DailyDOOH

The Digital Place Based Advertising Association, New York, announced today that the Digital Place-based sector’s revenue growth rate for the first half of 2015 outpaced that of all other major media.

Based on information collected by the certified public accounting firm Miller, Kaplan, Arase from digital place-based networks – including both DPAA members and non-members — advertising revenue for the digital place-based sector grew by 14.3% for the first half of 2015 versus the same period last year. This far surpassed the next closest growth media, radio, which gained 3.4% for the six-month period.

The 14.3% growth rate puts digital place-based media well on its way to equaling or surpassing estimated revenue of USD 1.015 billion for 2015, excluding cinema, as forecasted earlier this year by MyersBizNet.

First-Half 2015 Revenue Growth by Media Type:

• Digital Place-based + 14.3%
• Radio + 3.4%
• Outdoor + 2.6%
• Cable TV – 0.8%
• Spot TV – 4.4%
• Network TV – 4.8%
• Online (Display) – 7.0%
• Magazine – 8.2%
• FSIs – 9.7%
• Newspaper – 14.0%
• Total Media -3.9%

Source: Miller, Kaplan, Arase for digital place-based media; Kantar Media for all others

“The exceptionally strong growth for digital place-based media reflects a movement toward video agnostic media planning in what is rapidly becoming a ‘video everywhere’ world,” says Barry Frey, president & CEO, DPAA. “Our networks are gaining prominence as a tool to help marketers overcome a challenging advertising landscape by demonstrating they are an effective way to engage and influence brand and purchase behavior while consumers are on their daily journeys.”

A debate on video agnostic planning will be among the hot topics discussed at the DPAA’s eighth annual Video Everywhere Summit in New York on November 3 during New York Digital Signage Week. Other sessions at the all-day event will include programmatic, a ‘Shark Tank’ style Tech Tank, mobile-DPB case studies and other topics designed to help make sense of today’s rapidly changing video media world.

If there’s one speaker you do not want to miss during the WHOLE of this year’s New York Digital Signage Week, it’s Tim Bleakley, CEO of the multi-award winning London-based Ocean Outdoor.

We’ve heard Bleakley speak several times before and we fully expect that once again he’ll be spilling some trade secrets that will inspire the Digital Out-of-Home industry.

No doubt, beyond that, he’ll be discussing some of the reasons behind Ocean Group now having two separate company brands, the M&As that have led to that – including the purchase of MediaCo to help build the Signature brand – and his company recently being named the exclusive media partner of Team GB for the upcoming Olympic Games.

This will likely evolve into his thoughts on how exclusive content goes beyond Out-of-Home.

Among the topics he’ll likely mention is The Loop, Birmingham’s newest media channel, which very interestingly, will be planned and bought by audience and impressions via a new online audience trading platform.

He will also be looking at the success of such campaigns as that of Womens’ Aid, Twitter, Topshop and Hunter, among others, Bleakley expects that between one-third and one-half of all DOOH campaigns in the near future will have interactivity of one type or another, whether through touch, mobile or some other form on connectivity – and he will discuss what this will mean for the industry in terms of being able to compete (with other media).

Of course, Bleakley will mention some of the M&A that he and Searchlight Capital have been involved in, this past 12 months – conference attendees will be sure to hear about his group strategy and why he’s keen to build a second brand.

And we expect to hear about the growing success of Ocean’s own creative contest (whose winners will be divulged this Thursday); how it has had a 40% increase in entries this year and how it has penetrated Britain’s top agencies, inspired them to build exceptional creative campaigns for their clients while also building ever more awareness of the DOOH sector itself within the media industry.

We are expecting Bleakley to make at least one unexpected pronouncement at The DailyDOOH Investor Conference, being held Wednesday, Nov. 4. You don’t want to miss him, or any of the other excellent speakers on the agenda.

As the saying goes, ‘Be there, or be square.’ You can register for the conference here.

12:00 Going Beyond Out of Home | Tim Bleakley | CEO | Ocean Outdoor

Since Ocean Outdoor’s leveraged buyout, which was revealed at this conference back in 2013, much has happened with ‘The Group Story’ – not the least of which is, the recent M&A activity with the help of our investor Searchlight Capital Partners. This session will focus on experiences to date and focus on the evolution of the medium and how it delivers ‘beyond out of home’.

Birmingham has unveiled its brand new digital out of home network – The Loop, which enables brands to deliver full motion advertising content to the heart of the city.

Developed, operated and sold by Signature Outdoor, The Loop is a network of more than 20 full motion screens located in 12 high footfall pedestrian zones across Birmingham’s regenerated city centre.

Interestingly, The Loop will be planned and bought by audience and impressions via a new online audience trading platform, www.thelooplive.co.uk.

The Loop debuts with campaigns from a roster of eight brands including LVMH, Timberland, Virgin Trains, Wrigleys, Columbia Tristar, Ford, Jameson, Channel 4 and overall the project forms part of one the UK’s biggest city centre redevelopments.

Signature Outdoor managing director Steve George told us “Birmingham is undergoing a 21st century transformation and Signature Outdoor is a core partner in driving that change.

“Signature offer out of home opportunities which are ahead of the curve and challenge traditional trading mechanisms. Working with our partners at Birmingham City Council, The Loop provides an unrivalled level of connected engagement for advertisers and the people of Birmingham.”

The Loop allows brands to connect with audiences through small format digital screens in Birmingham city centre for the first time, offering instant connectivity to mobile audiences through a fully looped wifi powered infrastructure which is centrally networked for ease of access.

Councillor Ian Ward, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council said “The Loop is an innovative example of Signature Outdoor and Birmingham’s vision to become a smart connected City through the evolution of next generation world class advertising networks.”

The arrival of The Loop follows the Media Eyes which are positioned above the main entrances to Birmingham New Street and the John Lewis flagship store, part of the Grand Central shopping centre which opened in September. The Media Eyes are operated by Signature Outdoor’s sister company, Ocean.

Ocean CEO Tim Bleakley told us “The Loop forms a significant part of Ocean Group’s multi-million pound investment in the development of prestige transport and retail environments for the next generation of mobile out of home audiences.

“Birmingham is rapidly becoming one of Europe’s most dynamic and exciting cities, and The Loop shows how best in class out of home and digital out of home connectivity is evolving.”

Following the April 2015 acquisition of MediaCo by Ocean Group, CityLive – MediaCo’s digital pedestrian network in Manchester (made up of 10 double-sided retail centric full motion screens) will now be rebranded The Loop Manchester – Signature Outdoor now operates the only full motion small format digital networks in both Birmingham and Manchester city centres.

Technically, The Loop Birmingham: –

Research for The Loop Birmingham was developed by Oxford Retail Consultants (ORC). Hourly and daily footfall counts were carried out at each of the 12 The Loop locations. Using ORC’s trip model, all journeys to and from a variety of destinations were mapped, including work, leisure, retail (food/non-food), tourism and holidays abroad; how and when these journeys were made was also tracked. This travel data was fused with demographic and lifestyle data (such as Census) to determine who made the journeys.

From this ORC ascertained footfall past each of The Loop units, as well as who these people were by hour, day, week or month for each screen.

Signature Outdoor is a premium out of home media owner operating exclusively in Birmingham and Manchester. The commercial advertising partner for Birmingham City Council and Manchester City Council, Signature’s portfolio of more than 110 digital and backlight locations offers an unrivalled opportunity for advertisers in two of the UK’s most important cities.

Ile-de-France Road Directorate (DiRIF) has selected PTV Group, in collaboration with INRIX, to monitor traffic and congestion in real-time across the Greater Paris metropolitan area.

DiRIF is using the company’s PTV Optima analytics platform, which delivers traffic-related insight based on real-time data from INRIX – this allows DiRIF to monitor traffic flow and gridlock across its road network more effectively than before.

INRIX, a leading provider of real-time traffic information and connected driving services worldwide, is providing high-quality floating car data from its crowd-sourced network of connected vehicles and devices for analysis. PTV Group integrates and processes these data to deliver DiRIF a more accurate and comprehensive picture of the traffic situation on the region’s roads at any given time.

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“Scala’s business has been very strong to date in 2015, up 40% in the Americas, and more than 20% in the EMEA,” says Tom Nix, Scala CEO.

But while Nix is more than willing to talk about overall business growth, Scala’s new offices in the Netherlands and the even newer offices in Malvern, Pennsylvania, he clams up when asked about any potential sale of the company – despite ‘rumours’ of the company being shopped by Bulger Partners under the name Lumen and there was an alleged date for bids to be in last Tuesday.

He did say that the company has about 200 shareholders with the majority shareholder (Andreas Ugland) based in Norway.

“We don’t comment on any rumors or speculation regarding M&A activities,” says Nix.

So with that out of the way, we asked Nix what was behind the significant business growth this year.

“Four retail customers have switched their network to Scala, adding 11,000 locations to our inventory,” he says. At this time, Nix was unable to name any of the four, due to client requests, although he hopes to eventually identify them all in case studies.

We asked Nix about the company’s two new offices. In the Netherlands office in Bergerweg, where the company moved last winter and was settled in by April, he says, “It’s an amazing place to host customers and C-level executives. We’re also engaging customers in day-long workshops. And we are having thought leadership sessions to share ideas for businesses.”

The Netherlands offices were designed by Harry Horn, vice-president global marketing, and his team.

The two floors are quite neutral in tone with the use of a lot of ecofriendly recycled woods, steel and iron giving it all rather nice industrial feel.

With a mostly open layout, it includes custom-built furniture, and is considerably larger than the previous offices. It is located in an older, brick building, which helped influence the design.

In Malvern, where Scala moved its Americas offices in August, Scala was influenced by Bloomberg offices in New York, ie, no segregation, very open and transparent. Everyone has standing desks at which they can work sitting or standing. Scala red shows up on various walls and in decorative touches. (All photos with this article are from the Malvern office.)

Located on the third floor of a corporate office building, it does have big ‘classroom’ and six conference rooms, light floors as well as lots of windows. Although open concept, departments are segmented.

“And the most important thing is that we have great coffee with fresh, micro-roasted beans,” says Nix. “Great coffee is the key ingredient to great software.”

It goes without saying that both offices show digital signage everywhere.

“In Malvern, we have screens from every major manufacturer, a video wall at reception, digital menu boards in the cafeteria section, and have created retail environment,,” Nix says. “Employees can view weather, sports, all the usual, plus key performance indicators. And employee contribution to content is rampant.”

Outside of the new offices, from which Scala is focusing on retail, corporate and transportation, employees are actively working with partner events.

On Oct. 21, a conference and dinner is being planned in Dubai. Mindstec is sponsor of the event and is using it to launch a range of Scala powered retail solutions among others.

A small event is also upcoming in Cebu in the Philippines

HyperMedia, which claims to be the leading Out-Of-Home media specialist in the Gulf and Middle East region, has announced the launch of its On-The-Go Media, a new digital screen network designed to help advertisers reach millions of shoppers in the UAE.

The new network encompasses 25” digital screens that are installed in 169 ZOOM locations in Eppco, Enoc and Dubai Metro stations.

On-The-Go media is described as a cost-effective, real-time, fast and flexible network allowing brands to easily choose their needed locations.

Like GSTV, Outcast in North America and Amscreen in the UK it looks like a great channel to target motorists who frequent gas stations in the UAE and the commuters in Dubai metro stations, potentially allowing clients to reach three million shoppers per month within seconds.

HyperMedia also manages the media and advertising of unique projects across the region such as The Abraj al Bait Mall, The Hajj Terminal, Dubai Media City, in addition to more than 200 supermarkets.

During New York Digital Signage Week at The DailyDOOH Investor Conference on November 4, 2015 GSTV’s President & CEO David Leider will be on stage with his investor talking about their success with digital out of home on North American Gas forecourts.

14:45 Mike Kaczmarek | VP | Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC and David Leider | President & CEO | GSTV – In Conversation with Co-Chair Steve Nesbit

As we move into the Halloween period, 57 percent of Brits and 64 percent of Londoners are planning to celebrate in style.

Exterion Media has used work.shop.play., its online urban community, to uncover what Brits love so much about Halloween; 58 percent admit that it’s the opportunity to eat Halloween sweets, followed by 57 percent who enjoy the chance to dress up.

When it comes to dressing up most Londoners will pick traditionally scary outfits like spiders or vampires (86%), while 14 percent will choose something a bit more risqué – even our Reggie likes to get in on the act, Ed.

84 percent said they’d happily wear their fancy dress costume in public – so look out for some unusual characters on the London Underground this Halloween.

Jason Cotterrell, Managing Director UK, Exterion Media told us “Looking at our Halloween insight from work.shop.play., it’s clear that we love any excuse for a dress up, and Halloween provides a great opportunity for us to do just that! We know that Londoners love to be entertained while on the move, so they’ll really enjoy seeing all the vampires and ghosts over the Halloween period. Leave your coat at home and show off your costume on the Tube!”

While two-thirds (62%) of Londoners love showing off their fancy dress and celebrating the occasion at parties thrown by their friends, only 1 in 5 (23%) like throwing the party themselves. But even those who aren’t keen on heading out to a spook-fest party still like to make the most of the season with other activities like carving pumpkins (49%) and watching scary movies (37%).

“The best part of any occasion is being able to celebrate with your friends and family – whether that’s by being the life of the party or by doing something fun with your family,” adds Jason.

Insights gathered from Exterion’s 10,000 strong work.shop.play. urban community panel using the Halloween Omnibus survey of 634 people.

NCR Corporation, as one of the 14 founding partners of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium (set to open in 2017) will heighten the fan experience through its POS, wayfinding, kitchen system and digital menu technologies.

This new agreement continues a multi-year relationship between NCR and AMB Sports & Entertainment, comprised of the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It also underscores the company’s investment in the Atlanta community, where NCR is headquartered.

Bill Nuti, CEO and chairman of NCR Corporation, says, “As a founding partner of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, NCR looks forward to continuing our partnership with the Atlanta Falcons and welcoming and partnering with Atlanta’s new Major League Soccer team, Atlanta United.”

As the Official Consumer Transaction Technology Provider for the stadium, NCR will extend the fan experience far beyond the field with its hardware, software and mobile solutions.

NCR announced a formal partnership with the Atlanta Falcons in 2013, providing POS software for Falcons’ merchandise including mobile point of sale to the Falcons, creating innovative experiences such as in-suite ordering and post-game merchandise pickup. Wayfinding touchscreen technology from NCR also helped fans navigate Falcons game days. The two organizations partnered on a variety of community initiatives including an internship program that will continue through the 2015 season.

When open in spring 2017, Mercedes-Benz stadium will feature flexible capacity that can expand to up to 83,000 seats; a retractable roof structure inspired by the oculus in the ancient Rome Pantheon; views of the Atlanta skyline; a 360-degree HD video halo board that, at nearly six stories tall and 1,100 linear feet in diameter, will be the largest in the NFL and the world; an exterior fan plaza that will provide fans with pre- and post-game entertainment; and a technology lounge offering a unique game-day experience full of media content and full game-day immersion.

It’s been a long time coming – years in fact. Back in November 2014 we (last) wrote that the JCDecaux acquisition of CEMUSA (announced March 2014) still hadn’t closed and that we had heard from several people close to the deal that the new #LinkNYC arrangement / CityBridge contract was not helping matters either. BUT now, finally, after months of wrangling – no doubt something to do with underlying covenants of the original CEMUSA deal that we wrote about here – the deal is done.

JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC) announced last week that the New York City Franchise and Concession Review Committee voted unanimously to consent to the change in control to JCDecaux of CEMUSA, Inc., owner of CEMUSA NY LLC which holds the 20-year New York City Street Furniture Franchise Agreement.

The FCRC consists of four Mayoral appointees, the independently elected Comptroller and the five separately elected Borough Presidents.

The amended Franchise Agreement with New York City, acting through its Department of Transportation (“DOT”), will take effect once registered by the New York City Comptroller, who voted as a member of the FCRC to approve the takeover by JCDecaux. Registration is required within 30 days after transmittal by DOT which is expected to occur promptly.

This decision paves the way for JCDecaux to close on, before the end of October, the acquisition of 100% of CEMUSA – an FCC Group subsidiary dedicated to outdoor advertising – based on an agreement signed in March 2014. With 57,000 advertising panels, CEMUSA generated revenues of €130 million in 2014.

Jean-François Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “We are very pleased and honored that the Mayor, the Comptroller and the five Borough Presidents all approved JCDecaux to become New York City’s street furniture partner, to operate 3,500 advertising bus shelters and 314 advertising newsstands. The New York City street furniture contract will complement and strengthen JCDecaux’s street furniture advertising network throughout North America, which already includes Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston.”

The agreement expires in June 2026.

New York-based Clear Channel Outdoor Americas has partnered with Vistar Media, an advertising platform that helps brands reach consumers based on their behavior in the physical world, to enhance its Digital Out-of-Home assets with location-based audience analytics.

Vistar Media uses location data from mobile devices to understand consumer behavior, and then delivers relevant messages to these screens using its ad serving platform.

The partnership underscores CCOA’s dedication to using technology and data to connect its screens with digital media strategies and buyers.

Beginning October 12, CCOA will offer to media agencies, through Vistar, select DOOH inventory including roadside digital billboards, airport media and transit shelters throughout the U.S. This partnership comes at a time when advertisers are recognizing the vital need to connect with on-the-go consumers where they spend 70% of their time and make over 90% of their purchases: outside the home.

“CCOA realizes the power of location-based audience strategies and dynamic delivery of contextually relevant ad messages to drive the growth and impact of OOH,” says CCOA’s Scott Wells, CEO.

“Clear Channel Outdoor Americas is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the world, and at the forefront of innovation,” says Michael Provenzano, CEO and Co-founder, Vistar Media, adding that Vistar’s partnership will “support of the one-of-a-kind digital inventory only Clear Channel offers.”