EUROPE NEWS

56th Annual FEPE Congress in Budapest: Another week, another speaker announcement!

Along with Dave Trott, Nancy Fletcher, Annie Rickard, Rupert Day and Margit Kittridge we are pleased to announce another speaker for the FEPE Budapest Congress.

Michael Bayler is a strategic leader, published author and popular speaker, inspiring digital innovation and transformation across marketing and enterprise. Mike has ignited change programs for many of the world’s largest brands, technology, media and entertainment firms.

Clients have included Unilever, Diageo, Telefonica, FremantleMedia, PayPal, Bacardi Global Brands, The Home Office, Warner Bros. BSkyB, British Telecom, Sony Music, SABMiller, Nokia, Ogilvy & Mather, Robbie Williams and Simon Cowell.

He is a co-author of the seminal work on strategies for the digital future, Promiscuous Customers: Invisible Brands – Delivering Value in Digital Markets (Capstone, Oxford 2002).

He has also written for Market Leader, The Wall Street Journal, Marketing Week, New Media Age, MediaTel, Design Week, and Design Management Journal.

Among many high-profile speaking engagements, Mike has delivered master classes for The Marketing Society, MIDEM, AdTech, IESE Business School, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, VMWare, Daily Mail Group, FremantleMedia, The Institute of Direct Marketing and Salesforce.

Objects in Mirror...Building Brands in a Post-Digital World

Brands and their agencies have focused relentlessly on digital marketing, reaching the point where their strategies for web, mobile, social, content and data are now, or should be, clear.

Their effectiveness remains open to debate. Meanwhile in the background, disruptive technologies that overturn both culture and commerce, while giving birth to destructive new business models, are pointing to tantalising opportunities and tangible threats.

Drawing on 25 years at the collision point of marketing and business strategy, technology and culture, working with many of the world's leading global brands in CPG, TMT, healthcare and financial services, transformation strategist and author Michael Bayler explores and explains the most impactful of these new developments.

He urges us to look hard beyond digital marketing, to begin to come to terms with a near future for brands that is both compelling and alarming.

The exhibition spaces at the FEPE Budapest Congress are running out fast. We already have three new exhibitors signed up as well as a few regular supporters, so if you are a supplier who wishes to get your product in front of an audience of global OOH decision makers please email us very soon so we can work out a package for you.

The cost for exhibition spaces is lower this year to offer best value to our industry suppliers, and each exhibition space comes with 2 free delegate passes. Also included this year is the use of a meeting room exclusively for exhibitors so they can hold client meetings and presentations while in Budapest.

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, (see picture) 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.

UK: Next-Generation Cross Track Technology Marks New Era in Digital Out-of-Home

Exterion Media and NEC Display Solutions to Transform Ordinary Journeys into Extraordinary Experiences for London’s Commuters with the Launch of DX3

• DX3 technology to provide a premium visual experience for London Underground commuters, as well as increased targeting and accountability for marketers

• Interactive Innovation Centre to allow advertisers and partners to experience cutting-edge technology ahead of summer launch

Exterion Media announces the opening of an interactive Innovation Centre to showcase DX3 (Digital Cross-Track 3), its hotly anticipated new cross-track technology solution for the London Underground, set to launch in summer 2015.

Powered by technology developed by NEC Display Solutions, DX3 gives advertisers a valuable platform to connect with young, affluent, and tech-savvy urbanites. The technology delivers a premium visual experience for consumers, enabling advertisers to showcase a wide variety of high quality, immersive content that informs, entertains and captivates audiences travelling on the London Underground network.

DX3 is an exciting launch for the leading consumer engagement company. “DOOH is now responsible for a quarter of all UK Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising spend and the technology and insights that power this medium are advancing all the time,” said Jason Cotterrell, Managing Director of Exterion Media.

“Our next-generation DX3 screens signify a new chapter for DOOH, enabling targeted advertising and engaging content across the London Underground network. This launch sets our product development and innovation agenda for 2015 and beyond.”

Total inventory of UK DOOH sites is set to grow more than 40% between now and 2020, according to Kinetic Worldwide. With annual OOH ad revenues soaring past £1bn for the first time, DX3 offers advertisers both flexibility when it comes to content and time slots and strategic site locations informed by Route data to ensure the largest audiences.

Graeme Craig, TfL’s Director of Commercial Development said: “We are delighted to be working with Exterion Media and NEC Display Solutions to continue to drive innovation on the London Underground. We are looking forward to discovering how DX3 can be used by creative organisations to engage and entertain our customers.”

Exterion Media’s purpose-built Innovation Centre opens in Bermondsey on Monday 20th April and will give advertisers, creative agencies, partners and suppliers the chance to experience this exciting new technology first-hand. Over the next few months more than 1,000 visitors are expected to attend demonstrations, trial content, experiment with new creative executions, interact with the technology and get a better understanding of the breadth of possibilities this innovative platform has to offer.

Exterion Media’s new DX3 screens will:

Showcase Content to Engage Consumers for Longer

• State of the art media players will offer live feeds and the ability to stream video content and daily features.

• At 3m proximity to on-platform commuters, consumers can get up close and personal to content, which together with impressive platform dwell times leads to greater engagement.

Offer a Premium Visual Experience on the Platform

• Next-generation digital cross-track screens offer a host of enhanced product features.

• The DX3’s large 11m² display offers an HD experience to ensure maximum impact

• Units are brighter, with projections moving from 3,500 lumens to 11,000 lumens. This ensures consistency of image across the network, meaning advertising looks equally good, across all stations.

• A 50% increase in screen resolution means improved clarity and sharpness of images within the tube environment, making content look better and thereby increasing engagement and dwell time for advertisers.

Ensure Better Audience Targeting

• Informed by Route and TfL data, screens are situated in strategic locations on the platform that attract the highest audience figures.

• Two screens per platform are placed across 15 of Zone 1’s busiest tube stations.

• Access for advertisers to the largest central London digital network in the market, including iconic stations such as Paddington, Waterloo, Victoria, Oxford Circus and Covent Garden.

Mean Greater Accountability

• DX3 has the ability to schedule advertiser’s content in line with their requirements and create bespoke solutions.

UK: Ocean Group signs first landmark deal with Network Rail

Three full motion Media Eyes will dominate Birmingham's rail, retail and business hub In its first landmark deal with Network Rail, Ocean Group has been chosen as the provider of the three Media Eyes which will dominate the main entrances to the new Birmingham New Street Station which opens this September.

Part of the £200 million investment in Birmingham's infrastructure, the agreement is Ocean Group's first major contract win since the acquisition of Signature Outdoor last year. The Media Eyes will be sold by Ocean Outdoor and will be fully operational in autumn 2015.

The three full motion digital out of home screens, which each measure 30m x 7m, sit above the main entrances to Birmingham New Street and the John Lewis flagship store, part of the Grand Central shopping centre which also opens this September. The project forms part of one the UK's biggest city centre redevelopments.

The selection criteria to find a partner to design and operate the Media Eyes was based on commercial viability, architectural merit, technical ability and innovation, practical buildability and maintenance. The agreement was brokered by Signature Outdoor for Ocean Group.

Ocean Group CEO Tim Bleakley said:

"This multi-million pound investment is a significant addition to the Ocean portfolio in a prestige transport and retail environment. The Media Eyes will allow advertisers to reach premium rail passengers, business and retail audiences in one of the UK's fastest growing cities. "This is a significant part of our overall plan for what is rapidly becoming one of Europe's most dynamic and exciting cities, a city that has been identified as a beacon of what out of home and digital out of home looks like at its very best."

Chris Montgomery, Birmingham New Street project director, said: "We are really pleased to have the Ocean Group on board for this innovative and iconic part of the project. The Media Eyes will have full motion picture media content which will bring even more vibrancy and movement to the station."

The media content for the Eyes will display a portion of community content as well as commercial advertising. The screens can also be used to display station messaging in emergency situations.

UK: New OMC chairman eyes revenue growth with forums launch

Ahead of the launch of a new partnership with the IPA, Mark Craze, the new chairman of the Outdoor Media Centre (OMC), gets excited about breaking revenue records and digital innovations.

"I wanted to get involved because this is the most exciting time to be part of the out-of-home sector."

That is the view of the new OMC chairman, who told Campaign about ambitious plans to join forces with key stakeholders as the digital revolution promises great things for out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

For the first time, the OMC has partnered with OOH specialists the IPA Outdoor Group to launch a series of industry forums.

Craze, who joined the marketing body for OOH media in January, said the forums were necessary to help form a strategic review for the sector.

He said: "To say we represent OOH to an advertiser is just not credible without the specialists and previously there was an unnecessary divide that was not helping anyone.

"Our goal is to create an increase in revenue of OOH. We have just hit 10 per cent [of UK ad spend market share], which is £1 billion and there is a lot of investment and interest in digital.

"What we call classic OOH is immensely powerful and we are only just scratching the surface of what we can do on digital. I wanted to get involved because this is the most exciting time to be part of the OOH sector.

The first of the forums will involve a "scoping exercise" by marketing consultant Ann Gould, who is expected to report back in July on what customers think about the medium and how media owners can serve them better.

Craze said: "There has been lots of research but no one was sitting with an overall view. So let’s listen to our customers and understand what the barriers are. The IPA and the OMC will then take a view."

It comes after the Outdoor Media Centre announced record-breaking revenue figures for Q4 2014 and first-time annual billings of above £1 billion on an annual basis for 2014.

And Craze believes that growth is expected to continue thanks to the increase in digital OOH, which saw £50 million invested by media owners last year.

He said: "Q1 of 2015 has been very positive too but obviously there is an election coming up and the outcome of that will have an impact on us and the wider UK economy. "I am not going to talk about revenue targets, that would be like having the sword of Damocles over our heads.

But this is certainly a very exciting time to be involved because of this new opportunity."

Source

UK: D3 Europe’s double digital offering to Scotland’s leading OOH operator

Forest Media, Scotland’s number one provider of premium out-of-home advertising have further enhanced their premium digital portfolio to a total of eight, all of which have been provided by Dynamic Digital Displays Europe (D3), a division of Concept Sign and Display Group.

D3 have been working with Forest Media since 2013 when they were appointed by Forest to design and install Great Western Gateway in Glasgow’s West End and Leith Walk in Edinburgh, closely followed by CityScreen Glasgow and CityScreen Edinburgh Gateway. With the introduction of two new displays, CityScreen-Glasgow Southern Gateway and CityScreen-Edinburgh Eastern Gateway this further enhances the already stunning network.

CityScreen Edinburgh Eastern Gateway is positioned on main eastern commuter route of Seafield Road, a coastal location which is close to Leith and leads to numerous tourist locations. The 50 square metre digital display is of portrait orientation using D3’s premium outdoor Black Package SMD technology. With the exposed location in mind D3 provided a more robust paint system and further protection to the componentry to ensure the durability and longevity of the display.

CityScreen Glasgow Southern Gateway located in Giffnock along the busy A77 road, and dominates vital routes into Prestwick Airport and the main Northern Ireland Ferry terminals, this route is subject to a busy mixture of commuter and tourist vehicle traffic. Glasgow Southern Gateway stands at 50 square metres with the digital screen projecting in a cantilever orientation from a feature totem that required considerable structural engineering design.

Both displays incorporate the totem feature synonymous with Forest Media’s out-of-home displays, fabricated from aluminium with perforations to the face promoting the full effect of the colour change LEDs behind. D3 and Forest Media are continuing their working relationship with another digital display due to be revealed in the north of England at the end of April 2015.

Managing Director of D3 Europe Sean Morrough said: ‘”We continue to relish the engineering challenges set with these prestigious builds for Forrest, and it is a demonstration of our unique turnkey offering in delivering truly stunning LED displays and builds”

Forrest Media MD, Marc Keenan commented; “We are proud to be the only provider of Giant Roadside Digital north of the border and the two new screens will enhance our offering and strengthen our No.1 position yet further. D3 Europe have risen to the challenge once again; on brief, on time and right on the money”

UK: What do consumers really want from digital screens?

Kinetic UK's CEO, Stuart Taylor, looks at how different demographics are impacted by, and react to, digital out-of-home campaigns.

Digital posters are a must-have for brands and advertisers, opening a new world of interactivity to the out of home (OOH) sector. But are consumers actually connecting with the screens?

There are currently thousands of these moving, real-time information screens across all major international cities. But how can they be best used to enhance an advertisers' marketing strategy and brand?

As leaders in OOH, Kinetic wanted to find out the real impact digital screens are having on the consumer and what people expect and want from these formats in the future.

Kinetic Panel's research (Dec 2014) showed the consumer is already connecting. Nearly a fifth (19%) of the 1,000 consumers asked said that on seeing a digital outdoor advertisement they had looked for more information about the product, service or experience. This increased to 24% for younger people (in the 18-24 category).

Similarly, 23% of this younger age group downloaded an app after seeing an outdoor advertisement, compared with one in ten adults.

Unsurprisingly, the younger demographic is more engaged with interactive posters than their older counterparts, but one way in which advertisers and media specialists could broaden the appeal of digital posters is by providing location-specific information.

Clear Channel's roll-out of a series of Adshel panels and digital screens offering interactive content and downloadable vouchers was a perfect exercise in location-specific advertising. Equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) and QR code capabilities the platform transforms roadside advertising into an interactive consumer experience, allowing brands to connect with consumers in a more instant way.

According to the research, this is the most wanted service from digital posters by adults. Some 48% of the 1,000 respondents said they most desired weather information, while another 38% asked for transport updates; this rose to 50% of 55 to 64 year olds. In addition, 29% of respondents said they would like more interactive maps available in public spaces, while 32% said they wanted news updates, and 30% cited local events. Some provision of generic local information might help increase brand loyalty for advertisers and increase engagement with older consumers.

Full article here

UK: Primesight links with On Device Research for Primemobile Live

Primesight, in conjunction with On Device Research, has launched Primemobile Live, the first real-time reporting platform for outdoor advertising campaigns. Primesight’s online customer portal will provide instant access to consumer feedback by reporting data on campaign awareness and resultant changes in attitudes and actions as they develop during an ad campaign period.

Primesight’s clients can now access performance data on their campaigns at the critical time – while the campaign is in display. Clients utilizing digital displays can also use real-time data to establish a recommendation to change the weight of exposure, or to make creative changes which will optimize the display towards the most effective creative treatments, and therefore benefit from improving ROI.

Data can be analyzed by audience segment, individual creative treatment and GPS location. The real-time reporting platform builds on data captured from Primesight’s Primemobile which tracks consumers throughout their day. It provides instant access to consumers’ in the moment thoughts, direct from their mobile device via an API feed, to an out-of-home planner’s PC or mobile internet enabled device.

“The Primemobile portal provided an excellent opportunity for us to track the campaign key performance indicators in real time,” said Claire Prendegast , Account Director, Mindshare/Kinetic. “An impressive media first that enables access to live data, Primemobile allowed us to understand how many respondents had seen the poster, how they felt about it and what they did as a result of being exposed to the out-of-home advertising campaign. The tool was invaluable in helping us clearly ascertain the campaign’s success.”

“Our focus is to deliver effective results for our clients. We have developed this tool to provide them with faster and therefore, more valuable access to data which will help them understand the key audience metrics that their campaign is generating during the critical campaign display period,” said Mungo Knott, Marketing & Insight Director of Primesight.

Alistair Hill, CEO of On Device Research, said: “We are incredibly excited to launch this real-time reporting platform with Primesight. We are connecting traditional and screen format outdoor advertising campaigns with market leading research technology, and meeting a growing demand for 24/7 live access to data.”

Source

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Legends Entertainment District Chooses Ayuda Media Systems platform to run all OOH operations

Ayuda Platform now powers all digital signage and advertising operations for highest footfall traffic in Phoenix

Legends Entertainment District, the downtown home of MLB’s Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks) , and NBA, WNBA and AFL’s US Airways Center (Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury and Arizona Rattlers), has chosen Ayuda Media Systems’ platform to run all OOH advertising operations and digital signage.

Legends operates its own self contained advertising network in one of the most heavily trafficked areas in all of Phoenix, delivering the highest number of combined ad impressions compared to any other venue in the sixth largest city in the USA. It operates several large format spectacular digital billboards in addition to more than 40 static spectacular signs, providing a custom marketing playground and high impact experience for premium brands.

Ayuda is now powering all live digital signage operations and playback, contract management and sales tools, delivering a fully-integrated end-to-end experience for Legends to efficiently manage its business growth.

According to Travis Pensky, Business Operations Manager at Legends Entertainment District, “Looking at other software and understanding where our business needs were, Ayuda made the most sense. It allowed us flexibility and customization that was critical to our unique operations and business needs. At the end of the day, Ayuda’s user interface and integration across sales and inventory management completely sealed the deal for us.”

When asked about their experience working with Ayuda, Pensky replied: “Ayuda has been spectacular with their customer support. Their entire client service team has been incredibly resourceful throughout the go-live process, and have been extremely responsive to our needs. Not only was the transition done with care and top notch dedication from Ayuda, we loved the improvements from our old software - such as no delays on digital synchronization, seamless transitions, and a much more effortless campaign management approach.”

Daniel Fleischer, Ayuda’s Vice President of Business Development, comments that

“Ayuda is proud to be fully powering one of the most prestigious and highly coveted advertising locations in North America’s fastest growing city. Ayuda was uniquely positioned to address several of Legends’ business requirements from a single platform. Ayuda is the only software solution that is capable of managing digital signage, sales, traditional signage operations, contract & inventory management, as well as finance on a single fully integrated software experience.

We are providing business efficiencies that will help Legends grow their business, unencumbered by multiple software systems that don’t talk to each other. We are very proud to add Legends’ Entertainment District to the list of high profile locations across the country that are powered by Ayuda’s fully integrated and ultra-reliable Splash™ Digital Signage CMS and player. We look forward to helping Legends grow their business as a key technology partner.”

USA: Freckle IoT and Blue Bite Partner to Create North America's Largest Proximity Network

With over 60,000 beacon deployments, Freckle IoT and Blue Bite enable more brands to engage connected consumers along the path-to-purchase.

Freckle IoT (The Internet of Things), an ad tech company that activates next generation connected devices, announces a groundbreaking partnership with Blue Bite, the Mobile Standard in Out-of-Home, which provides mobile technology for the retail industry. The partnership deploys 60,000 beacons across the United States, creating North America's largest proximity network and spearheading innovation in mobile location-based services. Connecting Freckle IoT's open beacon ecosystem to Blue Bite's extensive location partnerships and mTAG platform enables advertisers to launch innovative, integrated marketing campaigns that connect with consumers across digital, mobile, and Out-of-Home environments with scale.

"With this partnership, we are embarking on the next era of mobile activation – which is based on The Internet of Things," said Neil Sweeney, President & CEO of Freckle IoT. "As more people adopt connected devices, marketers have grown eager to engage consumers on the path-to-purchase using hyper-local strategies. The scale of this launch means we can provide brands with infinitely greater opportunities to engage their target audience than with what is possible under the boxed-in solutions available in the market."

The partnership harnesses Blue Bite's longstanding knowledge of Out-of-Home mobile activations and taps into the company's extensive roster of location partners. Freckle IoT's open beacon network connects the company's growing number of application partners with its beacon ecosystem, solving the issue of scale in proximity deployments and bringing an additional layer of data sophistication to client campaigns. Instead of being locked within a closed framework of standalone beacon locations with a dedicated application, brands can harness any application enabled with Freckle IoT's Software Development Kit (SDK) to tap into the beacon network and deliver engaging messaging to their target audience.

Capitalizing on the promise of the Internet of Things, beacons are placed in inventive locations, including: transit; street furniture; airports; college campuses; movie theaters; bars; and taxis. The beacons enable applications carrying Freckle IoT's SDK to provide rich content through mobile or wearable devices and target in-app advertising on a hyper-local level.

"Brands crave innovative ways to use connected devices to engage their consumers in contextually relevant ways," said Mikhail Damiani, CEO & Co-founder of Blue Bite. "The fact is, the tools haven't existed for brands to deliver on widespread value and scalability with low barriers to entry – until now."

Through this approach, brands and agencies can deliver innovative, contextually relevant messaging to engaged and interested consumers who have opted in, building connections and avoiding 'spam' or 'junk mail' like messaging.

Canada: BroadSign International, LLC Brings SIGNificance to Digital Signage with Charitable Campaigns

Digital out-of-home networks enable flexible and premium promotion of content to maximize social impact.

BroadSign International, LLC, global provider of cloud-based digital signage software, is facilitating customer access to charitable content and adding SIGNificance to the digital signage industry.

BroadSign SIGNificance supports the Montreal-based company’s local community and those accessed through its international footprint by partnering with philanthropic organizations and agencies. Content designed specifically for DOOH media is easily accessed by networks and integrated into their campaign schedules, bringing attention to important causes on the same screens that generate targeted and valuable impressions for paying advertisers.

“It’s common practice for traditional media to allocate space to non-profit and humanitarian organizations through the use of PSAs,” said Skip Beloff, Vice President of Sales at BroadSign. “With the growth of digital out-of-home and its establishment as a respectable medium that truly enhances its surroundings, digital signage brings impactful possibilities to charitable campaigns that aren’t available through other media.”

BroadSign SIGNificance started four years ago, when Beloff would ask digital out-of-home networks to donate airtime to promote Hockey de Rue: Together for the Kids, a local charity supporting the Montréal Canadiens Children’s Foundation and the YM-YWHA. This year, prominent Canadian networks and BroadSign customers such as Cineplex and Groupe Viva are lending their displays to support the cause. A team of BroadSign employees will also contribute by competing in the ball hockey tournament on May 31st.

From a global perspective, partners such as Agency 672 and the PVBLIC Foundation provide networks with timely and quality content, such as the White House-supported and celebrity-endorsed “It’s On Us” campaign.

“At the PVBLIC Foundation we believe that media is the new currency for social impact. BroadSign understands this well and we are extremely happy they have partnered with us to continue to drive social impact globally through the use of media,” said Daniel Wilkins, Executive Director/Media at the PVBLIC Foundation.

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: Continental Outdoor flying alongside BirdLife SA to give conservation wings

Continental Outdoor Media has aligned its corporate social investment spend with its core business objectives and imperatives. This strategic approach over the past few years has resulted in CSI initiatives being moved largely out of the charitable sphere into one in which true partnerships have been forged with key beneficiaries, one of which is BirdLife South Africa.

Continental Outdoor has provided much needed advertising exposure to further BirdLife South Africa’s goals and objectives. This was achieved by way of free design assistance and advertising space on both static billboards and digital platforms across the country, amounting to in excess of 2 million Rand a year.

As South Africa’s only dedicated bird conservation organisation, BirdLife South Africa is making very important contributions to the conservation of our country’s birds and their habitats.

In their quest to conserve threatened species they have, for example, reduced the impact of fisheries on albatrosses by more than 90%. As a result, tens of thousands of albatrosses are each year spared from drowning at the end of a hook or being caught in a trawl net.

BirdLife South Africa’s habitat work is also making very significant contributions, and through the Biodiversity Stewardship Programme, this work is busy securing more than 100 000 ha of grasslands and estuaries as protected areas in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Mpumalanga.

BirdLife South Africa aims to prevent the extinction of threatened bird species, and to maintain the conservation status of common bird species. The organisation conserves, improves and enlarges sites and habitats that are important for birds and thereby also conserve other biodiversity as well as secures food and water resources for the country. In addition they integrate bird conservation into sustaining people's livelihoods.

Mark Anderson, CEO of BirdLife South Africa states, “A very important part of our work is creating awareness about birds, bird conservation issues, and about BirdLife South Africa. Continental Outdoor Media has played a huge role in this, for which we are immensely grateful. More people are aware of birds, our membership is growing, and our magazine subscriptions are increasing. My work, as BirdLife South Africa’s main fundraiser, has also been made easier because, when I approach new donors, they have already heard of us”.

Barry Sayer, Executive Chairman of Continental Outdoor adds, “We remain committed supporters of the great work that BirdLife South Africa performs, their preservation of our birdlife for generations to come and the broader impact that BirdLife South Africa has on the greater environment and consequently the quality of life for our people. We look forward to contributing to the awareness of the Blue Crane, our national bird and this year’s Bird of the Year, very soon”.

Nigeria: Nigerian Outdoor Advertising Practitioners Head to Top US University

In furtherance of their goal to give Outdoor Advertising its rightful place in the new landscape of Marketing Communications in Nigeria, members of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) have mapped out a series of capacity-building Training Programs, starting with a forthcoming Executive Education Workshop in the United States of America.

Focusing on the theme of “The Art and Science of Outdoor Advertising in the Age of Digital Media”, the five-day Training Event will hold from April 12 to 17, at the Department of Communication, North Dakota State University (NDSU), with Resource Persons drawn from other American Universities and the field of American Professional Outdoor Advertising Practitioners. North Dakota State University is ranked among the top 2% of American public and private universities.

The curriculum for the Training Event, which was drawn up by OAAN members and NDSU Advertising Professors, shows that participants will be exposed to a wide range of topics that include business aspects and Return on Investments in Outdoor Advertising, Managing the Creative Process, Working with Governments and Public Institutions. Other topics include: Innovations in Outdoor Advertising Practice, Media Relations for Outdoor Agencies, and Leadership Paradigms for Outdoor Agencies etc.

Dr. Mark Meister, Professor and Chair of NDSU’s Department of Communication said his team is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with OAAN in co-hosting this special Training Program, which demonstrates the University’s commitment to serving its publics, locally and internationally.

He added that since Communication Coursework started at NDSU in 1907, making it one of the pioneers in providing university-level education in communication, the emphasis has always been on leveraging Professional practices with high quality academic instruction. On his part, OAAN President Mr. Charles Chijide expressed optimism that the forthcoming Training will be very beneficial to OAAN members and their clients in all areas of Marketing Communications in Nigeria.

As a mark of respect and in recognition of the value of fruitful collaboration in the Marketing Communication Sector in Nigeria, Mr. Chijide has extended friendly invitations to OAAN’s peer Associations in Advertising, Marketing and Media to encourage them to join OAAN members in the proposed Training in the US.

Mr. Chijide is confident that participating OAAN members and their clients will benefit immensely from the Outdoor Advertising Experience in the US, where the Outdoor Advertising Association was established in 1891. Here in Nigeria, Outdoor Advertising came at the instance of colonial Britain, in the work of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. As is the case in many other parts of the world, Outdoor Advertising in Nigeria today, is the fastest growing sector of Marketing Communications because it is the most public medium. It has now become indispensable in strategic marketing, and no other form of selling can take its place.

OAAN Secretariat is handling the registration for the Training on behalf of its members and all others who may want to participate. Interested prospective participants can contact the General Manager for additional information.

South Africa: Out of Home to fill in the DTT audience loss gaps

Out of Home advertising is the umbrella under which cross media advertising campaigns assemble. Its inherent strength is that it can be seen as the ‘short-hand’ for brand-building by reinforcing and reminding consumers of ads they might have seen on TV, radio and/or in print with a succinct message in just seconds using brand cues that pull through from other media. It cannot be disputed that Out of Home advertising is an integral part of the communication mix. The strength of OOH will be endorsed with the migration of broadcasters from analogue to digital terrestrial TV and Radio. Why?

The migration period in South Africa from analogue TV to Digital Terrestrial TV is expected to commence next year, around June 2016 after the municipal by-elections. Households that do not subscribe to satellite television will need to purchase a DTT set top box (STB) to access TV, and poorer, lower LSM households will be given boxes, (5 million in total) with the proviso that they own a TV license. Industry experts have predicted that this will cause a significant drop-off in TV audiences, mostly from free to air stations over the migration period. The roll-out is expected to take approximately 6 months with radio following suit.

Advertisers will need to beef up their OOH reach to compensate for the loss of audiences and resultant share of voice, mostly in the lower LSM areas. Of interest will be how TV license ownership will be monitored, and if audited accurately, then surely some households will be lost to the TV and radio marketer! Word is that the TAMS methodology will not immediately be able to record these audience losses and will create further hesitation for marketers to rely on TV to reach their once guaranteed markets.

This terrestrial technology will provide consumers with more channel choice, better quality, and relevant content in their own languages. Consumers will now have a wider choice of viewing options which is likely to lead to experimentation and channel hopping, leading to a drop in viewership figures per channel. It’s also likely to create more competition within the broadcasting arena. The consumer is set to benefit, however these benefits translate into further fragmentation and niched audience pockets that will make it more elusive and expensive for marketers to reach. The cost per thousand, and cost per campaign, to reach these previous ‘mass markets’ on TV is set to soar.

Out of Home formats, both static and digital will be waiting in the wings to take up these losses, at a fraction of the cost! The growth of Digital Out of Home will encourage marketers to move much of their content into the out of home and social media arena. The integration between mobile and OOH screens will become more sophisticated and provide marketers with direct communication and brand-building vehicles on a larger scale, reaching these ‘lost terrestrial audiences’.

The inherent cost-effectiveness of Out of Home, supported by the new Out of Home Measurement Council’s survey due to be launched in August this year, will prove Out of Home to be a currency worth its weight in gold.

ASIA NEWS

India: JCDecaux India’s Media Offer 2015 gets a GRP boost

In line with the global approach of reach and frequency, the street furniture Media Offer 2015 is supported by Nielsen-certified Gross Rating Point (GRP)

JCDecaux India, a subsidiary of the JCDecaux Group, has recently launched its new street furniture Media Offer in March 2015. The company has been organising interactive roadshows for all leading agencies across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to introduce them with this Media Offer in the past month.

A fragmented market, absence of guidelines governing the industry as well as the lack of performance measurement often deters marketers from including out-of-home in their advertising plans.

Advocating OOH as an effective medium, the media offer lets brands choose the most appropriate solutions depending on their communication objective. In line with the global approach of reach and frequency, the JCDecaux Media Offer 2015 is supported by Nielsen-certified Gross Rating Point (GRP).

“OOH is a very powerful mass medium, however, it often ends up being a last minute inclusion in most of the ad plans. But we are glad to notice a change in perception in the last few months. Acknowledging the rational of our networks of CityLights, advertisers are increasing their OOH budgets to increase their campaign reach and frequency,” commented Olivier Heroguelle, Managing Director, JCDecaux India.

He further said, “Another important game changer is the possibility to book an outdoor advertisement space in advance, which is definitely an advantage for advertisers.”

The company has been running national and international brand campaigns based on their networks such as Pan City Coverage Networks, Shopaholic, Youth, HNI, Traffic and Zonal.

List of brands that have executed ad campaigns on JCDecaux CityLights, include FMCG players such as Amul, HUL, Britannia, ITC; key e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, Olx, Quikr; and tourism brands like West Bengal, Tourism Australia, South Africa, Uttar Pradesh, Diu and so on.

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