EUROPE NEWS

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

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

Rupert Day, Global CEO of Tenth Avenue will be speaking on Thursday 11th, giving a media agency perspective on reaching audiences effectively through OOH.

Tenth Avenue is the home of WPP’s ‘Connected Consumer’ agencies.

We live in a hyper-connected world – and this has changed everything. Consumers now access information immediately, share everything in real time, and have more purchase choices than ever before.

Meaningful, relevant, engaging, valuable – that’s what brands have to be in order to capture people’s attention and imagination in this connected world. And that’s where tenthavenue steps in.

Our work brings together the four key pillars of data, content, technology and media. By aligning our specialist agencies and partners, we build teams, products and services that help brands create relevant experiences driven by the mindset of the audience across a myriad of channels and environments.

We call this ‘the personalisation of the consumer experience’ and it drives everything we do.

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.

Spain: Hollywood Star launches Daktronics digital canvas at the birthplace of Pablo Picasso

An eight hundred-strong crowd gathered in Málaga, Spain, on Friday evening to witness Hollywood actor and native of Málaga, Antonio Banderas, fire up the new Daktronics digital display at the town’s El Corte Inglés shopping centre. The LED display will also enhance the cultural experiences in the city of Málaga.

The screen measures 9.88 metres high by 13.9 metres wide, and features a 13HD pixel layout, prime technology for cutting through direct sunlight. The display is the largest digital canvas in the Andalucia region of Spain and will be viewed by an impressive 45,000 to 50,000 footfall of daily traffic. Its unique installation on the south façade of El Corte Inglés faces directly into the sun and to the sea. Málaga, the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, is a cultural tourist destination in southern Spain and home to numerous museums like the Picasso Museum, Pompidou Centre and upcoming international events such as the Málaga Film Festival. The new LED display will not only be promoting the brands sold within the El Corte Inglés, but also cultural events, activities and experiences within the city itself.

The display in Málaga is the second Daktronics installation by the Spanish retail brand. El Cortes Inglés erected its first digital façade just a few months ago at their Callao location in Madrid. Measuring 194 square metres and wrapping around the building, the Madrid screen is the largest video display in Spain and includes a seamless angle that provides impressive viewing perspectives and shows vibrant images with excellent contrast.

Both displays incorporate industry-leading environmental protection for longer lifetimes in outdoor environments. The variable content zoning capabilities of each display allow them to highlight one piece of content across the entire display or to organize the display into different sections to show multiple pieces of content at the same time.

“El Corte Inglés of Málaga offers one of the best possible locations, in one of the cities with greatest activity in the South of Spain. The installation actually was smoother than expected, thanks to the collaboration and partnership from the architecture, integration and installation teams organized by El Corte Inglés,” said Ivan Del Rio, Daktronics Spain regional manager. “The surprise was kept until the very last minute, and when Antonio Banderas turned the display on, the high quality of it in this application became obvious. We are very proud of this new project.”

Daktronics LED video and messaging display technology offers a long lifetime with consistent, industry-leading performance and low power consumption, providing value and excitement for years to come.

UK: HTC picks blowUP media package to spearhead M9 launch

The launch of the HTC One M9 mobile phone is taking pride of place on three blowUP media Giant Posters in London, Manchester and Leeds including the very first display on the new high-profile Kensington High Street site.

With the sites being used as part of the wider launch campaign, the M9 is the latest handset from the revered HTC One range. The ads, created by Sapient Nitro, carry the strap line ‘Let Them Stare’ which focuses on the stylish and premium design of both the hardware and software of the product. Planned and booked by M2M and Talon, the Out of Home element of the campaign includes a number of hand-picked locations which not only match the premium appearance of the M9 but were also best-positioned to hit the key target audience of ABC1 Adults 25-49.

blowUP media’s launch of the Kensington High Street site is a breakthrough in the London Out of Home market as this is the only Giant Poster opportunity with full planning permission brought to one of London’s most affluent areas in over 5 years.

Simon Russell from blowUP media comments: “Giant Posters are often utilized by brands to add real scale and impact to a product launch and this great-looking campaign by HTC is a perfect example of that. With the multitude of advertising possibilities available in today’s market combined with the number of campaigns running, it’s essential that any new product launch makes a lasting impression and achieves the necessary cut-through which our format unquestionably delivers.”

Ben Walsh, Head of Marketing, HTC UK & Ireland says: “As our new flagship smartphone - the HTC One M9 – stands out in a crowd due to its premium dual tone all metal finish, we wanted to ensure our campaign stood out too. There’s no better way than high impact Out of Home advertising. After all if we’re inviting people to “stare” at our beautiful new phone, it’s best we give them the best possible opportunity to do it.”

Switzerland: Survey findings: Zurich city residents and commuters enjoy out-of-home advertising

Last summer the city of Zurich commissioned a survey from market research firm Demoscope to investigate acceptance of new forms of advertising on public sites. The findings were entirely positive.

“Advertising is part of the modern world” – in June 2014, city dwellers in Zurich, commuters and tourists were asked whether they agreed with this statement: 96% of the 341 respondents agreed. Polling took place at four locations in the city of Zurich where rotating backlit columns are installed on public property (Albisriederplatz, Schaffhauserstrasse 137 and 444, and Seebahnstrasse 177).

Over half the respondents confirmed they had often benefitted themselves from information in adverts.

The survey produced further positive results relating to out-of-home advertising. Three-quarters of the respondents (73%) think that advertising in public spaces makes the city more lively, 72% find that it shortens waiting times and 87% take a positive view of advertising in public spaces because it represents a welcome source of income for the city of Zurich.

According to Thorsten Weber, Product & Infrastructure Director at Clear Channel Switzerland: “We are of course delighted about the positive response to the various forms of out-of-home advertising and the city of Zurich's decision to install ten digital LED screens and 30 further rotating backlit columns on public property as of 2016.

Rotating backlit columns are particularly popular; people like the rotating advertising because it is new, modern and brings a bit of life to its respective surroundings. According to 43% of respondents, the light from the columns actually makes them feel safer at night.”

UK: Could digital posters be at the forefront of high street retailing?

Consumption via moving poster advertising screens whilst commuting through major cities in the UK is proliferating. In London in particular, there are now thousands of internet-connected digital advertising screens that can be updated with real-time information.

Research at the end of 2014 by Kinetic Worldwide, poster advertising specialists, found that consumers are increasingly expect posters to help them, sell to them and identify them personally.

Key findings include 43% of adults prepared to download a retail voucher from a digital poster site, a 25% would do the same for an app or game, and 25% are interested in being able to access information about local things to do, see or eat.

Retail is already an offline, online, omni-channel pursuit with consumers very rarely aware of a difference. A consistent experience across platforms is expected as well as a demand that retailer intelligence follows. Modern consumers are willing to trade personal data for this service but brands must listen to the noise created by consumers in their vicinity and use this to inform real-time, dynamic digital output. Data scraped from branded apps and customer accounts fused with business data, such as live stock data or trending products, creates informative and useful information that can be relayed to consumers, personalising the path to purchase. Digital signage can then host this dynamic copy to answer a consumer’s need for curation and direction.

So without traditional sales driven by physical footfall, what is the role of the physical store in the future? Retail Gazette asked Christy Johnston, Marketing Content Director at Kinetic UK on her thoughts.

From innovative celebrations of brand and product, to a focus on lifestyle benefits through complimentary services, to distribution and collection hubs or community facility, “retail space will be multifunctional” comments Johnston.

Seamless integration of technology will create responsive and personalised environments. Screens, like those already operational in the Burberry flagship Regent Street store that call up recent catwalk video of specific items, whilst being handled by the customer, will enhance the retail experience with social and interactive content.

Full article here

Poland: Warsaw slams law to regulate outdoor advertising as toothless

The new law to rein in rampant outdoor advertising that ruins much of the visual attraction of Polish cities is disappointing and sure to prove toothless, Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz of Warsaw said.

“We are very, very disappointed indeed with what has happened in parliament,” Gronkiewicz-Waltz said. “The law has had all its teeth knocked out and what remains is not worth the paper it is printed on.”

The mayor of Warsaw called for higher penalties for illegal outdoor advertising, saying the maximum fine of PLN 5,000 is inadequate, when a large banner in the centre of Warsaw can bring in over PLN 100,000 a month.

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AMERICAS NEWS

USA: EYE Corp Media expands usage of the Ayuda software platform to run all Media Operations

Largest mall media operator in America migrates to full Ayuda software stack to manage static media in addition to digital

Ayuda Media Systems, a leading ad tech company for out-of-home advertising, announced today that EYE Corp Media has successfully migrated all media (both static and digital) to the Ayuda Platform. EYE Corp Media, the Out-of-Home media company that reaches consumers where they shop, dine, commute and play, is also the largest mall media operator in the United States, reaching more than 76 million unique consumers with heavy presence in the top DMAs through digital and backlit media in many iconic shopping malls.

EYE rolled out Splash as a digital CMS and player back in June 2014. Today, the company has completed its migration to the entire Ayuda Platform to manage static inventory as well – including contracts, proposals, and work orders. "Providing more value than digital signage to EYE has always been our agenda from day one" commented Daniel Fleischer, Ayuda’s Vice President of Global Business Development.

"This has been a natural progression to our full product stack. EYE first signed onto Ayuda’s digital signage application, and then organically expanded onto the rest of our ERP platform, which is much, much larger than the signage piece alone. While we do CMS and playback very well, it only represents 5% of our product stack. I'm delighted that EYE has agreed to be on our full platform".

“The most important take-away from this exclusive alliance is that EYE continues to build on our suite of products and services, optimizing our process and efficiencies for agencies and direct clients.” said Jeff Gunderman, President of EYE Corp Media. “The Ayuda platform provides us with smooth, accurate and responsive operations, thereby enhancing our already top-notch customer service. Having all inventory and operations managed on a single, cutting-edge platform means we can quickly deploy new, innovative client offerings like EYE Post and seamlessly incorporate our newest OOH platforms, EYE Commute and EYE Play, into our EYE Shop and EYE Amplify portfolios. Plus, we can look forward to Ayuda innovations like private programmatic marketplace and more. With Ayuda, we deliver top-notch technology and service to our clients.”

Janene Niblock, EYE’s Director of Business Systems, elaborates, “Working with Ayuda has helped transform how we operate our day-to-day business. After experiencing great success migrating our entire digital network to their platform, I recognized efficiencies we would acquire by moving other components of our product inventory, like backlit displays and mobile, to Ayuda. Our goal was to seamlessly manage all our Sales Support, Traffic, Service Delivery, Invoicing and Reporting on their platform.

This initiative is inherently challenging, with many moving parts. Ayuda’s support team worked with us every step of the way to ensure successful user-adoption. They partnered with our in-house experts to bring everyone on my team along the journey. The most satisfying moment for me was when my team expressed how much faster, efficient and more user-friendly the Ayuda platform was. I couldn’t ask for anything more!”

“EYE’s decision to bring all digital and traditional media operations under one platform bears noteworthy significance to our OOH community,” said Daniel Fleischer. “Ayuda is the only platform in existence that provides both the newest technological offerings and enables the OOH media owner to manage every aspect of their business from a single platform, including robust digital playback. EYE’s experience is a testimony to the business benefits of a unified workflow.”

USA: Times Square digital signage kicks off National Parks PSA

The capital of the world and the capital of digital signage, New York City's Times Square, lit up recently for a high-tech kickoff to celebrate possibly the least-tech experience possible.

The out-of-home advertising industry has partnered with the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks, to help launch a nationwide public service campaign celebrating the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016, according to an announcement from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Part of a multifaceted two-year public awareness effort encouraging people of all backgrounds, particularly millennials, to discover and reconnect with their public lands, the OOH campaign is intended to help drive awareness and understanding of parks and deepen pubic engagement, the OAAA said.

Find Your Park, which kicked off earlier this week, was celebrated in Times Square and Madison Square Park at official launch events with Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and National Park Foundation Interim President Dan Wenk. During the Times Square event, digital billboards displayed arresting images of national parks, and similar creative will be displayed on billboards, bus shelters and buses across the country through May. Media space has been donated.

Following the event in Times Square, the National Park Foundation hosted an interactive event in Madison Square Park that connected people digitally to national parks across the country through Find Your Park Virtual View Kiosks. Mobile billboards also offered participants a look at the OOH campaign creative.

"Find Your Park invites people to see that a park can be more than a place. It can be a feeling of inspiration. It can be a sense of community. It can foster a deeply personal connection, or provide unparalleled common ground," said Dan Wenk, interim president of the National Park Foundation. "This extensive OOH effort is invaluable to the Find Your Park movement as it's sharing this idea with people across the country, in both rural and urban areas."

Today marks the start of Phase 1 of the OOH public service campaign. In June, the OOH industry will launch Phase 2 with more visually powerful executions that will juxtapose images of a well-known national park with lesser-known national parks and National Park Service programs, designed to further push awareness and understanding of all that the National Park Service is and does. In 2016, Phase 3 OOH creative will focus on celebrating the centennial.

In special recognition of Earth Day, which falls during National Park Week, the OOH industry will launch a national digital roadblock on April 22 featuring the Phase 1 creative on DOOH formats across the U.S., the OAAA said.

"OOH is the ideal medium to bring visually stunning images of landscapes and monuments to the American people, some of whom are likely learning about their national parks for the first time," OAAA President and CEO Nancy Fletcher said. "The OOH industry is honored to be a part of this historic campaign and to help all generations find their park."

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USA: Sponsorship Success at Los Angeles International!

JCDecaux’s Airport Sponsorship program is off to a successful start with three high-level advertisers branding three of the seven iconic digital landmarks at Los Angeles International’s Tom Bradley Terminal.

Burberry’s Welcome Wall greeted arriving passengers into the LA market, driving traffic to their newest Rodeo Drive boutique. The luxury British fashion house branded the 80 ft. screen with images of their signature trench coat and My Burberry fragrance. Alongside their catchy content, Burberry also distributed City maps to help tourists navigate the streets of LA. Taiwan Tourism and Fidelity were the next Sponsors to follow.

Taiwan dominated the terminal’s Clock Tower with colorful and creative content and provided passengers with entertainment as a Taiwanese dance group performed in the middle of the Great Hall.

Fidelity took a different approach, targeting tax payers during tax season this past February and March. By branding the terminal’s Storyboard and Destination Board, the investment company stressed the importance of saving and planning for “your someday”.

Additionally, Fidelity brand ambassadors distributed travel journals, urging travelers to plan their someday while on their long-haul flight!

JCDecaux's Sponsorship program has become the perfect canvas for a variety of different categories – luxury, tourism and financial; these brands are not only able to showcase their messages on iconic displays but also provide their potential customers with a valuable service. It’s a great platform to help advertisers connect with travelers.

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: Provantage Media Group's Airport Ads launches VisioNet

Airport Ads®, a division of Provantage Media Group, has unveiled the biggest indoor screen in an airport environment in southern Africa. The screen measures an impressive 8m by 5m (37m2) and is a high definition digital billboard that offers brands a powerful advertising opportunity at Durban's King Shaka International Airport. The screen is the first in Provantage Media Group's new "VisioNet" network of large format digital billboards that will be rolled out in key high density nodes.

The first VisioNet screen is positioned in the bustling domestic departures area at King Shaka International Airport, offering prime real estate for advertisers wanting to communicate with a highly desirable upper LSM market.

Mzukisi Deliwe, Director of Airport Ads® comments: "With 347,129 passengers passing through the airport each month, the super-sized, full HD LED screen offers the perfect platform for the advertising of luxury brands, services and products that would be of interest to the leisure and business traveller market. The screen fits in perfectly with the luxury environment of the airport - it is state-of-the-art and embraces innovation. Furthermore, the clarity of the visuals is breath-taking; you can quite literally stand a metre away from the screen and enjoy the advertisement with crystal clear clarity."

Provantage Media Group's MD Jacques du Preez is extremely proud of VisioNet as it offers a highly visible and unique opportunity for brands inside King Shaka International Airport. "VisioNet is our venture into the large format digital landscape and will further entrench us as the leader in DOOH in Southern Africa, following our success with our digital place-based networks airport.tv™ and TRANSIT.TV™."

"In line with global trends, advertising in the airport space has come a long way in South Africa and on the continent. Airports are becoming prime environments for integrated advertising mediums that fit in perfectly and aesthetically within the space. With the launch of VisioNet we are introducing yet another state-of-the-art advertising platform to this captive environment," concludes du Preez.

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ASIA NEWS

Singapore: Clear Channel Singapore wins Peranakan Place Complex contract

Clear Channel Singapore further expands its OOH coverage on Orchard Road with a recently awarded contract to manage the outdoor advertising space at Peranakan Place Complex.

Clear Channel Singapore’s latest Spectacular*, Peranakan Place Complex, is a gorgeous historical building located in the heart of Orchard Road. This conservation landmark is a prominent attraction, set in full view of tourists, locals and motorists, every day. “Our Spectacular* sites are built in prestigious locations with high dwell time, giving clients the opportunity to make powerful statements and make their brands famous.” – Kelly Khoo, CEO of Clear Channel Singapore

Nestled between the Singapore Visitors Centre and The Centrepoint, this coveted unblocked billboard of Peranakan Place Complex is a distinctive part of Orchard Road landscape. Outstanding in size and stature, the dimension of this newly acquired Spectacular* promises to deliver unbeatable impact, reach, prestige and a constant, alluring presence to the affluent and entertainment-seeking audiences where they travel, work, shop and play.

Clear Channel Singapore looks forward to offering brands a greater variety of ways to extend their campaigns and form long-lasting connections with people through Peranakan Place Complex outdoor advertising space starting 1st May 2015.

*Spectacular, Clear Channel’s premium large format billboards located in distinguish and well- recognised locations and landmarks in cities all over the world.

India: OOH audience measurement to be reality, but not so soon

The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) has initiated a third party study of the Indian outdoor landscape with a view of starting an industry-wide audience measurement system. The lack of a common currency has long been a concern for advertisers and OOH agencies and has often been cited as one of the reasons for OOH advertising’s lack of growth in the country. After failed efforts in the past, the IOAA now seems prepared to once again approach the issue with fresh vigor.

Noomi Mehta, MD of Selvel and Chairman of the IOAA, told exchange4media that the industry body has appointed US-based Olympic Media Consultancy as consultants to carry out a nation-wide research into how an audience measurement system can be set in place. Mehta informed us that Olympic Media Consultancy founder, Tony Jarvis has already met some clients and media operators.

However, the entire study is likely to take at least a couple of years. “The first thing to be done is to have the study accepted by the ISA (Indian Society of Advertisers). Media agencies and ISA have been very supportive till now,” said Mehta.

The IOAA is also looking at different technologies that can be used to provide accurate and reliable audience numbers. For example, Mehta told us that one of the technologies being evaluated is “Eyes On”; a system that gives likelihood that an ad has been seen rather than the “opportunity” of it being seen.

“There has been a huge gradation in improvement in the technologies available. Numbers are always important,” said Mehta. He gave the example of print. “In print, circulation figures of front page, back page and middle page are the same, which cannot be possible,” he stated. IOAA, it seems, wants to minimize inconsistencies with their own audience measurement system as much as possible and Mehta agreed that it was an ongoing process and would take time.

The study currently underway is just one of several initiatives that the IOAA has taken post a couple of meetings between members in the past few weeks. Some of the other key decisions that have been taken include extending membership to even OOH agencies so as to make it a more democratic and inclusive body. “For the first time, the IOAA will be services by both sides and we hope to see faster movement on decisions and initiatives post this. OOH agencies have been offered a position on the board so they can monitor the progress themselves,” said Mehta.

Haresh Nayak, Regional Director, Posterscope Asia Pacific & MD of Posterscope Group India, who is also a member of the IOAA also welcomed the several initiatives being taken by IOAA, especially the move to expand membership. “IOAA, earlier, was only vendor-based. Now we have equal partnership from client, agencies and vendors. We are looking at creating common currency, streamlining payment from clients and bringing in quality and new talent,” he said.

Around 6-8 agencies had attended the last meeting of the IOAA held a couple of weeks ago and both Mehta and Nayak told us that they have already given their verbal approval for joining the organization. These agencies include StreetTalk, IOA, DDB Mudra, Milestone Brandcom, among others.

“The input required will be huge and the work will need to be broken down into committees and sub-committees, which will meet regularly. The implementation has not been up to the mark in the past and this will continue to be the case if there is no collaborative effort,” opined Mehta.

Some other initiatives that the IOAA will focus on is enforcing a code of ethics in the industry, becoming stricter about client payments, setting up a SOA, etc.

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