Home Advertising

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) will present the 2015 OBIE Hall of Fame Award to HBO.

Estab­lished in 1992, the OBIE Hall of Fame was created to recognize brands that have built an enduring legacy through the consistent use of the out of home (OOH) advertising medium over many years.

“Here is a brand that is constantly delivering entertaining, engaging advertising,” said Dave Loew, 2015 OBIE chief judge and creative director at Leo Burnett, Chicago.

“HBO has an amazing track record of OOH work, so persuasive and so compelling time and time again.”

Since HBO first began to entertain households in 1972, the premium cable network’s use of simple yet powerful images and advertising concepts has captured the attention of potential viewers and long-time fans. For many of the network's award-winning series, internationally acclaimed special events, and featured presentations, HBO has used multiple OOH formats over the decades to spotlight and encourage knowledge, artistry, and laughter.

“HBO’s exceptional creative culture perfectly complements its relationship with OOH,” commented Stephen Freitas, OAAA chief marketing officer. “HBO uses the medium to inspire originality, a quality also reflected in the breadth of its programming. The brand has also made great use of interactive OOH in the last few years, engaging with viewers and personalizing experiences with their favorite HBO programs.”

HBO will be presented with its award alongside this year’s OBIE winners at the 74th OBIE Awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 12 during the 2015 OAAA\TAB National Convention + Expo in San Diego, CA.

Source

Canada: Playing it Smart: BroadSign International, LLC Announces BroadSign Xpress Pro Media Player

Extension of the digital signage software company’s smart player line provides additional features and capabilities.

Two years after announcing its entrance into the media player market, the global provider of digital signage software, BroadSign International, LLC, is launching its second hardware product, BroadSign Xpress Pro.

BroadSign Xpress Pro is based on a quad-core Intel® processor and the Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro operating system. Featuring 2 GB RAM and 32 GB of storage, the smart player is twice as powerful as BroadSign Xpress albeit almost half the size.

The Android-based BroadSign Xpress was created to supply BroadSign customers with a high-quality, cost-effective media player and sold 12,000 units after only 18 months on the market. The release of BroadSign Xpress Pro complements BroadSign Xpress by providing networks with an increased feature set at a different, yet reasonable, price point.

“We oversee a lot of deployments and work closely with our customers when it comes to the selection of media player,” said Bryan Mongeau, Vice President of Technology at BroadSign. “The Intel and Windows combination offered by BroadSign Xpress Pro is well-suited to more complex use cases.”

BroadSign refers to BroadSign Xpress and BroadSign Xpress Pro as “smart players”. Compared to basic media players that simply follow instructions from a server, BroadSign Xpress smart players are flexible, programmable and embeddable. They enable the BroadSign platform’s automated approach to content management and are capable of powering deployments requiring a high level of intelligence, such as vending machines and gas pump displays.

“BroadSign is internationally recognized for its powerful, enterprise-level digital signage software, and Intel architecture enables BroadSign in delivering an innovative solution that will be used by networks to advance the digital signage industry,” said Jose Avalos, Director of Visual Retail at Intel.

As with the release of BroadSign Xpress, BroadSign will conduct a beta program that invites customers (BroadSign Trailblazers) to test the first round of BroadSign Xpress Pro smart players. The anticipated delivery date of BroadSign Xpress Pro falls in Q3 2015. 

USA: Vistar Media and Instantly partner to revolutionize digital out-of-home measurement

Vistar Media, the only cross-screen location-based platform for mobile and out-of-home, and Instantly, a provider of audiences and consumer insights tools, have announced a groundbreaking new collaboration to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns across out-of-home media.

Vistar and Instantly are providing advertisers with unprecedented insight into consumer engagement with cross-screen campaigns and subsequent foot traffic driven to brick and mortar stores.

"The insights that Kinetic has achieved through the Vistar and Instantly partnership have unlocked another powerful dimension in our holistic planning approach to cross-screen digital media. As we increasingly develop cutting-edge techniques to bring brands closer to the moving consumers that matter to them, we are pleased to have innovative partners like Vistar and Instantly to help us," said Mike Gamaroff, Managing Director of Kinetic Active and Head of Innovation for Kinetic Worldwide.

With advertisers' investment in multiscreen campaigns on the rise, the ability to measure the impact of media interactions in the physical world on consumer behavior is becoming more crucial than ever.

"Our clients know that out-of-home offers unparalleled access to on-the-go consumers. What they increasingly seek to understand is how these touch points work together to drive a desired action," said Jeremy Ozen, co-founder, Vistar Media.

By mining data on consumers' geotemporal context, where they are in space and time, as they engage with media in the physical world, Vistar and Instantly are generating new insights brands can use to inform marketing and business decisions.  

"Mobile is uniquely suited to uncover deep insights about how consumers engage with and react to out-of-home ads organically," said Edan Portaro, EVP of Global Business Development and Mobile Innovation. "With mobile, we can also learn about key behavioral actions such as duration of exposure, notice rate, and store visitation after exposure."

After a soft launch during which time Instantly and Vistar tested measurement of pilot campaigns across seven verticals, out-of-home media effectiveness studies are now available for all campaigns through Vistar Media's platform.

Source

USA: Spotlighting Mobile’s Larger Role in Out-of-Home Marketing -- Jodi Senese, CMO, Outfront

Mobile and out-of-home are rapidly converging and have become increasingly complementary of each other.

The on-the-go nature of mobile users blends well with the out-of-home market, and opens up new key marketing opportunities for brands and marketers that are prepared and adept to leverage the power of this synergy.

Consumers are spending larger portions of their day outside the home and are increasingly using their mobile devices during this time. It’s the mobile-mobile connection!

These trends are supported by two key findings:

• 70% of all waking hours are spent away from home

• 68% of all mobile usage occurs away from home

Most significantly, in a 2014 survey of time spent on five major media in the US, mobile was the only medium which posted an increase in time spent, and a considerable one at that. From 2009 to 2014, time spent on mobile increased from 4% to 23%.

This large increase begs the question: What is accounting for more time spent on mobile? To start, consumers’ viewing habits have changed. They are consuming media on-the-go regularly, whether it be binge-viewing their favorite show on their tablet or catching up with the latest news on Twitter. Additionally, traditional and online retailers are experiencing a major surge in mobile commerce, with half of ten major retailers already reporting a larger mobile consumer base than a desktop one. Moreover, 57% of Target’s customers only use mobile to digitally purchase products. Additionally, the growth trajectory of mobile commerce is particularly striking. While it represented $25 billion in revenue in 2014, mobile transactions are expected to grow eightfold in 2018, and two thirds of those transactions are very likely to occur when those consumers are away from home.

Mobile has experienced tremendous growth across many different functions, including video consumption, search and commerce, and across many diverse industries, including banking and retail. The convergence of these elements enables static billboards and transit displays to have a large impact on branding, and affords marketers and brands using those media mass audience exposure leading to substantial activation.

Consumers have exhibited an interest in more fluid experiences in the out-of-home market that transition seamlessly from mobile and/or online to out-of-home and vice versa. In fact, consumers have been seeking and embracing a greater role in shaping and co-creating content in the digital out-of-home market, which smartphones and tablets are well equipped to provide.

The sharing of photos, stories and other experiences via mobile devices in public places has become much more common in recent years. In this context, the application of user-generated content in digital out-of-home campaigns incorporating mobile can be particularly effective.

This was illustrated by the success of Tropicana’s “#worstmorningever” campaign, launched in 2014. Digital displays in New York City motivated consumers to tweet in their worst morning ever, using a designated hashtag. Top tweets were pictured on the screens adjacent to Tropicana’s positive outlook on the scenario. This engagement effectively bridged the digital and physical world while also creating a contextually relevant and hilarious campaign.

Full article here

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: Sub-Saharan African consumers connect with Coke via Continental Outdoors’ Ignite screens!

The first truly interactive Digital Out of Home campaign to move into sub-Saharan Africa is owned by Coca-Cola with their “Share a Coke” campaign which activates consumers to replace the advertised name on the can with their own!

“The core idea behind the global campaign is to reunite friends with the idea of getting together and sharing a good time over a Coke by re-igniting real conversations with friends. What better way than to personalise this, and interact with Coke, by showcasing their names super-imposed on digital billboards” states Hilda Gullacksen, Coca-Cola Niarobi.

Continental Outdoor has provided Coca-Cola with exclusive Digital coverage on their Roadside Digital billboards for 1 hour each day in various African cities for passers-by to sms their names to a dedicated number advertised on the screen. Their names are fed live onto the screen and superimposed onto a Coca-Cola can for 15 seconds each.

“The campaign was designed to reach the masses, and as smartphone penetration in sub-Saharan Africa is limited, the sms function works well on all mobile phones”, explains Adelaide McKelvey, Continental Outdoors’ MD for Rest of Africa. “As innovators in the Digital Out of Home space in Africa we are able to broadcast messages across the continent with the switch of a button controlled from our digital hub based at our Head Office in Bryanston, Johannesburg”.

Marketers need to create a common brand experience across all OOH platforms (traditional and digital), and social media, that provide magical moments of truth to deliver ONE experience to customers wherever they are in the buying lifecycle.

Continental Outdoor are able to engineer consumer conversations from their Digital hub in Bryanston onto multiple screens in real time or as a pre-planned campaign, and are able to seamlessly integrate campaigns from their DOOH platforms onto social platforms or other digital channels.

The integration with mobile, and the DOOH channel in itself, can be used as an informational, conversational and transactional tool using various techniques like RSS feeds, content creation and wifi couponing.

These ‘engineered’ conversations also become perfect opportunities to build databases, track responses and evaluate the return on media investment (ROMI) for marketers.

Watch the video here

South Africa: The new OOH currency is worth its weight in gold

The modernity, sophistication and validity of the new Out of Home Measurement Council (OMC) currency is the talk of the town. South Africa media agencies will finally have something they have been waiting for, a valuable and easily accessible audience measurement for OOH, that will make planning a breeze, and provide the statistical weight necessary to justify OOH spend to clients.

The OMC as a joint industry committee (JIC) was introduced to the market in 2014 out of the dire need to provide the industry with an out-of-home (OOH) measurement survey like RAMS and TAMS (radio and television audience measurement surveys). The structure of the JIC is based on the findings from the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) Future Proofing exercise conducted by Kuper Research in 2012, following the successful ROUTE JIC structure (UK). It draws on international best practice where it is linked via data fusion to an establishment survey (ES), along with a variety of other dedicated media surveys.

The OMC JIC will be run and controlled by the major participating OOH companies, supported by technical expertise from Kuper Research. Kuper Research will head the Steering Council that monitors the technical aspects of the research, and will be involved in the marketing and analysis. This will ensure the independence, robustness, and transparency of the research which has been initially underwritten by Continental Outdoor Media and Primedia Outdoor. The OMC will participate in the development of the Establishment Survey.

The OMC’s vision is to produce consolidated, inclusive, and representative research covering the key OOH areas including billboards, transit, airport, Gautrain, malls, and digital OOH. Static roadside formats are being addressed first in the research, however further methodologies are already being investigated to cover the diversity of OOH environments.

The innovative methodology includes the combination of traffic flows, satellite images, and travel patterns to create a comprehensive traffic model, which when combined with the location of all media owner billboard panels, creates an accurate representation of OOH audiences. These elements are modelled to create OOH ratings. Elements such as direction of traffic flow and visibility are taken into account as part of the model.

The new OOH currency will deliver reach, frequency, GRP’s, duplication factors, impacts, CPM, and so on, and will be comparable to other media metrics for the first time ever in South Africa. The benefits of the new OOH currency are endless for media buyers who will now have a consolidated, single view to access and plan from all media owner OOH inventory. State-of-the art, geo-spatial, sophisticated Quantum software will be available to buyers through Telmar, and will allow for ease of planning and purchase, and generate standardised and measurable plans. At last OOH is truly in the hands of the buyers.

Key players

Kuper Research – Leaders of the Advisory and Technical panels.

User advisory panels – made up of key OOH buyers.

Cuende – a Spanish market research company, the ‘rocket scientists of OOH research’, providing ground-breaking and ‘big-data’ methodologies and models that have been introduced in a number of countries in Europe and South America.

Ask Afrika – fieldwork providers for the travel questionnaire which provides the foundation for the demographic and traffic model.

Software: Telmar in partnership with Cuende’s Quantum software. The OMC JIC’s Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) is about to be lodged. This should be formalised within the next six weeks, where after the supplier contracts will be included into the OMC. In order to expedite the process Continental Outdoor Media and Primedia Outdoor have contracted with all relevant suppliers, (Ask Afrika, Cuende, and Kuper Research), and provided the relevant funding. Once the OMC is registered, it will be in a position to formalise other media owner participation in the JIC for the Static Roadside project. At this stage there are 10 media owners who have committed to participate in the JIC. This roughly represents up to 90% of the Static Roadside media owner pie. The first results will be published in July/August 2015.

The new OOH research is not only moving with the times, but is ahead of the times, providing cutting edge research that will accurately reveal the true value of OOH advertising.

Source

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Outdoor maintains double digit growth

The Out-of-Home (OOH) industry today reported net revenue of $48.3 million for the month of February, an increase of 23.8% from the same month last year which posted net revenue of $39.0 million.*

The OOH industry finished 2014 on a record high of $602 million, a 10% increase from 2013.

Category figures February 2015:

• Roadside Billboards (over and under 25 square metres)  $16.6 million
• Roadside Other (street furniture, taxis, bus/tram externals, small format)  $16.2 million
• Transport (including airports)  $9.5 million
• Retail  $6.0 million

* The figures have been adjusted for 2014 revenue to reflect changes within categories, allowing direct comparisons in revenue year-on-year.

Australia: MOVE offers geo-targeting as it turns five

Biggest update to Out-of-Home measurement tool since launch

The most comprehensive update to the Out-of-Home (OOH) audience measurement system MOVE (Measurement of Visibility and Exposure) has been revealed today, five years after the ground-breaking audience measurement tool launched in Australia.

The new suite of functions includes the ability to geo-target reports to desired geographies, as well as an enhanced visual design and new report options.

MOVE measures approximately 73,000 of the 85,000 OOH advertising faces including roadside billboards, posters, street furniture, railway stations, buses, trains, trams, shopping centres and airports in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. It is also the only OOH measurement system to be endorsed by the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA).

The new geo-targeting functionality allows media owners to build out sub-areas based on geographical information. The analysis of reach and frequency based on audience geography, household income and number of people living in the home, means media agencies now have the ability to create bespoke and targeted media plans in response to client briefs.

Additional improvements to MOVE include mode data - the ability to show how audiences are seeing ads, whether it be by walking, driving or as a passenger; and refreshed, cleaner and easier to read reports. New map layer options, called dot density, represent the number of contacts that will be made in a campaign, using one dot to represent 100 people. This, overlaid with the existing heat map (percentage reach) function enables users to provide a more accurate visual of the campaign reach. The Compare Report function then allows users to review two reports, with the same geographical information, side by side.

A nationwide training program has already launched, educating MOVE users on the new functions.

“As MOVE marks its five year anniversary, the OOH industry remains committed to investing in it to ensure advertisers and media agencies have the most comprehensive data on the reach of their campaigns,” said Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the Outdoor Media Association.

“This latest update is the biggest for MOVE to date and will give media planners the chance to get insights into OOH audience demographics like never before. Since MOVE launched in 2010 OOH has been the only traditional medium to increase its market share over the past three years. MOVE and digital innovation have been instrumental in driving this advertising growth.”