EUROPE NEWS

UK: Posterscope announces new UK CEO

Posterscope have announced the appointment of Stephen Whyte as the new UK CEO of Posterscope, psLIVE and PSI UK.

Current CEO Annie Rickard will move into the role of UK Chairman, allowing her to focus on international growth across both psLIVE and Posterscope Worldwide.

Starting in early November, Stephen Whyte joins from Netventure Consulting, a company he launched four years ago to provide strategic and commercial advice to digital media, marketing and adtech businesses.

Prior to setting up his consulting business he had a long career in advertising and marketing services. He started at AMV and subsequently worked at Leagas Delaney, Still Price Lintas and GGT. In 1997, he became Managing Director and then Chief Executive of Leo Burnett before spending 5 years as Chief Executive of McCann Erickson.

In 2009, he moved into the rapidly growing data services sector and joined Acxiom, one of the largest global players in this sector, as Chief Executive, Europe.

He has also been a board advisor to digital agency Profero and sat on the Media Advisory Board of corporate finance advisory firm Wyvern Partners.

Annie Rickard commented: “I’m delighted that we have persuaded Stephen to join us. He has all of the characteristics necessary to succeed in the media sector but crucially he has the experience and vision required to lead the business into the future.” Stephen Whyte added: “I wasn’t looking for a change but the opportunity to lead Posterscope at such a dynamic and exciting time for the OOH industry was impossible to turn down.”

Posterscope, psLIVE and PSI UK have a combined turnover of £375m and employ 200 people.

Serbia: Alma Quattro upgrades 100 of their outdoor media sites with LED backlighting from Bright Green Technology

Bright Green Technology met with Alma Quattro at the FEPE congress and shortly afterward, visited them in Serbia to identify a trial site for the Bright Green LED lighting system. Following the trial in February, Alma Quattro decided to implement a program to retrofit 100 of their backlit sites with LEDs.

Alma Quattro is the market leading outdoor advertising company in Serbia with national coverage and a portfolio that includes large formats, billboards and street furniture. With many years’ experience and commitment to high quality standards, Alma Quattro strives to be at the cutting-edge of innovation and customer satisfaction.

Kosance Dimitrijevic, General Manager at Alma Quattro said “After meeting Bright Green Technology at FEPE we were sure they were the right people to partner with for our retrofit project. They demonstrated a huge amount of experience and a practical approach that made us feel confident in their ability to deliver the project.”

Bright Green Technology specialises in LED systems that dramatically improve the quality and performance of backlit media and illuminated signage. Andy Clark, CEO at Bright Green Technology said “Our experience in lighting large format outdoor media means that we can provide a full and realistic financial model that gives a genuine and reliable indicator of costs like maintenance, CRC and energy. “

“We understand that return on investment is critical to any business, that’s why, right at the outset, we provide our outdoor media clients with a free economic analysis. For Alma Quattro this involved looking at their entire portfolio, calculating all of their existing costs and comparing this with an equivalent Bright Green LED system.”

Bright Green Technology provided LED Lighting Systems to illuminate 100 sites. All of the sites were 4 x 3m and included a selection of static billboards and scrollers. The project saw power consumption and CO2 emissions fall by 99,000 Watts and 216 Tonnes respectively, and reduced Alma Quattro’s operating costs by more than £43,000 per year.

Germany: With latest REWE campaign, Germany is abuzz

German supermarket chain REWE created a literal buzz when it worked with WallDecaux to place a mupi filled with 20,000 living bees right at the front entrance of one of its supermarkets!

A local beekeeper was on hand to ensure the well-being of the bees while shoppers enjoyed the amazing display on their way into the store.

The mupi was part of REWE’s initiative to protect bees and also included a donation from product sales of over $158,400 to a nature conservation organization.

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Ireland: Diageo spends most on out-of-home advertising

Drinks manufacturer spends €2.8 million in sector in first half of 2015

Diageo has emerged as the biggest spender in out-of-home advertising in the first six months of 2015, with a spend of €2.8 million. New figures from OMA/Nielsen show overall expenditure for out of home (OOH) was €50.4 million across large-format billboards, six sheets, transport, targeted media and digital OOH formats.

That’s an increase of 4 per cent compared with the same period last year. The largest category is drink – made up of alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and hot drinks.

It accounted for €8.6 million and 17 per cent of total spend. Heineken, which launched its first cider product, Orchard Thieves, and Coca-Cola were the seventh and and 11th overall biggest advertisers, spending €1.2 million and €970,000 respectively.

The campaign most recalled unprompted from January to June 2015 was Coca-Cola’s Kiss campaign, at 73 per cent, according to Kinetic’s post-campaign researcher service, Researcher.

The “household services” category – led by telecoms – was the second largest category with an OOH spend of €8.4 million. Sky and UPC both invested heavily in OOH, with Sky at €1.8 million spending slightly more than UPC’s €1.7 million.

Food was the third top-spending category, accounting for €6.4 million of the total OOH activity, with Mondelez and Unilever the top advertisers. And the impending introduction of the health insurance levy in May prompted insurers to get out there and advertise for a slice of the business, with Vhi Healthcare spending €1.3 million on outdoor in the first six months of the year.

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UK: Proxama Rolls Out Beacon-enabled Taxis Across UK

Proximity marketing firm Proxama has announced a new partnership with Ubiquitous, the UK’s largest provider of taxi advertising, which will see beacon-enabled ads rolled out in taxis in London and other major cities around the UK.

4,000 beacons will be installed in taxis in cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham that will enable advertisers to deliver content-relevant, location specific messaging to consumers as they travel.

The average London taxi makes around 4,500 journeys over the course of a year, ferrying passengers between central locations, rail stations and airports. Regular taxi users tend to have high personal income, are smartphone and tablet enables, and likely to be middle-management and above, making them a valuable demographic to reach.

The new Proxama network represents not only an opportunity for Ubiquitous’ clients to send contextually relevant messaging to passenger smartphones, but will also be relevant to any app-based clients seeking a beacon network that engages high value consumers across a long dwell time.

“This is an excellent high profile partnership for us and one which we believe is extremely well suited to proximity marketing,” said Jon Worley, CEO of Proxama. “The average cab journey lasts around 20 minutes in London and is a natural time for people to engage with their smartphone for messages and new content. We look forward to seeing the customer reaction.”

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UK: Media owners must help advertisers adapt to change

By Shaun Gregory, CEO Exterion Media

Although the increasing volumes of data being amassed by both brands and media owners can at times be overwhelming, according to research by EY and Forbes Insights, just 37 per cent of chief marketing officers feel they have the capability to use analytics to tailor their communications to consumers.

We have found the benefits of mining this data intelligently invaluable. It enables us to facilitate campaigns that engage people and transform ordinary journeys into extraordinary experiences.

As data becomes more and more integral to a brand’s strategy, there has been much debate in the industry as to how best to harness the power of data, as well as how to process and manage it.

In a recent interview, Professor Brian Cox spoke about parallels in the way that science uses datasets and the way that advertisers can. Once you have set the right framework, he says, the creative process and success of the campaign could always be improved by using data.

Although some in the industry complain about too much data becoming a burden that saps time and resource, Cox said: "I don't see how a dataset can be a negative. It's just knowledge, and the more knowledge you have the better it is."

Providing knowledge about consumer behaviour to advertisers is vital if they are to create relevant campaigns that surprise and excite. And in an ever-more competitive marketplace, advertisers need to produce targeted campaigns to enhance effectiveness and demonstrate a greater return on investment.

We recently partnered with Telefónica to boost the consumer insights we can offer to our advertisers. By collecting anonymous data from across its mobile network of 24 million O2 devices, and analysing trends within that data, we can understand more about audience movements and behaviour.

Using data, we are now able to identify, for example, not just the most popular exit stations for specific demographics on the London Underground – Bank station for finance workers, for example – but their entry stations as well, allowing advertisers to target specific commuter groups right the way along their journey.

At 94 per cent, London has the highest penetration of smartphones in the UK, according to Exterion Media’s online urban community work.shop.play. The proliferation of smartphone devices has allowed brands unparalleled access to consumers on the move.

Full article here

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Traditional Out-Of-Home Media Continues Growth

Based on figures released by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), Out Of Home (OOH) advertising revenue rose 3.8 % in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the previous year, accounting for $2.25 billion. According to Kantar Media, total ad spend in the US was down nearly 7 % for the quarter, and OOH and local radio are the only traditional media to see significant growth.

OAAA President & CEO, Nancy Fletcher, said “… all major OOH categories continue to grow… nine of the top 10 product categories showing increases for the year… particularly significant given the comparison to other traditional media and second quarter GDP growth of 2.3 %... ”

The nine revenue growth categories included:

• Miscellaneous Services and Amusements 
• Retail 
• Media & Advertising 
• Public Transportation 
• Financial 
• Insurance & Real Estate 
• Government, Politics & Organizations 
• Communications 
• Automotive Dealers and Services

Among the top 50 OOH advertisers, those with increases greater than the OOH quarterly growth of 3.8 % included (in order of growth): Microsoft, Universal Pictures, Verizon, T-Mobile, HSBC, Coca Cola, Walt Disney Pictures, Chick-Fil-A, Warner Bros. Pictures, New York State Lottery, Anheuser-Busch, Accenture, Cox, Samsung and Kroger.

Stephen Freitas, OAAA chief marketing officer, says “… the most significant trend in advertising today is the shift to digital… this hasn’t impacted OOH the way it has other traditional media, because OOH complements… digital marketing… especially mobile… the fastest growing of all digital platforms… ”

The OOH industry generates $7 billion annually in ad revenues and donates more than $450 million in space each year. Revenue estimates include digital and static billboard, street furniture, transit, alternative, and cinema advertising.

Full article here

USA: How Advertising Partnerships Can Help Cities Afford To Build For The Future

Your city, brought to you by...

Online advertising transformed in a flash. It wasn’t long ago that banner ads and pop-ups dominated the web, with Internet advertisers taking an approach not dissimilar to that of TV ads—widely blast content that’s relevant to a fraction of people and hope it sticks. Now, online ads are barely noticeable. When they are, they’re often targeted and specific enough to be welcome.

The ads that dominate our offline lives have evolved very differently. You can’t track consumers’ eyeballs the way you can clicks, and programmatically buying ads to reach someone at the exact right place and the right time doesn’t translate in the parameters of an offline world. For instance, it’s not uncommon for someone to see advertisements for a local lawyer, Banana Republic, and the newest Bond flick right after one another on billboards along a small strip of highway—something you’d never experience online unless you happened to mention all three in your last email. Consumers have come to expect more, and these spaghetti throwing tactics aren’t cutting it.

If advertisers want to continue reach people in the "real world" they are going to have to mimic the experience we have online: interactive, in-context, and highly personal. But without technology to make that happen automatically, they’ll have to get creative. I don’t just mean better billboards. As cities across America struggle to keep up with the demands of new technology and the infrastructure needed to support a new digital age, advertisers have the opportunity to step in and use their ad dollars to sponsor transformations in our home towns. And if they do it right, consumers might actually thank them for it. Because what’s more engaging and personal than that?

Consumers have become adept at ignoring ads they don’t want to see. To put this into (somewhat ironic) context, TiVo users skipped 73% of ads that aired during Mad Men. Not only are people avoiding marketing, it may sometimes have the opposite effect: According to a 2014 McCarthy Group study, 84% of millennials don’t trust advertising. Marketers need a better way to earn customers’ trust and to get their message to stick.

One way marketers have achieved this is through native advertising: ads that that match the form and function of the platform on which they appear so closely that consumers feel the ads belong. Native advertising is successful because ads aren’t simply slipping into the background, but rather are giving people what they want: brand-driven content in the context of something they care about. According to a 2014 report, more than half of consumers who click on native ads do so with the intention of purchasing something, compared with just 34% who click on banner ads.

Full article here

USA: Opinion: Location profiling is the next frontier in audience insights

Andy Stevens is svp of research, insights & analytics at Clear Channel Outdoor.

“I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted,” the king of modern advertising John Wanamaker once said. “I just don’t know which half.” Now, thanks in part to location-based data, out-of-home (OOH) advertisers are getting ever closer to deciphering which of their ad dollars are well spent.

In the early days, demographic targeting was the gold standard for segmenting audiences according to shared traits like gender, income and age. As Internet usage grew, in came more sophisticated ways of targeting ads based on behavioral attributes. Digital campaigns allowed advertisers to target audiences based on how people browse the Internet, purchase products online, and share information on social media. This gave advertisers a huge advantage over the previous model. But even behavioral profiling has limits.

The critical point about behavioral tracking is that many of the advances have been limited to the virtual world. With the exception of surveys and focus groups, we have very limited information about where the buyer goes when they are not on their computer. This isn’t just a small miss for advertisers expected to spend budgets wisely with measureable ROI, it’s a huge blind spot.

According to data provided by comScore, the bulk of sales in the U.S. still take place in the physical world. In the first quarter of 2015, 14.7 percent of retail sales took place online — the highest share ever. But the remaining 85.3 percent took place in brick-and-mortar retail stores. Digital behavioral data is incredibly rich and has given us an unprecedented ability to understand how consumers move through the purchase process, but it only covers a small part of the buying that takes place. Information about a buyer’s location opens up a new frontier of valuable consumer data to complement online browsing and purchasing insights.

With location data, time is also integral to what we learn about a person. Say an individual visits Yankee Stadium three times a month. The logical conclusion would be that the person is a sports fan, right? But what if the person went on a Saturday night, for a Jay-Z concert? Then the profile changes from a sports to a music fan, and possibly a young person. Now imagine the person visits Yankee Stadium for a Jay-Z concert, but only stayed two minutes. Maybe they took a wrong turn, or they are dropping somebody off.

Full article here

USA: OUTFRONT Media Launches New Brand Of Premium Outdoor Assets

OUTFRONT Media Inc, one of the largest out-of-home media companies in the US, today announced the launch of OUTFRONT PRIME, the new brand for its "super premium" outdoor assets comprised of the most highly-trafficked and iconic billboard locations across the US.

OUTFRONT has a significant focus on top markets with "best-in-class" inventory within those markets. PRIME assets represent the absolute top of the asset pyramid available in spectacular locations.

OUTFRONT PRIME enables advertisers to reach high-end consumers in priority markets like SoHo in New York, Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Mag Mile in Chicago and Union Square in San Francisco. High-end consumers will have the opportunity to see PRIME advertisers everywhere they go out of their home – from shopping centers to major dining areas.

In addition, OUTFRONT PRIME will have a dedicated concierge team, while PRIME customers will also benefit from a customizable suite of creative solutions and opportunities for public relations and social media amplification. "As the media landscape continues to evolve, we are dedicated to bringing innovative solutions and tailored out-of-home products to market," said Jeremy Male, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OUTFRONT Media.

"We are very excited about the launch of OUTFRONT PRIME, which allows us to offer clients personalized access to the most prestigious advertising locations in the country." Initial PRIME advertisers include both existing clients and new brands in the luxury category such as Jimmy Choo, Calvin Klein, BMW, Grey Goose, Tiffany and David Yurman, among others.

OUTFRONT PRIME will be available in approximately 250 locations in top markets including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. For more information about OUTFRONT PRIME, please visit: http://prime.outfrontmedia.com/.

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USA: Clear Channel Outdoor strikes another deal with Vertical Bridge

Vertical Bridge has signed a multi-year agreement for the management and marketing of the wireless deployment of Clear Channel Outdoor America’s billboards and outdoor advertising properties in 45 out of the top 50 U.S. markets.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Boca Raton, Florida-based Vertical Bridge will have exclusive rights to antenna and small cell site deployment across Clear Channel Outdoor’s footprint. Having Clear Channel billboards serve as cell sites should drastically improve cellular service in certain areas of the country, even as demand for mobile services increases, according to company officials.

With the addition of Clear Channel Outdoor’s billboard assets, Vertical Bridge will own or manage a portfolio of over 40,000 billboard, tower, rooftop, utility attachments and other site locations nationwide.

Clear Channel Outdoor's parent company previously sold off a round of vertical towers to Vertical Bridge for $370 million. The companies made the announcement at the Wireless Association’s CTIA Super Mobility 2015 conference in Las Vegas.

San Antonio-based Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings is a subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc. and is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies.

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AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: oOh!media appoints two senior digital and marketing executives

Australia’s largest reaching Out Of Home company, oOh!media, has appointed two new members to its senior leadership team to maintain its market leadership positioning and support the planned expansion of its product profile.

oOh! Chief Executive Officer, Brendon Cook, today said the appointment of Brendon Cropper as Digital Strategy Director and Michaela Chan as Chief Marketing Officer would further bolster an already strong senior team that has been instrumental in driving the company’s strong performance.

Mr Cropper will lead oOh!’s vision in advancing its digital and programmatic systems, including new digital product, innovation and development, as well as advise on potential acquisitions that will complement the company’s commitment to build up its portfolio of integrated online and offline products.

Mr Cropper has a wealth of experience in both media and digital, having previously worked for Carat, DDB, and Starcom. Before joining oOh!, Mr Cropper started up his own digital marketing training business, Digital Training Pty Ltd and worked with a media agency to set up their programmatic trading desk.

Ms Chan has more than 20 years’ experience in building brand equity and customer engagement for leading brands, both on the client and agency side in Australia, South East Asia and the US.

Prior to joining oOh!, Ms Chan was General Manager of Marketing for Telstra, responsible for defining the strategic direction and tactical execution of advocacy marketing programs across consumer, SMB and enterprise segments through a customer first approach. Previously Ms Chan was global brand manager for Chevron.

Mr Cook said the appointments of Mr Cropper and Ms Chan are important as oOh! looks to strengthen its digital offerings and build its brand and product profile.

“oOh! is excited to have Brendon and Michaela join the team at a particularly busy time,” Mr Cook said. “As experts in their fields, they will help oOh! take a significant step towards enabling its longer term business strategies and truly delivering a world leading approach to audience based connection.”

Mr Cropper joined oOh! earlier this month and Ms Chan will begin at oOh! on 28 September 2015.

ASIA NEWS

Azerbaijan: Daktronics Shine a Light into the future of sport in Azerbaijan

The installation of a new Daktronics’ LED super-system at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, was completed by the company and operational in time for The 1st European Games that recently took place. This, in addition to an existing Daktronics installation at Azerbaijan’s National Gymnastics Arena – also in Baku and an event venue at the European Games – positioned Daktronics as the chosen HD video infrastructure provider at two of the three permanently-installed national stadia intended for long-range future use in the region.

The Daktronics displays for both National arenas were supplied directly from the 100,000 square-metre manufacturing facility at Daktronics South Dakota headquarters in the United States. The installation was supervised directly onsite by one of Daktronics’ highly-skilled installation engineers, who shared best practice and experience with the client on how best to utilise the installed equipment for big events. Daktronics ships to 120 countries and has 16 branches conveniently located for consultancy and service across the globe.

At the Baku Stadium, the system comprised two outdoor video displays featuring a 15HD pixel layout, positioned one each end of the arena field, each measuring 10.97 metres high by 19.75 metres wide. These displays provide full-screen live video and instant replays and can also be divided into separate windows to show additional statistics, animations, graphics and sponsor messages.

During the Opening Ceremony of the inaugural European Games the video boards were utilised to display the broadcast content television viewers would experience at home, to the attendee audience in the stadium. During the Games, the stadium hosted the track and field amongst other events and the Daktronics displays exhibited crucial in-event timings, sponsored by Tissot.

Mustafa Parapan, Project Manager for the Anel Group, commented, “We knew our client wanted a world-class product for their world-class stadium. Daktronics understood the project requirements and with their proven experience in the industry were able to meet our expectations and deliver an exceptional product. The Daktronics team provided on-site installation supervision and project management throughout the installation period. Daktronics have since supported the first event at the stadium, the European Olympic Games, through technical operatives being present for the duration and training our staff. Overall, we are extremely pleased with the experience that Daktronics delivered, the displays looked great during the games and brought additional entertainment to the fans”.

The displays at the National Gymnastics Arena, as at Baku Stadium, can be used individually or synchronised all together at the same time for a moment of exclusivity, commonly used to highlight an exciting moment during the event or to provide premium exposure for sponsors.

Daktronics Regional Manager, Ewan Prentice, commented, “We are honoured that Daktronics is so permanently represented at Baku. They wanted top quality equipment to bring the best in game enhancement to their national sporting events and clearly wanted longevity and quality of product.”

Turkey: Shell gets “the biggest DOOH ad network in Turkey”

Shell petrol station stores in Turkey are hosting what is claimed to be the country’s largest digital out-of-home advertising network.

Local firm Linova has already installed screens at more than 350 sites, with the rollout expected to reach over 1000.

As well as designing and installing the Shell Digital Media Network, Linova is selling advertising time and managing content under a five-year contract.

Most of the stations carry the Shell TV Network on 32-to-47-inch LCDs, while a smaller number of about 40 prime locations also display the Shell LED Screen network.

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Thailand: Thailand’s out-of-home media player PLANB to expand to ASEAN

Thailand based out-of-home media Plan B Media PLC (PLANB) is in negotiations with partners to expand its footprint to Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

The move marks its foray into markets outside Thailand. “We would like to close the deal in Malaysia within this year, and the other three countries by early 2016,” said PLANB’s chief executive officer Palin Lojanagosin.

The company expects that the overseas business will account for 10 per cent of total revenue next year. “The digital outdoor media market over the next five years will be more challenging and competitive. Therefore, we have to expand overseas to explore new opportunities to boost our annual revenue to 5 billion baht by 2020,” he cited.

It projects a rise in revenue from 1.46 billion baht in 2014 to 3.02 billion baht this year. Of that, 2.52 billion baht will come from PLANB and the remaining from its subsidiary Hello Bangkok LED Co Ltd.

Full article here