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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has partnered with Intersection to install a new digital communications and advertising network on the southern portion of the Metro Blue line as part of Metro’s ‘New Blue’ rail line improvements.

Starting this week, customers riding the Metro Blue Line between Long Beach and Compton Stations will see new IxNTouch information screens at each station – powered by Intersection’s transit communications platform, IxNConnect. The technology will allow Metro to communicate with customers across a growing network of digital screens and help customers better navigate the agency’s transit system. The interactive touch screens will give riders greater access to train and bus arrival times, service alerts and advisories and system and connections maps, among other digital tools. Once complete, the network will allow Metro to target information and messages systemwide, by line, by station and even individual station screen.

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Out of home (OOH) advertising revenue rose 6.0 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the previous year, accounting for $1.78 billion, based on figures released by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). The revenue increase marks nine years of consecutive growth for the OOH industry.

OAAA President & CEO Nancy Fletcher told us “OOH continues to grow ad spend revenue because of its effective mass reach. We’ve seen a marked rise with direct-to-consumer businesses, in particular, along with continued use by major tech brands, which use OOH to drive digital engagement.”

Four of the top 10 product categories posted increases equal to or greater than the overall quarterly increase including: Insurance & Real Estate +18.2 percent, Media & Advertising +13.4 percent, Miscellaneous Local Services & Amusements +7.8 percent; and Financial +6.0.

Ranked in order of OOH spending, the top 10 advertisers in the first quarter were McDonald’s, Apple, Geico, Amazon, T-Mobile, HBO, Warner Bros Pictures, Google, Chevrolet, and American Express.

Twenty-nine of the top 100 OOH advertisers more than doubled their OOH spend from the first quarter of 2018 including: Door Dash Food Delivery, Cisco, LVMH, Groupon, Pluto TV, EA (Electronic Arts), LogMeIn.Com, Vimeo, Tazo, Stitch Fix Clothing Store, Michigan Hotels and Resorts, Uber, New York City Department Of Health & Mental Hygiene, Allstate, Salesforce, Deloitte, Target, Redfin Real Estate, Amazon, T-Mobile, TD, CNN, CBS, Paramount Pictures, Anheuser-Busch, Warner Bros Pictures, Spotify, Hulu, and 20th Century Fox Pictures.

Stephen Freitas, OAAA chief marketing officer said “OOH audiences are younger and more affluent than the average US consumer, and that’s very attractive to many brands and, a new Nielsen study found 66 percent of smartphone users have been prompted by an OOH ad to take some type of action with their phone.”

OAAA issues full industry pro forma revenue estimates that include, but are not limited to, Miller Kaplan and Kantar Media (which is not adjusted to reflect changes in data sources), and member company affidavits. Revenue estimates include digital and static billboard, street furniture, transit, place-based, and cinema advertising.

For more information about specific category spend, please contact Nicole Randall at nrandall@oaaa.org or (202) 833-5566.

OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE: OUT) has announced the expansion of its urban advertising offering in Philadelphia with the addition of 133 bike share stations in partnership with Bicycle Transit Systems, operators of Philadelphia’s Indego bike share program.

Through this partnership, OUTFRONT Media is primed to impact socially responsible, health-conscious demographics during a crucial time when the environment is at the forefront of both state and federal conversations. This new offering will give OUTFRONT Media brand partners the opportunity to strategically target and engage hard-to-reach audiences, including millennials and business people.

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Leyard and Planar have announced the next-generation Planar LookThru Transparent OLED Display, which leverages the latest in transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology to provide a self-emitting transparent display for true see-through installations without the need for backlighting or enclosures.

The new Planar LookThru display builds on the frameless glass design of the original version, enabling customers to overlay digital content and imagery over actual objects to create unique, eye-catching installations. Suitable both as a standalone product and for tiled installations, the 55-inch display is ideal for a wide range of applications including retail merchandising, corporate displays, museum exhibits, award and trophy cases, and tradeshow exhibits. Leyard and Planar will showcase the Planar LookThru at InfoComm 2019.

Steve Seminario, vice president of product marketing at Leyard and Planar told us “The customer demand for a next-generation Planar LookThru display has been truly unprecedented. We’re thrilled to announce this new product, which brings to life the amazing variety of creative designs our customers envision for their organizations.”

ABCOMRENTS CEO Sonny Goyal said “The Planar LookThru display has been a tremendous success with some of our largest rental clients. We are thrilled to learn that we will have the opportunity to work with the next-generation of the Planar LookThru Transparent OLED display.”

The next-generation Planar LookThru allows users to showcase a single object behind a single 55-inch display or larger objects behind a tiled video wall. It offers the following benefits:

• Brilliant picture quality. The new 55-inch Planar LookThru offers vibrant colors that, at 120% NTCS, exceed the standards set by the National Television System Committee. The emissive OLED display provides wide viewing angles with excellent no off-axis contrast and brightness. With Full HD resolution, it also delivers stunning graphics and full-motion video.

• High performance. Planar LookThru comes with a 4K@60Hz DisplayPort and HDMI connectivity that includes HDCP 2.2 content protection compliance. Installations are fully controllable using RS-232, LAN and other control systems. The display is also compatible with leading processing and source routing solutions.

• High durability. The new Planar LookThru features Planar® ERO-OLED™ (Extended Ruggedness and Optics™) technology that uses a proprietary process to bond protective glass to the front surface of an OLED display. The result is a highly durable display surface that can withstand the rigors of high-traffic environments. Planar ERO-OLED also improves perceived contrast making content more readable and impactful to the user, even in bright public venues.

• Flexible configuration. The next-generation Planar LookThru can be used in either portrait or landscape orientations. The display can be mounted on tables and ceilings and built into custom fixtures. It can also be tiled to create large, attention-grabbing video walls using DisplayPort video loop through.

• Easy set-up. The next-generation Planar LookThru comes fully assembled and ready to connect to a source, making set-up quick and intuitive. Optional accessories can be purchased including a base plate for ceiling mounting, tiling components to protect display edges and a platform cover to create a staging surface for items placed behind the display.

Planar LookThru will begin shipping in Summer 2019 and is available through Leyard and Planar’s global network of authorized resellers. Visitors to #InfoComm19 can view the Planar LookThru along with other innovations at the Leyard and Planar Booth #3143.

DPAA, the leading global organization working to drive out-of-home into its digital future, announced this week that Cameron (Cam) Milne, General Manager, Place-Based Media at Canada-based Pattison Outdoor, has been voted onto the organization’s board of directors.

Barry Frey, DPAA President & CEO, told us “Cam is a strong, highly accomplished business leader. I have had the pleasure of working with him on DPAA business these past few years, and can personally attest to his character, leadership skills and strong qualities. He is a tremendous addition to our board.”

Cam has more than 30 years of media knowledge across a number of channels. As General Manager, Place-Based Media at Pattison Outdoor, Milne develops innovative business solutions for digital out-of-home and with a specialty in programmatic and the integration of audience insights. He leads the establishment, and ensures compliance, of the operational unit’s short-term and long-term goals with overall business objectives as a guideline.

He joined Pattison Outdoor Advertising in September 2011 as Director of Business Development, Place-Based Media. Previously, he served as Managing Director Digital Automotive at Torstar Corp., where oversaw the strategic development and implementation of the company’s automotive sites and vertical strategies.

He joins a DPAA board that includes: Francois de Gaspe Beaubien (DPAA Board Chairman), Chairman & Chief Coaching Officer, Zoom Media; Jose Avios, IOT Group VP and Visual Solutions GM, Intel; Debbie Drutz, VP Sales, Astral; Dave Evertonforever, Chief Strategy Officer, Intersection; Marc Kidd, CEO, Captivate Network; Peter Krieger, President & COO, Lightbox (formerly Adspace Networks); Mike Maas, CEO, AMI Entertainment; Serge Matta, President, GroundTruth; Sean McCaffrey, President & CEO, Gas Station TV; John Partilla, CEO, Screenvision; Michael Provenzano, CEO & Co-Founder, Vistar Media; Burr Smith, Chairman & CEO, BroadSign; and Andreas Souptonuts, CEO, Hivestack.

SNA Displays and Sensory Interactive have helped the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) unveil a new installation by internationally recognized artist JR celebrating the city’s extraordinary and diverse people on a state-of-the-art, 107-foot-long digital canvas.

To create the piece, The Chronicles of San Francisco, JR set up a mobile studio in 22 locations around the city, where he filmed, photographed, and interviewed more than 1,200 people from across San Francisco’s multifaceted communities. In the completed work, a digital mural scrolls across the enormous LED display, bringing together the faces and untold stories of everyday people.

The digital display, which contains a total of nearly 26 million pixels, is among the highest-resolution LED displays in the U.S. and is comparable in size to the largest exterior digital displays in Las Vegas and New York’s Times Square.

Sensory Interactive provided design, technical specification, procurement, and project management services for the display, and it was manufactured and installed by SNA Displays. Both firms view this installation as a milestone for digital art in the museum environment, and as a type of project they expect to see more of in the future.

Sensory Interactive Managing Director Christopher Graefe told us “The affordability, reliability, and flexibility of large-scale LED surfaces have reached the point where LED is a realistic alternative to projection systems for video art in many museums. This is giving museums the ability to bring video art out of the traditional darkened room and into wide-open spaces like the Roberts Family Gallery at SFMOMA,” Graefe continued. “We think we’re seeing the beginning of a trend toward more of these types of high-profile installations.”

Because of the complexity of executing an installation with such demanding technical requirements and a large, international team, Sensory Interactive got involved in the process early. The company’s architects, motion-graphic designers, and 3D artists worked with the JR team to ensure that every aspect of the display supported the goals for the installation. A key part of this effort was finding the right display configuration, size, and placement to create the most inviting and immersive experience for viewers. As part of this effort, Sensory Interactive, SNA Displays, and the JR team worked together to explore a variety of design options, particularly for joining the two planes of the display at their intersection.

Ultimately the team settled on a curved connection and a slightly concave angle for the two planes. This approach draws visitors into the space and maximizes their sense of immersion as they are surrounded by the massive, slowly moving digital image.

Presented in SFMOMA’s soaring Roberts Family Gallery, The Chronicles of San Francisco runs for approximately one year. The exhibition is free and accessible to the public.

Los Angeles-based WOW Media has announced an exclusive partnership with publisher The Onion. The Onion will serve as WOW’s official headline partner, bringing its signature satirical news content to WOW’s digital billboard network across Los Angeles. The partnership marks the first time that The Onion will release editorial content via out of home channels.

Joe Fullman, VP Marketing for The Onion said “We’re always looking for a new way to get our content in front of our clients and partners in the entertainment industry. I can hardly think of a better place to reach world class programming and development executives than when they’re stuck in LA’s world class traffic”.

WOW Media’s outdoor network includes nine 14’ x 48’ full-motion equipped billboards situated on key surface streets en route to LAX and The Forum, plus two new two-sided 20’ x 60’ digital billboards along Interstate 405, the nation’s busiest freeway with 379,000 vehicles each day. The freeway signs launched in October and are the largest digital signs in the Los Angeles region, offering premium exposure to millions of local commuters and LAX travelers.

Scott Krantz, Founder and CEO, WOW Media told us “We are all huge fans of The Onion and the way they so cleverly and ironically filter current events. We’re very excited for this unique partnership with The Onion and to help them reach their audience in brand new ways, and to expand the type of content we showcase on our network.”

Content from The Onion is now beginning to roll out on WOW billboards, and will run regularly each hour on a space-available basis.

With advertising spend in digital out-of-home projected to reach $2.8B in 2019 (US alone), programmatic technology plays a major role in the continued expansion of this traditional channel. VistarMedia, one of the leading programmatic technology providers for digital out-of-home, is helping accelerate that growth in the Canadian market.

Rapid adoption by Canadian buyers and media owners fueled more than 30 programmatic campaigns across 19 brands in 2018 and this year as well, has seen a significant increase in adoption, with more than 50 programmatic campaigns across 25 brands to date.

Leanne Scriven, Director, Programmatic Systems at XPETO, the in-house programmatic trade desk of Media Experts was quoted as saying “The potential of growth in DOOH is becoming clearer by the day, and XPETO has seen the benefits it brings to our clients’ business,” stated Vistar has been a great partner in this process, providing us with support and smart solutions as we navigate this evolving landscape.”

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Pikasso announces today that it has entered the Armenian market under the name of Pikasso OOH LLC and launched its activity with the acquisition of the inventory of locations of Arabella. This inventory is composed of Large Formats: Unipoles, Rooftops, and Billboards, all of them located in prime locations in Yerevan.

Yerevan is the administrative capital, the cultural and industrial center of Armenia. It’s the main urban center with a population of 1.12 million inhabitants out of three million for the whole country.

Antonio Vincenti, Chairman and CEO of Pikasso, told us “The acquisition of the inventory of Arabella, one of the leading OOH players in the market, will allow us to create some iconic OOH products by unleashing the potential of these very prime locations, and by digitizing some of them. We will launch soon among others ‘Yerevan Gate’, two Unipoles facing each other and sold together on the Airport road, as well as ‘Yerevani Berd’ located at the main access of the city center facing the historic castle. This first step in the Caucasus was motivated by the large Armenian Diaspora living in Lebanon which has created close links between the two countries with an increasing number of businesses investing in Yerevan.”

Pikasso is the number one Out-of-Home advertising company throughout the Levant (Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq), leader in North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia), and has recently extended its activity to West Africa (Mali, Ivory Coast and Senegal) and the Caucasus (Armenia). With more than 13,000 advertising faces, 270 digital screens, 60 concessions, a presence in 434 cities and towns in 9 countries, and 400 highly qualified professionals, Pikasso places quality and innovation at the heart of its development.

Exterion Media and Transport for London (TfL) have powered up another suite of full-motion digital screens at London Bridge, Waterloo, Oxford Circus, Liverpool Street and South Kensington Tube stations.

Full-motion Digital Ribbons have been revealed at Waterloo and Oxford Street Tube stations and follows the installation of the digital ribbons at King’s Cross St Pancras, Piccadilly Circus and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations earlier this year.

Alongside this, the latest Digital Gateway has also launched in London Bridge Tube station. The 21Sqm HD screen at London Bridge is strategically placed above escalators, offering brands the ultimate creative opportunity to engage receptive consumers as they make their journeys on the Tube. This new addition in London Bridge Tube station will expand Exterion Media’s Digital Gateway offering, with the format making its debut at Bank Tube station earlier this year.

Nigel Clarkson, Chief Revenue Officer, Exterion Media told us “This week we have unveiled our largest launch together of digital advertising screens across the London Underground network. Out-of-home, and digital in particular, advertising continues to deliver huge opportunities for brands, time and time again. With our new Digital Ribbons screens, Digital Gateway at London Bridge and DEPs, we’re offering big impact for brands in an environment where commuters are very receptive to advertisements and are looking to be engaged and entertained. The dynamic capabilities of these full-motion formats offer advertisers a stand-out creative canvas that will engage London commuters on a whole new scale.”

The launch of these innovative formats is bolstered by the installation of new Digital Escalator Panel screens at Liverpool Street and South Kensington Tube stations. The installation of these escalator runs, with each run consisting of digital panels on both sides of the escalators, means that there are now ten new Digital Escalator runs across the London Underground network.