EUROPE NEWS

FEPE: New Speaker Announcements!

Along with Dave Trott, Nancy Fletcher, Annie Rickard, Rupert Day, Margit Kittridge and Micheal Bayler we are pleased to announce today more speakers for the FEPE Budapest Congress.

Nick Propper is the Global President of Emanate, and will be speaking about understanding and leveraging the talent in your organisations to increase your pitch win ratios to grow your business and, in turn, the outdoor industry.

Nick established Emanate in London in November 2009 quickly followed by the development of Emanate Munich in 2010. In July 2013 Nick was appointed Global President with a brief to oversee the growth of the US offices in New York and Los Angeles plus the continued internationalisation of the agency. With responsibility for business development, general management and client stewardship, Nick also remains fully integrated in Emanate client work and currently oversees a number client briefs covering consumer marketing, healthcare external relations, B2B engagement, social media and community management.

Prior to launching Emanate, Nick was Deputy CEO of Ketchum London, one of the UK’s biggest PR firms. During this time Nick led on a series of major global PR programmes for Carlsberg, Pepsi, Whirlpool, Lenovo and Heineken, plus domestic market work for clients including LG, Mars, Mercedes Benz, Geek Squad and KFC. Before moving into marketing and PR Nick spent six years working for Marks & Spencer and also helped establish online retailer Figleaves.com.

Also, presenting with Nancy Fletcher will be Stephen Freitas, Chief Marketing Officer of the OAAA.

Stephen joined OAAA in 1999 and is the leading industry marketing spokesman and thought leader, helping to advance and unite the out of home advertising industry through education and marketing. Before joining OAAA, Freitas spent a decade developing high profile marketing programs for Clear Channel Communications and Eller Media Company.

As senior vice president of marketing, Freitas was responsible for global branding, advertising, research, public relations, and corporate communications. Prior to joining the out of home advertising industry, Freitas worked as a media planner at two San Francisco agencies. He also worked at Chevron, USA for eight years.

We now have over 200 registrations from 24 countries for the FEPE Budapest Congress.

We still have space at the moment, but we will be possibly be capping the Gala Dinner numbers at 300 so if you intend registering, you should not leave it too late.

Only one or two exhibition spaces are still available, 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, 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: Talon, OMD, R/GA and Grand Visual win Outdoor Planning Awards Grand Prix

Talon, OMD UK, R/GA London and Grand Visual took home the Grand Prix at the Clear Channel Outdoor Planning Awards this week for their Google Outside 2.0 campaign.

The data-driven campaign scooped the top honour at the awards, which are held in association with Brand Republic. Expanding on last year’s Google Outside trial, the campaign saw dynamic ads rolled out across 1,240 digital-out-of-home sites in London and the South East.

The campaign tailored content relating to local attractions and the weather was intermingled with geo-targeted search results. The campaign also won the Best Use of Digital in Outdoor category. Talon, OMD UK and Grand Visual were additionally responsible for the highly commended entry in the category: Hasbro "My Monopoly" campaign, alongside with Ambient and Bite PR.

Best Use of Innovation in Outdoor was won by "ESPN FC" by TPF-London, while work for Three by Kinetic and Mindshare took the Best Use of Outdoor in a Multimedia Campaign award. More than 250 executives attended the ceremony held in the Oxo Tower Wharf last night, hosted by Nick Hewer of The Apprentice and Countdown fame.

Chris Pelekanou, the commercial director at Clear Channel UK, said:

"This year’s Outdoor Planning award entries suggest we are moving into a golden age for out of home. "The winners not only demonstrate incredible creativity and innovation but have incorporated emerging technologies and data and insight to produce campaigns that deliver powerful stand-out messages."

Arif Durrani, head of media at Campaign, editor of Media Week and chair of the awards' judges, added:

"What a great night and a fantastic celebration of the best work in outdoor media over the past year. "Out of home has quite clearly been one of the most dynamic and innovative of all media sectors in recent years, propelled by significant investment from the media owners and creative planning from the agencies. "The momentum behind the sector right now was demonstrated by the strong entries and calibre of judges involved in this year's awards. Congratulations to all the winners, your work really did stand-up to intense scrutiny."

Full article here

UK: Emirates Welcomes Passengers to Heathrow

As part of its ‘Hello Tomorrow’ global marketing campaign, Emirates is strengthening its already dominant presence at Heathrow with the launch of a special-build campaign with JCDecaux Airport on the iconic Central Terminal Area Welcome Site.

Occupying the gateway to one of the world’s busiest hubs, the 37.2m by 3.8m illuminated location spans the width of Heathrow’s entrance roundabout, is visible from over 500 metres away, and provides the first brand message for 100% of vehicular traffic as it enters Heathrow from the M4. Emirates’ creative execution promotes the airlines’ Airbus A380 planes and underlines its position as an enabler of global connectivity and meaningful experiences with the strapline: “Your remarkable journey begins here. Experience the Emirates A380”. In an innovative twist, the special build is designed so that the image of the plane appears to fly off the billboard.

The long-term campaign was planned and booked with JCDecaux Airport by Havas and Posterscope’s international division PSI.

Alan Sullivan, Managing Director of JCDecaux Airport, said: “We are delighted that Emirates has seized the opportunity to ‘own’ Heathrow’s most famous landmark site with a special-build campaign that showcases the unmissable branding potential of this classic Out-of-Home location.”

Natasha Murray, Managing Director at Havas, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured the iconic Heathrow Welcome Site. This is a prominent site within an excellent location and provides Emirates the opportunity to speak to those travelling through the World’s busiest hubs”.

Robin Hall, Managing Director at PSI, said: “The site is ideal, passengers have a heightened sense of excitement and awareness arriving at the airport. Emirates have created an ownership of that point of the journey, using great creative in an iconic location.” Jonathan Coen, Retail Director at Heathrow, said: “As the UK’s hub airport, Heathrow sees 73 million passengers pass through its doors every year. This site is a perfect spot for Emirates and we’re delighted with the creative.”

Emirates’ campaign complements its other long-term locations with JCDecaux Airport in the interior and exterior of the airport, including: the new TTS (Train Transit System) location that leads passengers towards Terminal 5’s satellite terminals, and the iconic branded A380 plane situated on the Central Terminal Area roundabout, targeting all vehicular traffic travelling to Terminals 1, 2 and 3.

UK: Storm launches Hammersmith Tower and The Queensway, Birmingham

This month, Clear Channel’s premium brand Storm unveiled their latest site, the Hammersmith Tower.

The Hammersmith Tower, situated on the Hammersmith Flyover between Knightsbridge and Heathrow Airport, reaches an affluent audience of ABC1 commuters and generates over 2.4 million impacts every two weeks. The Hammersmith Tower, the sixteenth site in Storm’s London network, is double-sided with state-of-the-art digital screens, overlooking traffic travelling towards Knightsbridge, Kensington, Piccadilly and the West End.

Complete with digital nameplates, allowing for true ownership, the Tower represents the latest in premium digital Out of Home and features distinctive metal design work. Clear Channel has also launched a spectacular new landscape site, The Queensway, in the heart of Birmingham. The new site is the first step of Storm’s nationwide expansion, which was announced recently as part of Clear Channel’s digital expansion, and brings Storm’s current portfolio to seventeen – with further nationwide sites to be announced shortly.

Aimee McKay, Managing Director at Storm, said: “We’re thrilled to have launched the Hammersmith Tower as the latest addition to the Storm portfolio. Storm is the UK’s most flexible and creative digital Out of Home media owner and we’re proud to offer brands the more iconic structures where they can generate Fame on Demand, both in London and beyond.”

Ireland: Samsung Turns Bus Shelters into Charging Docks

Mobile phone manufacturer Samsung has teamed up with Starcom, Source out of Home, Delite and Clear Channel to create a media first that enables people to charge their Samsung mobile phones wirelessly at one of five bus shelters scattered around the Dublin area.

As part of the launch of the Samsung S6 phone, the five "charging bus shelters are also NFC-enabled and users can also obtain additional content by interacting with the shelter through their phone.

According to Íde O'Brien, marketing manager at Samsung: "Including Outdoor advertising in our Galaxy S6 launch was an appropriate format to communicate with our target audience.

Design is a key element of the Galaxy S6, and outdoor above other media can showcase the stunning design of the product. We wanted to create excitement around the launch of the Galaxy S6 & highlight some of the key product features where possible."

"Through the specially constructed installations we emphasised the built-in support for convenient and effortless wireless charging with each build including a wireless charging pad that allows consumers to charge their Galaxy S6 while they wait! Using outdoor also allowed the consumer to interact with the builds via NFC & be in with a chance to win a Galaxy S6," she says.

Source

UK: Multi-agency push helps Aussie breakfast bounce into Britain

Australia’s number one breakfast, Up&Go, is making its UK advertising debut today with a multi-million pound launch including an expansive out of home (OOH) advertising campaign planned and bought by The Village Communications and OOH partners Kinetic.

The campaign is spearheaded by a Sydney Harbour Bridge-themed assault course on London’s Southbank, running 22-26th April. The live activity is developed and managed by agency The Red Brick Road with PR support from DeVriesSLAM The interactive Australia-themed assault course includes the world’s largest inflatable bridge and a replica of the Sydney Opera House and will allow visitors to bounce across the world-famous landmark before leaping into a ball-pit.

The 25m long 8m high structure is the world’s largest inflatable bridge ever built. At the end of this Aussie-themed assault course, contestants can grab a carton of Up&Go from the air, before crash landing in the enormous croc infested ball pit below. Contenders who brave the Up&Go Bounce Off will be faced with a series of obstacles. After activating the giant Up& GO button contestants will head down under, kangaroo jump over hurdles, battle through the cheese grater (tunnels) and fight their way through punch bags.

Next, they will climb the ramp to the trampoline bridge for the final bounce to the finish and the leap of faith into croc infested waters (ball pit).

The outdoor campaign, planned by The Village Communications and bought by Kinetic, the global leader in planning and buying OOH media, runs from April 20th until May 17 and will see the nutritious breakfast drink appear across bus t-sides, roadside 6-sheets and mall advertising. Targeting a core audience of 15-25 year olds and a secondary target of mums, the playful creative features an ‘Aussie’s Suck’ tagline, created by The Red Brick Road.

Full article here

Switzerland: APG|SGA: initiatives and staff-related reinforcements in the area of automated booking and handling processes

Following the successful launch of APG|SGA's online booking tool «posterdirect.ch» for SMEs and private customers, the company has commenced other initiatives in the field of digitized planning, booking and handling processes.

These include the analysis of the possible development of digital and analogue inventory using ad serving solutions plus the development of e-commerce platforms for all APG|SGA's customer categories.

Nicolas Adolph, Head of the Digital Competence Center, is in charge of the ad serving project. As of 1 September 2015, project management and the further development of sophisticated e-commerce platforms and front-end solutions for the advertising and acquisition market will be the remit of Reto Pensa, who will report directly to the CEO, Markus Ehrle.

Reto Pensa has been Head of Business Development at Xentive AG since 2011 and is a specialist in the planning and execution of business process outsourcing and system integrations in the media field.

Markus Ehrle, CEO of APG|SGA, comments on these developments: «We want to offer all our advertising and procurement market partners state-of-the-art customer experiences and e-commerce platforms, which will enable them to reduce their outlay and continue to increase their service and advisory quality.

With our initiatives and the recruitment of Reto Pensa we are underscoring our role as a professional, dynamic and leading provider in the media sector and in the market for analogue and digital out-of-home advertising.

AMERICAS NEWS

USA/World: When smart cities talk: Urban machine chatter trends around the world

Smart cities across the world are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) and finding new ways for everyday objects to communicate with their residents as well as other machines. Everyday objects like streetlights, benches, water fountains and trashcans are being adapted to become smarter and make smart city residents’ lives easier.

This piece focuses on some smart cities around the world who have incorporated smarter objects to further enhance the development of their smart city. The IoT revolution is gaining momentum and with that, the number of connected devices are increasing dramatically. A recent report by Gartner estimates that in 2015 there will be an estimated 1.1 billion connected devices.

This figure will increase substantially and by 2020, there will be 9.7 billion connected devices. In research released in November, Gartner estimated there would be 25 billion connected ‘things’ by 2020, triple that of the global population.

Gartner estimates that IoT will support total services spending of $69.5 billion in 2015 and $263 billion by 2020.

Boston

Smart trashcans

Bigbelly public waste stations consist of a recycling unit and a solar-powered trash compactor to make the most of the space in the trashcan. They are also able to hold approximately five times more than a normal trashcan. The Qualcomm chip inside each trashcan connects it to a central point so it can constantly provide information of locations when the need for more trashcans arises, or whether the bin is getting hot and smelly. When a trashcan is full, it automatically generates a text or email. The city of Boston embraced the Bigbelly back in 2006 and now have 500 Bigbelly trashcans across the city. Recently Boston University replaced all of its traditional outdoor bins with Bigbelly waste and recycling stations. However, they aren’t the only city to embrace these smart trashcans, with Bigbellys located in every U.S. state as well as 45 countries worldwide. 

Smart benches

The city of Boston has also embraced “Soofas”, a smart bench that provides much more than a place to rest. The solar-powered smart benches allow anyone to charge their phones as well as connect to the Internet wirelessly through Verizon’s network. The smart benches were the brainchild of Verizon innovation program Changing Environments. Developed by three female engineers, the Soofas are in various Boston parks.

Full article here

Canada: BIXI Renews Agreement with Astral Out of Home for Advertising Faces Management in Montréal

Astral Out of Home, a division of Bell Media, is proud to have been selected by BIXI to manage the advertising faces on its bike-sharing system's stations for the next five years.

A partner of BIXI since its launch, Astral Out of Home will now manage a greater number of advertising faces across the network, which has increased from 240 to 420. "Astral Out of Home is thrilled to pursue its business partnership with BIXI and contribute to the sustainability of this important service for Montrealers," said Luc Beaulieu, Vice-President, Real Estate Québec and Street Furniture, Astral Out of Home.

"By doubling BIXI's advertising faces, on top of approximately 710 column faces, 40 digital column faces, and 72 MegaColumn faces, we are proud to provide advertisers with an unparalleled out-of-home advertising offering in several Montréal boroughs." "BIXI-Montréal is happy to entrust the management of its advertising faces to Astral Out of Home, a partner that plays a key role in our service's success," said Marie Élaine Farley, Chairman of the Board, BIXI-Montréal.

"We are very pleased to maintain this partnership, in order to consistently meet the various needs, habits, and lifestyles of our clientele, who each year choose an active mode of transportation accessible to everyone." BIXI's advertising units, 75% or which are located downtown and across the city's key boroughs, connect with a clientele partly comprised of Millennials, a highly sought-after demographic among advertisers.

Thanks to their street-level location and harmonious integration within the city's landscape, BIXI's advertising units enable a connection not only with the service's users, but also pedestrians and drivers. This ensures advertisers benefit from having a significant presence in high-traffic areas, as well as invaluable exposure to consumers. As an eco-friendly transportation option that blends well with Montréal's dynamic and lively character, BIXI posts an average of 500,000 trips per month, with a presence in 11 of the city's boroughs.

Source

Canada: BroadSign International Named Digital Signage Software Market Leader by Frost & Sullivan

BroadSign secures first place in 2014 revenue, product line, customer base, geo-expansion, funding, competitive strategy and value add.

Digital signage software and solutions provider, BroadSign International, LLC, has been designated the international market leader by Frost & Sullivan in the research company’s latest “Analysis of the Global Digital Signage Systems Market” report.

BroadSign’s ranking as a market leader is a reflection of its prime position on a competitive landscape analysis that sorts the top digital signage software vendors based on market penetration, product line and competitive strategy.

Qualitative criteria used to benchmark performance against key competitors include uniqueness of product line, size and breadth of customer base, M&A activities, geo-expansion, funding, competitive strategy to combat recessionary conditions and customer value addition. BroadSign is listed as a Tier I company due to its global presence and large capital base.

“As of 2014, there were over 100 competitors in the digital signage software space but the top ten vendors have solidified their market share by leveraging their product differentiators and financial resources,” said Aravindh Vanchesan, Digital Media Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “The competitive landscape reinforces our assessment that BroadSign is the market leader in this segment. The company has demonstrated its ability to keep growing year-on-year even under challenging market conditions.”

In addition to the competitive landscape, the report notes cloud-based solutions have increased in popularity and that high-end solutions by top vendors like BroadSign are capable of making changes to content in real-time depending on day, time and/or viewers. They can play all video, audio, live content and text formats in full HD and 4K, while producing reliable proof of performance reports, seamlessly interfacing with legacy systems and scaling with ease.

Frost & Sullivan has prepared an exclusive executive summary of the full report, accessible free of charge on BroadSign’s website. “The findings of this global analysis affirm that BroadSign’s perspective of the digital signage space and vision for its future are aligned with those of network operators," said Burr Smith, Chairman and CEO at BroadSign. “I am proud the quality of BroadSign’s product portfolio continues to help advance our market. Credit for this goes to our world-class team and partners.”

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: MAGGI drives sales of its recipe bases via oOh!media

MAGGI drives sales of its recipe bases via oOh!media dispensing panels campaign

MAGGI’s latest ‘You and Maggi Cooking Up Fresh Ideas’ campaign to promote its new contemporary flavours has been boosted through a first in New Zealand – retail advertising panels that dispense a discount coupon for the range.

The dispensing ShopaLite technology - an initiative of retail advertising leader, oOh!media - features a button on the advertising panel that, when pressed, gives the shopper a coupon to receive a discount off the purchase of MAGGI’s recipe bases range.

The three specially built panels stand out in shopping centres across New Zealand and are part of a much larger six week oOh! Retail campaign with the potential to deliver more than six million New Zealand shopper contacts.

“This is a New Zealand first and a classic example of how engagement with consumers can directly drive sales” said oOh!’s Chief Executive Officer, Brendon Cook.

“oOh!s innovative dispensing ShopaLites are designed to encourage interaction between shoppers on the path to purchase. The shopper simply presses a button and receives a discount coupon which can then be easily redeemed within the supermarket.”

“These ShopaLites allows us to measure the success of the campaign. We can see how many coupons were dispensed and the exact number of shoppers who went in store to purchase.” Christian Thomas, MAGGI’s brand manager said:

“We were looking at a way to encourage shoppers to try our new contemporary flavours and partnering with oOh! has done just that!” “A simple press of a button on these ShopaLites puts our brand into shopper’s hands right before they walk into the supermarket. It’s great for stimulating sales.

You can’t get better than that!” The coupon dispensing ShopaLites were created especially for MAGGI and a national, static ShopaLite campaign will support the voucher dispensing campaign.

Source

Australia: FANTA’s Instagram-powered Photo Booth Captures Iconic Orange Taste

FANTA’s playful out-of-home campaign transformed a JCDecaux Innovate panel into an Instagram-powered photo booth and instant selfie printer.

FANTA’s playful out-of-home campaign transformed a JCDecaux Innovate panel into what the advertising agency called "an exciting media first" – an Instagram-powered photo booth and instant selfie printer.

The concept – created in partnership between Coca-Cola South Pacific, JCDecaux, UM and Ogilvy & Mather was launched as part of the #FantaTastesLike campaign in Australia. The custom-built panel features a backdrop of playful characters and a riot of orange color inspired by the taste of FANTA’s iconic flavor.

Passersby are encouraged to snap a selfie against the regularly changing bubbly backdrop using their smartphone and to share their image on Instagram via #FantaTastesLike. By checking into the “Fanta Printergram," participants instantly receive a high-quality branded 6x4 printout of their selfie, direct from the panel.

“It’s fantastic to work with partners who continually push the boundaries of the out-of-home format," said Essie Wake, marketing director for JCDecaux Australia. “FANTA’s campaign uses the latest in socially driven instant-printing technology to deliver a two-way conversation that is playful and rewarding. We are excited to be at the forefront of making this technology accessible to brands.’’

Watch the video here

Source

MIDDLE EAST NEWS

Lebanon: Pikasso Event: Key Dynamics of the UK OOH Market

Pikasso hosted a talk by Mike Baker this week at the Four Seasons Hotel on the key dynamics of the UK OOH market, attended by industry guests from advertiser clients, creative and media agencies. For the last 4 years Mike Baker has been CEO of the Outdoor Media Centre, the UK’s promotional body for out of home advertising.

Mike put the success of the OOH sector in the UK down to heavy investment by the media owners and confidence in the medium across a wide variety of categories. According to Nielsen, 49 of the top 50 UK’s biggest advertisers used outdoor in 2014, and multinationals such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, Warner Bros, American Express, KFC and Diageo spent a quarter or more of their budgets on OOH.

Digital screens now contribute 27% of total OOH revenue – second only to China. The footprint of digital has expanded to cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh. What’s more, with the high penetration of smartphones, consumers can interact with sites in a rich variety of ways – texting, tweeting, uploading content, downloading vouchers, sharing location data, making contactless payments and so on. Examples shown included Walkers (Twitter and vending), Microsoft Windows phone (user generated content) Despicable Me 2 (texting and social media). The example of Harper Collins showed how even analogues sites can be digital-ised by means of NFC chips and the smartphone.

Mike talked of the growing importance of mall advertising and the seamless integration of advertising sites into the fabric of the mall environment, leading to better visual displays and revenues that were significantly higher than for equivalent sites elsewhere - at the roadside or in transport locations.

In the audience research section, Mike went on to explain the new audience research into the Active Space. This used a world-first combination of eye tracking and skin conductance measures, recording both for 140 hours in 20 respondents. The conclusion of the research, carried out by Cog Research, was that people average 33% higher levels of alertness OOH than in home across a range of activities undertaken. The exception was looking after small children, where levels were high for both in and out of home. In another research initiative, The Last Window of Influence, 88% of shoppers could recall seeing OOH advertising in the last half hour before shopping. Route research confirmed that consumers in urban areas were exposed to more than twice as many OOH advertising impressions compared to those outside cities.

The final key theme was effectiveness. Mike referenced a large scale study by Les Binet of DDB, called The Long and Short of Advertising, which scrutinised the learnings of 700 brands and a thousand UK case studies. Binet had concluded that the optimum marketing and media mix should include short term sales activation but be tipped more towards long term branding, and he noted that outdoor’s branding power were similar to that of television. The results of the Cannes Effectiveness Lions 2014 awards seemed to confirm this, with 92% of shortlisted and winning entries having utilised OOH, second only to social media which was used in all 2014 winning entries.