FEPE NEWS

57th FEPE Congress in Barcelona: Hotel rooms are getting scarce!

We still have some availability at The Crowne Plaza but room availability is not infinite. We recommend booking as soon as possible if you wishto take advantage of our special rate.

Speakers and panel members already confirmed are Kester Fielding of Bacardi and Stephen Sargeant of Diageo, Tom Goodwin, James Murphy, Michel Sara, Mark Boidman, Bob Wootton, Annie Rickard, Nancy Fletcher, Rosanne Caron, Noomi Mehta, Alan Brydon, Tim Bleakley and Charmaine Moldrich.

FEPE Board members including Matthew Dearden, Tom Goddard, Christian Schmalzl, Shaun Gregory and Brendon Cook will also be moderating panels and facilitating sessions along with FEPE President Antonio Vincenti. The full programme and running order will be released in due course.

The Gala Dinner will be held at the Codorniu wine making facility, just outside Barcelona. Codorníu is synonymous to the history of a family 

of winegrowers which goes back to the XVI century. It is the oldest family business in Spain and one of the oldest in the world. It now has 450 years of history behind it.

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

One or two exhibition places are still available, so please get in touch if you wish to showcase your company and products in front of a high level audience of OOH professionals.

The link for the booking form can be found on the FEPE Homepage, at www.worldooh.org

Further details will be announced in future newsletters.

UK: Urban Partnerships: A Brand New Venture From Posterscope and psLIVE

Posterscope and sister agency, experiential specialists psLIVE, recently launched a new division dedicated to helping brands create projects in the heart of urban communities with both societal and commercial benefits.

Named Urban Partnerships, the new division will identify unique opportunities for brands to create immersive and engaging experiences that are grounded in social good and provide real benefits to communities. In return, brands will gain access to hard-to-reach audiences, and enable them to communicate in a much more powerful way that aligns with their commercial objectives while also providing significant benefits to local communities, relevant to their needs and aspirations.

The further benefit of positive association with local government, charities and not-for-profit organisations combines to make Urban Partnerships a powerful and flexible proposition that can play out in many ways. Examples of projects the Urban Partnerships team has completed in trial phase include:

Community events and partnerships: adidas worked with Tower Hamlets to create a light up running track, facilitating safe running for women at night, whilst promoting the launch of the boost X women’s running shoe. Energy for the night-time lighting was generated by kinetic energy from people’s footsteps.

Investment in public infrastructure and street furniture: Online cycle retailer Wiggle helped provide branded cycle pumps and bicycle repair facilities in train stations, driving brand loyalty by giving their target audience a free utility whilst promoting their online retail site.

Innovation and new technologies creating vibrant and immersive environments: Working with the British Heart Foundation and London & Partners, the Urban Partnerships team helped launch the London Heart Trail, an interactive dual-direction walk along the South Bank, from the London Eye to Tower Bridge that provided information on how to keep you heart healthy.

Michael Brown, MD of psLIVE, said: “We believe brands have the power, connections, resources, and in many ways, an obligation to change the world for the good. The new Urban Partnerships division has been created specifically to help brands realise this potential, by acting as strategist and facilitator between local authorities, charities and not-for-profit organisations where they can make a real difference.

“Recent research carried out by CONE communications found that 90 per cent of consumers are likely to switch brands to one associated with a good cause. To that end, we are not populating this new venture with overtly commercial or marketing people from the world of media, and instead furnishing it with people with experience doing positive work in the heart of local communities. For instance, to help me drive this forward we have engaged Christopher Nicola, who has spent 10 years with Camden Borough Council rolling out local community initiatives.”

Christopher Nicola, Head of Urban Partnerships, said: “The way in which consumers perceive brands has a huge influence on the effectiveness of that brand’s advertising. Through Urban Partnerships, we’re creating positive, impactful experiences for consumers that means brands are giving something back to the community at the same time. This isn’t just advertising, it’s advertising for good.”

Source

Ireland: OOH Market Grows By 15% In Q1 Of 2016

Out of Home advertising in the Republic of Ireland experienced double digit growth in the first quarter of 2016 according to the latest Posterwatch market report published by OOH specialist company PML Group. Specifically, PML Group reports a 15% increase in the value of the market, compared to the same period in 2015.

However, it also notes that Q1 2015 was the poorest performing period of last year but the trend has been upwards ever since.

The Posterwatch report lists McDonald’s, Diageo and Sky as the three most active advertisers in Q1. With regard to product categories, the top three consists of finance, including banks and insurance companies; retail , including supermarkets and telecoms. Other big growth sectors were QSRs and the toiletries/cosmetics market.

Q1 also benefitted to a small extent from the general election but spend was relatively light for the political parties. Among the most prominent individual OOH campaigns of the first three months of the year were launches for Samsung Galaxy S7 and Sky Q as well as multi-format campaigns for Tesco at Easter time and the National Lottery for its ‘Multiplier’ promotion in March.

OOH formats that have performed particularly well in the first part of 2016 include transport panels such as bus T-Sides, Digital OOH screens including iVision and dPod, and large format billboards and in particular the relatively recently launched Première 48 Sheets and 96 Sheets. According to PML, a demand exists in the market for quality, backlit, large format options and this is being addressed more and more by the main OOH media owners – Clear Channel, Exterion Media and JCDecaux.

“It’s been a great start to the year. Most cycles have shown good growth in Q1. Demand is high and we’re finding advertisers using more of a variety of formats within campaigns. Investment is paying off with demand high for Digital OOH formats and the improved large format sector.

Q1 was the fourth successive quarter of growth for the medium. We are expecting to continue the trend into Q2 as summer kicks in and with events such as Euro 2016 and the Olympics on the horizon it should make for a busy period ahead, “

says Colum Harmon, marketing director of PML.

Source

UK: Data, Technology & Automation: Turbo-Charging DOOH Creative

Out Of Home (OOH) is the world’s oldest advertising medium, having been around for hundreds of years. Innovation has always been at the heart of the OOH industry; and that is truer than ever today.

Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) is quickly gaining momentum and has reached a very exciting point in its ongoing development. Neil Morris (pictured below), founder and CEO, Grand Visual tells ExchangeWire that the creative execution still lags behind the evolving infrastructure and explains what needs to happen for it to catch up.

The state of play today

Today, the global DOOH market is at an exciting juncture. The inventory and infrastructure is there, and its scale and ubiquity in cities around the world make it a valuable and exciting medium with which to work. No longer is outdoor confined to the realms of static branding copy – now tactical, real-time, responsive campaigns are possible and practical on a global scale.

Programmatic trading systems are close to becoming a reality, particularly in the US and APAC, and are now also spreading to the UK and Europe. Also, in terms of creative fulfilment, the UK has been leading the way with improvements to infrastructure and continues to be the testbed for connectivity trials. Ad tech platforms such as OpenLoop have emerged to bring this vast and diverse digital estate together and easily managed under one dashboard. This allows digital assets to be optimised and dynamically delivered to the relevant audiences and mindsets across multiple networks and markets.

Full article here

UK: Esprit Digital wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the UK’s highest accolade for business achievement

Esprit Digital today joins an elite group of British companies who have been recognised for continued success in international trade. As a Queen’s Award winner the company has received an invitation to attend a special reception at Buckingham Palace with HM The Queen this coming July.

For many years Esprit has exported bespoke advertising screen solutions to every corner of the globe, often to the most high profile and challenging public environments such as Airports, Metros and Shopping Malls. Having completed sizeable projects on London Underground escalators, in Westfield London and Stratford and all of the major UK airports including Heathrow, Esprit embarked on a journey to introduce their ground-breaking designs and technology to large overseas infrastructure owners.

Notable wins followed in Europe, the Middle East and the US before the company tendered for and won the largest ever digital rollout in Australia – 37 malls were converted from paper adverts to digital screens in 21 nights, a project worth over A$21 million.

James Brenner, CTO of Esprit Digital commented,

“The Queen’s Awards are the most prestigious business accolades you can win. They are only awarded to companies demonstrating the highest level of excellence over several years and spanning countless projects - we are truly honoured and delighted to receive the award for International Trade. After a year of unparalleled success for every aspect of the business in 2015, we are currently in the process of building a new ‘state of the art’ facility in Stevenage and will create up to 10 new positions this year.

Over the summer we will be celebrating in style with a party for all of our worldwide staff attended by a Royal representative.” Just over 100 Queen’s Awards have been announced this year for outstanding business achievement in the fields of International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development.

Managing Director Peter Livesey added,

“Esprit has built its reputation on reliability, keeping screens working in difficult conditions 24/7/365 for a minimum of 5 years. As a company we are going from strength to strength and it is particularly gratifying that as one of the founders of the technology driving the digital out-of-home (DOOH) revolution, the whole team has been rewarded for a lot of very hard work.”

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Traffic Audit Bureau Re-Brands As Geopath

The Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement, commonly known as the TAB, announced at its annual conference today that it would change its name to Geopath™.

The rebrand signals a shift for the 83 year-old out of home ("OOH") advertising ratings organization, a not for profit membership organization of advertisers, agencies and media companies whose mission is to independently audit and report OOH ratings throughout the United States.

The new brand was created to communicate the organization's shift in focus from strictly measuring OOH advertising inventory like billboards, transit advertising, and bus shelters, to measuring and analyzing audience location, and how consumers engage with OOH advertising as they move throughout their day.

This shift from inventory to audience provides much deeper consumer insights, better alignment with other media measurement, and a more granular understanding of the impact and effectiveness of OOH advertising. A new tagline was created to highlight these key benefits – "Powering a smarter OOH."

The Geopath brand was also developed to give the organization a fresh start and to make the brand more relevant and contemporary among today's data-driven advertising and media professionals.

The work was overseen by a TAB Brand Council, including David Krupp, CEO of Kinetic Worldwide, Andrea MacDonald, President of MacDonald Media, Matt Leible, EVP and CMO of Billups, Dan Levi, EVP and CMO of Clear Channel Outdoor, Jennifer Seickel, President of OOH Pitch, Jeff Tan, VP Strategy of Posterscope USA, Jodi Senese, EVP and CMO of OUTFRONT Media, Larry Hennessy, SVP Member Services of the TAB, and Kym Frank, President of the TAB.

The strategic brand consultant Rafkin & Company did the naming, strategy, and brand identity and design.

"We are so proud of our new brand Geopath," said brand council member David Krupp, CEO North America of Kinetic Worldwide.

"The name clearly articulates what the organization is about, and how it will power a smarter and more integrated out of home marketplace."

Kym Frank, President of the TAB, said "How often do you get the chance for a do-over? We are no longer an old school, billboard ratings bureau, so why should our brand sound like one? We thought long and hard about our role in the cross-platform media ecosystem, and what we wanted to stand for. Geopath is the perfect brand expression of our new vision."

Kym Frank announced the name change at a 'soft launch' during her address at the annual TAB/OAAA Out of Home Media Conference & Expo, held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. The new brand will formally go live with a new website and brand launch activities on September 19, 2016.

Source

USA: OUTFRONT Media makes Strategic Investment in Waltz

OUTFRONT Media Inc. announced recently a strategic investment in Waltz (formerly Concord Payments), a New York City-based digital payment systems start-up. Waltz is developing an intelligent mobile-focused transit fare payment system to provide a secure, fast, and efficient transaction between any smartphone and turnstiles, buses or platform validators. Waltz’s solution will also seamlessly integrate with other large-scale payment system Providers and third-party vendors.

Waltz anticipates that transforming analog ticketing and fare payment systems into a digital, smart and connected operation will benefit riders, dramatically reduce operating costs for transit systems and create new revenue opportunities for operators.

OUTFRONT Media believes next-generation mobile payments at subway system turnstiles can create new ways for our transit advertising partners to attract audience attention and provide an easy payment solution for all future transit commerce opportunities.

“Our investment in Waltz furthers OUTFRONT’s mission to continue to enhance the transit ecosystem, benefiting municipalities, riders, and advertising partners,” said Andy Sriubas, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning & Development, OUTFRONT Media.

“We’re thrilled to work with Waltz to help operators revolutionize the transit experience.” “OUTFRONT’s support and vision for a holistic digital experience in the transit environment will advance our progress toward bringing this exciting mobile payment solution to transit systems,” said Matt Kopel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Waltz.

“With OUTFRONT’s extensive transit advertising experience and their innovative ON Smart Media platform, we are one step closer to creating a more convenient, seamless and secure passenger journey.”

OUTFRONT Media currently sells advertising for over seventy transit authorities including Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, and Miami.

Source

USA: BroadSign Mobile Used by Xprnc Media to Bridge DOOH with Smartphones in Retail

Deployment spans record stores across the United States.

BroadSign International, LLC, has deployed its BroadSign Mobile product across the Xprnc Media LLC digital out-of-home network in retail locations. Xprnc Media provides ad-based DOOH to top media retailers and plans to grow to 300 locations in the next two years.

Reaching over 300,000 consumers monthly, the network selected BroadSign’s software platform for its depth, scalability and API, and believes BroadSign Mobile has opened the door to lasting communication with consumers once they have left the store. Viewers are driven to the mobile experience through digital signage ads using QR codes and NFC tags.

By interacting with the mobile menu, consumers can access product details, special offers, discounts, streaming media and any URL desired by the advertiser. “BroadSign’s addition of a mobile solution to their already leading platform allows Xprnc Media to utilize media industry content to directly engage with consumers,” said Michael Fitts, President/CEO at Xprnc Media. “This comes at time when 85% of all consumers use their mobile devices at retail to obtain product information toward purchase decisions, as well as coupons and discounts.

Our media consumers are the perfect niche to reach on mobile devices based on their desire to see and hear media before purchasing.” Given that shoppers browse in-store from 15 to 30 minutes per visit, Xprnc Media’s 55” plasma displays run five-minute loops with 15-second slots.

Half of the content is dedicated to advertising, while 20% of screen time is used for custom messaging by local managers through BroadSign Creator. Other time in the loop enables the network’s audience to benefit from “mobile listening stations” and “exclusive concert screenings”, where concerts from artists like The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith are broadcast to all locations at 7 pm on Friday nights.

“Xprnc Media provides digital media in retail to inform consumers, while promoting brands and generating new revenue for retailer partners,” said Jean Beaudry, COO at BroadSign.

“We are pleased that the addition of BroadSign Mobile now allows Xprnc Media to further engage with viewers while efficiently attracting ad revenue from DOOH and mobile budgets.”

USA: World’s First ‘Live Stream’ Billboard PSA Campaign Will Promote Recycling Across the U.S.

One of North America’s largest outdoor advertising companies is partnering with a non-profit on the world’s first-ever live-stream billboard campaign.

Lamar Advertising Company is donating the use of hundreds of digital billboards across the United States at no cost to Recycle Across America (RAA) to promote its “Let’s recycle right!” campaign during a live-streamed photo shoot event on April 21, 2016 and throughout Earth Week.

Recycle Across America provides standardized recycling bin labels to businesses, municipalities and schools nationwide, to make it easier for people to “recycle right.” “Most people aren't aware that recycling in our country is on the verge of collapse due primarily to the mistakes people make when recycling,” said Mitch Hedlund, RAA’s Executive Director.

“The solution of standardized labels on recycling bins is deceivingly simple, yet profoundly impactful and it works. So this historic event to promote the Let’s recycle right! campaign and the standardized label solution has the ability to significantly transform society’s environmental impact.”

Full article here

Brazil: This Zika-Killing Billboard Lures Mosquitos With the Essence of Human Sweat and Breath

By expelling lactic acid and CO2 Out-of-home advertising continues its recent quest to make the outdoors a better place to live—not just a place to sell stuff—with interesting billboards in Brazil that kill mosquitos, and hope to make a dent in the spread of the Zika virus.

The boards were designed by Brazilian advertising agency NBS and OOH agency Posterscope, both part of Dentsu Aegis Network. Their panels are equipped with technology that attracts and kills the Aedes Aegypti mosquito—by mimicking the essence of human sweat and breath.

The boards emit a solution into the air containing lactic acid, which reproduces the smell of human sweat, and also carbon dioxide, which replicates human breathing.

The combination of these substances attracts mosquitos at a distance of up to 2.5 miles, the agencies say. The headline on the ads reads, "This billboard kills hundreds of Zika mosquitos every day."

Full article and video here

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Two Testicles React to Warmth, Cold and Wind on World's Ballsiest Weather Billboard

'The Boys' are back in Australian underwear campaign One of the funniest ad campaigns of 2015—Australia's "The Boys" campaign for Bonds underwear, starring a pair of chatty testicles—returns in a big way for 2016 with a seven-story-high weather billboard in downtown Melbourne in which the lads react in real time to cold, warmth and wind.

The agency, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, explains: When it's cold, the boys shrink towards the top of the billboard, and when the weather heats up they descend and hang freely.

The boys get swung about whenever the wind blows, too. The board is now up at Melbourne's iconic Bourke Street Mall.

Full story and video here

AFRICA NEWS

Africa: The JCDecaux sub-Saharan Africa HR structure is rationalized for growth!

JCDecaux in sub-Saharan Africa has rationalised and streamlined its structure to optimize the integration of the JCDecaux Group’s international procedures, and accommodate the new growth strategies across the continent.

This follows the finalisation of the integration of Continental Outdoor Media into the JCDecaux Group after the acquisition by JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC) in partnership with Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), with a shareholding split of 70/30 of the company on 18 June 2015.

The Executive Committee, led by Jean-Sébastien Decaux and supported by Bazil Lauryssen, CEO sub-Saharan Africa, is operationally structured to focus in all the key areas of the organization. James Scott is the Chief Financial Officer, Mark Cooper the Chief Operations Officer, Adelaide McKelvey the Sales & Marketing director Sub Saharan Africa, with Kamil Senhaji continuing in his role as Business Development Director Africa.

Other structural enhancements include the assumption by Ryan Neyt in a Development Manager role for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with Garth Dibb responsible for Asset Management, Patrimony and Special Projects in African countries outside of South Africa. The appointment of Alexandre Simacourbe as Airports Manager sub-Saharan Africa will complement the Operational and Developmental changes within the business.

The Sales and Marketing departments, led by Adelaide McKelvey throughout sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa), have been re-aligned to capitalize on JCDecaux Group’s global strategy and provide advertisers with continued value, insights and outstanding service. Lelanie Butler has assumed the role of Futures and Content Manager sub-Saharan Africa, with Lyn Jones supporting the business as Marketing & Research Manager sub-Saharan Africa.

In South Africa, Darren McKinon will assume the role of Head of Sales responsible for Agencies, and Michael Chisnall will assume the role of Head of Sales for the Direct and StreetTalk business. Alasdair Muller will continue in his role as Head of Sales for the balance of the business into Africa.

Bazil Lauryssen, CEO sub-Saharan Africa, finalises by stating:

“We have taken great care to gear up our business in sub-Saharan Africa with the best staff in place to strengthen our position and delivery in Africa and maintain the exceptional respect and standing the Group, as the Number One Out of Home company in the world, achieves around the globe. The JCDecaux Group’s core actions and development has been guided on strong values and key staff since 1964. The reputation and success of our business in sub-Saharan Africa hinges on the deployment of exceptional skills through-out the continent”.

ASIA NEWS

Thailand: Master Ad seeks top spot

Media firm sets sights on Asean expansion SET-listed Master Ad Plc (MACO), the country's largest out-of-home (OOH) advertising firm, will expand its media business in Asean after securing a presence in Malaysia last year.

The company aims to be the leader in OOH media in Asean by partnering with local and international media companies. Chairman Noppadol Tansalarak said Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam had high potential and were worth large investments to build sustainable growth for Master Ad.

He would not reveal which country the company plans to invest in next but said Malaysia would be used a role model for new foreign investment. Local partners would help improve Master Ad's OOH media because of their experience and relationships with customers. The next foreign expansion will be a joint venture, he said.

"Creating a partnership will benefit us in the long term because the OOH media industry grows on a regional basis,"

Mr Noppadol said, adding that expansion in Asean is a form of risk management for the company's sustainable business.

Full article here