DailyDOOH

Wallboard has announced the acquisition of Keywest Technology and Unified Brand, which we are told is a key move in Wallboard’s strategy to expand its market presence and integrate skilled professionals to boost growth and innovation.

Rod Roberson, CEO of Wallboard, told us “These acquisitions represent a major step towards becoming a market leader. By integrating Keywest Technology and Unified Brand, we’re not only expanding our resources but also partnering with professionals dedicated to innovation and customer satisfaction.”

The acquisition introduces additional development resources from Keywest Technology, including a team skilled in digital signage technologies. This team will undergo cross-training to contribute to Wallboard’s platform, bolstering the company’s innovation efforts.

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What do the bus shelters at Barking station, Seven Sisters Station, Wood Green, Ealing Town Hall and Bexleyheath Market Place in London all have in common?

Well, it seems tha they are among the bus shelters that could deliver the most attention for brands in London. JCDecaux and Lumen Research have unveiled new ‘Attention! London Calling’ research which reveals the link between the time spent in a bus shelter and the amount of attention on a screen, with the headline finding that screens inside bus shelters generate an average 4.4 seconds of attention, ahead of many other digital channels.

Unveiled on at the MadFest event in London last week, Chris Felton, Director of Data and Insight at JCDecaux UK revealed how by using TfL data, these findings will give advertisers a new tool to plan by attention on bus shelters, a channel that delivers 70% of the audience in the capital.

He told us “Bus shelters deliver 70% of the London audience making them a powerful channel for brands. Our new insight reveals why bus shelters should be included on any omnichannel plan that is designed to target attention metrics in the capital. That’s because using TfL data, we can now deliver campaigns on bus shelters that deliver the highest attention, plus prompt action via mobile as passengers travel by bus or connect to the wider transport network. Last year only three ad channels grew, showing the two-screen future of Out-of-Home and Online has arrived and for brands planning for attention, this insight will be key”.

Researchers from Lumen used videos viewed by recruited adults to replicate consumer behaviour in test situations using eye-tracking technology and surveys to study the attention levels of people driving, walking and waiting at London bus shelters.

The results showed that brands can capitalise on attention through selecting screens inside bus shelters which deliver high attention levels which lead to better effects. Each exposure to an ad in a shelter delivers 4.4 seconds of attention, while 75% of people who were exposed twice recalled the brand.

A new study via On Device showed how brands can harness passenger ‘me-time’ activity to engage and prompt action once on the bus. People spent an average 58 minutes on their phone during the 1 hour 29-minute journey. Passengers looked at Social (12 minutes average), streamed games (13 minutes) and browsed Online (5 minutes).

Mike Follett, Founder and CEO of Lumen Research said, “In a world of competing messages, Attention is a finite resource and brands can now use this insight to plan for attention on London’s bus shelters. Our research with JCDecaux UK shows that at over four seconds, the high attention delivered by posters inside bus shelters drives other metrics including consideration, brand recall and message outtake, showing how attention turns into action.”

The new research comes as JCDecaux marks 60 years since Jean Claude Decaux founded the concept of advertising-funded bus shelters, ensuring giving back to the community was at the heart of the business model.

Methodology

Attention on bus shelters: Lumen Research recruited 450 adults in the UK and placed them into one of three groups. They accessed Lumen software via their computer turning their device into an eye tracking camera. To obtain ‘as live’ engagement data, groups were exposed to one of three first-person point-of-view Out-of-Home films, driving past, walking past and waiting at a bus stop. Within the film, respondents were exposed to two bus shelter ads while having their eye movements tracked. Respondents were asked to complete a survey about spontaneous brand recall, prompted brand recall, prompted brand awareness, consideration and message recall. With the data collection complete Lumen researchers produced the insight report.

JCDecaux worked with On Device to understand passenger activity on the bus

Phone use on buses: On Device polled 450 commuters to understand phone usage while on a bus.

PLAYipp, a leading Digital Signage SaaS company in Sweden, backed by software growth investor Monterro has acquisired Databeat, a Digital Signage Software provider based in Norway.

We are told that this strategic partnership marks a milestone in PLAYipp’s growth mission, enhancing their capacity to deliver superior solutions and services to their partners and customers in an international market.

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In November 2019 Outcome Health founders Rishi Shah, Shradha Agarwal, Outcome CFO Brad Purdy and executive VP Ashik Desai were charged in federal court with a combined 26 counts of fraud for defrauding investors out of hundreds of million of dollars. Ashik Desai pleaded guilty to the charges and cooperated with the investigation whereas the others protested their innocence.

It took forever for the case to come to trial but finally in April 2023 a jury in Chicago found Outcome co-founder and former CEO Rishi Shah (shown to the right) guilty on 19 of 22 counts, fellow co-founder and former President Shradha Agarwal guilty on 15 of 17 counts and found Brad Purdy, the company’s former COO and CFO, guilty on 13 of 15 counts.

This week Rishi was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, more than a year after he was found guilty of fraud. Before sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin told Shah the fraud was “not a single mistake or out-of-character impulsive moment. A lot of this I believe was driven by greed … dreams of being a big shot”.

Government prosecutors had asked Durkin to give Shah 15 years in prison, calling him “the architect” of a USD 1 billion fraud. The U.S. Probation Office had recommended eight years, according to a memo filed by Shah’s attorneys, and his attorneys had asked for home confinement.

Shah has already retained former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal to appeal his conviction. Shah also plans to appeal his sentence.

Back in April, the jury deliberated for two days after a 10 week trial. Prosecutors said that Outcome (formerly Context Media), which operated digital tablets in doctors’ offices and waiting rooms that display health care content and advertising, lied about the number of screens, over-billed companies for ads that were never delivered and falsified revenue figures whilst raising nearly a billion dollars in loans and equity investments. Outcome Health received a USD 110 million loan in April 2016 and a USD 375 million loan in December 2016 and in 2017 raised a further USD 487 million at a USD 5 billion valuation.

CFO Purdy was sentenced to two years in jail. Shradha Agarwal was sentenced to three years in a half-way house.

See also:-

The Truth About @OutcomeHealth

Outcome Health Swallowed Up By @PatientPoint

Outcome Health Welcomed With Open Arms by @DPAAOrg

PatientPoint in Talks to Merge With Outcome Health

Fraud Trial Date Set For @OutcomeHealth Founders

Carvertise is introducing Branded Chauffeur, a new high-end transportation service that delivers clients’ VIPs to and from conferences and events in luxury wrapped vehicles showcasing their logos and marketing messages.

Carvertise CEO Mac Macleod told us “We’re taking experiential marketing at conferences and trade shows to a whole new level. Our clients’ VIPs aren’t just getting a ride – they’re getting a full sensory experience they’ll surely remember,”.

Since Carvertise’s inception, it has played a major role at some of the largest conventions, trade shows and conferences throughout the U.S., including SXSW and The Democratic National Convention, by deploying rideshare vehicles with client’s branding around the event venues.

The company is now taking this a step further by transporting clients’ VIPs and stakeholders to and from such events in branded cars, which are driven by professional drivers.

To elevate the experience, Carvertise can further customize the vehicles with a backseat car caddy featuring branded giveaways, such as bottled water and swag bags; a specially-curated Spotify playlist; and even scents customized to embody the client’s brand. For each activation, Carvertise will have client fulfillment specialists on-site to dispatch drivers and ensure a seamless experience.

Carvertise will kick off its first official Branded Chauffeur activation on behalf of Visit Tampa Bay on July 15, deploying six luxury vehicles wrapped in the destination marketing organization’s colorful branding and offering free rides to multiple events, including a partner activation at the Florida Aquarium.

Before launching the new service, Carvertise tested it with several clients, including the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, which transported its commissioner of tourism, Joseph Bouschulte to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Gala in New York City in a fully-wrapped car featuring stunning beach scenes from the destination’s three islands.

In the future, Macleod says, he envisions Carvertise’s clients using the Branded Chauffeur service to transport VIPs to various events, from trade shows to concerts to sporting events. “We’re fielding a lot of inquiries,” he says. “But it’s an ideal solution for any marketer who wants to create a special moment for clients, stakeholders and VIPs to travel around an event – and do so in an immersive, memorable way.”

Royal Holloway lecturer Dr Tim Summers teamed up with Dr William Ayers (University of Central Florida) to organize the first conference on theme park music and sound, titled ‘All Ears: Music and Sound in and Beyond Disney Theme Parks‘.

The conference took place June 20-21 2024 at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, right in the heart of theme park country, and consisted of two days of talks and demonstrations about music in theme parks. Despite the longstanding importance of music and sound in theme parks, the organizers believe this is the first conference dedicated to the topic.

The conference included talks about everything from the harmonic and musical procedures of the ‘Haunted Mansion’ and “It’s a Small World” to how American musical cultures are staged and presented in theme parks, and how film music is adapted in theme parks. It also featured contributions from composers, describing the specific demands of writing for theme parks.

Royal Holloway PhD student James Ellis contributed a talk to the conference. James’s talk was about the ‘Jungle Cruise’, which you can also view here.

The keynote speaker was Ron Fish, a composer and sound designer for games and theme parks, including an extended period of work for Walt Disney Imagineering. He continues to work on a wide variety of theme park projects and shared his perspective on park music with the audience who joined the conference both in-person and virtually.

The conference was generously supported by the Roya Musical Association and UCF Themed Experience Program.

With nearly 60%* of all online purchases made when people are out and about, OOH has become a crucial channel for brands aiming to drive on-the-go purchases.

Current data however does not clearly illustrate the extent to which OOH media investment impacts retail spend. To address this, GroupM partnered with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) to conduct an in-depth study.

This research is tailored for retail and FMCG brands and highlights the most effective ways to use OOH to boost e-commerce. The session will show that for every GBP 3 spent in store, GBP 2 is spent online.

In this exclusive Clicks and Mortar webinar they will look at how this differs for different product categories, different consumer groups, and different parts of the country. Understanding all of this will help to plan more effective OOH campaigns that will maximise sales whether that’s through clicks or in bricks and mortar stores.

It’s a live Teams Event, 9th July, between 10 and 10:30am

You can reserve your spot today here.

*The Mobile Pound Study 2021

Tom Reilly has joined Vector Media as the company’s new Executive Vice President of Local Sales. Tom comes to Vector with an impressive background, having built and scaled numerous sales teams, including an 18-year run at National CineMedia (NCM), where he built and managed a local/regional team of over 200 local sellers.

Tom is replacing Dave Daucanski, who announced his retirement last month. Dave has had a long and successful career, having played important leadership roles at Lamar, Clear Channel, Obie Media and for the last six years at Vector Media.

Marc Borzykowski, CEO of Vector Media told us “Over the past 6 years Dave has a had a significant impact on our business and he will be missed by all those whose lives he’s touched. His absence leaves large shoes to fill in our organization, but we are thrilled to have found a leader in Tom who comes to Vector with such an impressive reputation and record and we are excited to see Tom infuse his own brand of leadership into Vector”.

Founded in 1998, Vector Media is one of the US’s largest private outdoor media companies, specializing in large and small format public and private media opportunities as well as the creation of interactive brand experiences. The company’s current inventory is spread out over 55 US markets including each of the top 10 US DMAs and 28 of the top 50 US DMAs and includes over 30,000 advertising faces, comprised of municipal transit, transit shelters, billboards, wallscapes, airport shuttles, and the only coast-to-coast double-decker advertising network in North America. Vector’s rapidly growing experiential division integrates the company’s Out-of-Home assets and other capabilities through the creation of dynamic brand experiences.

Charles Beauduin will retire as cBarco o-CEO and will become chairman of Barco, effective September 1 2024, with An Steegen being confirmed as (sole) CEO.

In 2021, An Steegen and Charles Beauduin assumed the role of co-CEOs at Barco. Under their leadership, the organisational structure was redesigned, with greater empowerment at business unit level for increased customer and market responsiveness.

In the Jue 25 board meeting, the board of directors accepted the resignation of Charles Beauduin as co-CEO and appointed he as new chairman of the board, taking over from Frank Donck.

Frank will continue to serve on the board of directors as an independent director. These changes will be effective September 1, 2024.

High speed 4G and 5G mobile coverage is now available to customers using the Elizabeth line as they travel across central London.

Following all Elizabeth line stations getting mobile coverage earlier this year, TfL and Boldyn Networks, TfL’s partner in delivering the connectivity, have now introduced coverage within the tunnels from the Royal Oak portal to the west of Paddington to Liverpool Street station, covering approximately five miles and meaning that they can now stay connected as they travel between stations. Further tunnelled sections of the Elizabeth line towards Whitechapel will be connected in the coming weeks, and the whole line will have mobile coverage by the end of summer.

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