DailyDOOH

The 8K Display Summit will take place June 11, 2019 at the Millennium Times Square, New York City.

Insight Media’s Chris Chinnock told us “The 8K era has started with 8K broadcasting already underway in Japan. It is still early days for 8K and not all are convinced of the advantages of 8K or that it is inevitable. To discuss these and other issues, Insight Media is organizing a one-day event to focus on the benefits and challenges of adopting 8K.”

Topics to be covered in the event include:

• The status of the 8K ecosystem today
• The forecasts for 8K in the future
• The efforts of the 8K Association
• The drivers for 8K content creation
• The issues with 8K content production and delivery
• The technology trends in 8K TVs
• The performance of 8K TVs
• Dispelling myths around 8K

The event is intended for technical personnel, business development, senior executives and technical media with an interest in any or all aspects of the emerging 8K ecosystem.

To register click here.

Real estate investment firms L&L Holding Company, Fortress Investment Group and Maefield Development, alongside consultant Sensory Interactive, have selected SNA Displays to manufacture and install a massive LED MEGA-SPECTACULAR display system at TSX Broadway.

TSX Broadway is a 46-story mixed-use development located at 1568 Broadway and sits directly across from the iconic Red Steps in the heart of New York’s Times Square. The tower will include 669 hotel rooms, 75,000 square feet of retail space, and 30,000 square feet of dining, including a 10,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, the largest in Times Square.

The building will feature a 9-story main screen that will wrap around the skyscraper at the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 47th Street. The MEGA-SPECTACULAR™ display system will feature a 4,000-square-foot stage suspended 30 feet over 47th Street, allowing entertainers to perform from ‘within’ the video wall. It is the first and only outdoor stage in Times Square.

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They’ve have had six funding rounds raising USD 5.1 Million over the past few years and next week, Pavegen will announce that they’ve secured institutional investment from Tamar Capital and the Hinduja Group (with 2018 revenues of USD 50bn, the Hinduja Group has expertise across energy, urban infrastructure and technology in India and the rest of Asia) yet still they are emailing friends and family asking them to take part in another equity crowdfunding campaign.

Laurence Kembal-Cook, CEO and Founder, Pavegen Systems Ltd said in the email “I’d like to invite you to join us on this vital next step in the journey. Click .. for a private link to our Crowdcube investment page where you can find our [sic] more and invest before the pitch goes public”.

Having first seen the company a few years ago when judging the Ocean Outdoor creative competition (a proposal never actually created to power a digital billboard using human energy and Pavegen technology to promote the Toyota Hybrid) we like the business idea and have written often (they featured in two double page spreads in our London and New York Digital Signage Week Newspapers) about Pavegen’s people-powered technology, which basically generates energy and data from footsteps.

However, these folks have a high burn rate and hardly any revenue. Laurence himself admits that the company has a small team and that cashflow has been extremely tight, often waiting for up to six months for payment from clients and that he “often doesn’t take a pay check as they have no funds”.

We have to say that this latest crowdfunding campaign all seems a little suspect, if not downright desperate – especially if proper institutional investors are coming on board in the next week or so.

ZetaDisplay has just published its interim report January-March 2019 which doesn’t say very much new that we haven’t published previously on our blog.

It was described as a “quarter with strong organic growth”. Net sales increased by 43% to SEK 93.3 (65.0) million, EBITDA amounted to 8.1 (6.9) million and Operating profit was 1.9 (2.5) million

During the quarter, Finnish Viral Oy Ab increased its shareholding in the company and is now ZetaDisplay’s largest shareholder which (cynics would say is why Leif Liljebrunn, current President and CEO until they find a new one is stepping aside to become Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions) and in order to part-finance the repayment of the company’s preference shares, the Board of Directors, on the basis of the authorization received at the annual general meeting on 21 May 2018, has decided on a rights issue of 1 600 000 new ordinary shares at a subscription price of SEK 19 per ordinary share. This means that the company has added funds SEK 30.4 million before issue costs.

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Location-based company Ubimo has partnered with Kinetic U.S. to provide even more real-time audience data for OOH campaigns.

The announcement said that by incorporating Ubimo’s technology, Kinetic will be able to apply any digital data set to the location of OOH and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) properties, optimize plans and access audience segmentation and insights at the individual place level. Leveraging these capabilities, Kinetic can connect digital data, audience movement and physical locations across the U.S., ranging from OOH properties to stores, venues and other points of interest (POIs). The platform will also enable Kinetic to attribute foot traffic lift to OOH campaigns.

Michael Lieberman, co-CEO of Kinetic US told us “Ubimo’s platform will empower Kinetic to better align our clients’ OOH and DOOH campaigns to the dominant digital strategies, tactics and measurement they rely upon to produce their best results. We expect to develop more impactful, effective plans that work with mobile to deliver optimized solutions that exceed our clients’ business and marketing objectives”.

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JCDecaux, Australia’s leading Out-of-Home company, has partnered with Southern Cross Austereo in a digital billboard campaign that delivers a live music prompt of songs currently playing on Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit network, in key commuter locations.

Drivers passing by JCDecaux Digital Billboards on major arterial roads in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are shown the title of the song playing at that moment, on the Fox 101.9, Hit105 and 2Day 104.1 stations to encourage them to listen in on their car radios and stay tuned.

The campaign uses powerful technology combined with Southern Cross Austereo’s broadcast data to deliver a live music prompt for drivers who may not already be listening, to switch stations to Southern Cross Austereo.

Ashley Taylor, Head of Creative Solutions, JCDecaux told us “The billboards are perfect for incorporating live data to create personally relevant messaging to drivers. The familiar information of ‘now playing’ along with the song title and artist is easy for drivers to process and act on and demonstrates the power of Out-of-Home advertising to influence consumer behaviour.”

The collaboration showcases the creative capabilities of data-driven live content and is a first for the Southern Cross Austereo network.

Georgi Oates, Senior Marketing Manager, Southern Cross Austereo said “Listening to great music while we drive is the perfect antidote to the commute to work, especially in peak-hour traffic. We know the power music has to lift our moods so being prompted to tune in to a favourite song is the perfect trigger to switch stations. The idea is to keep listeners tuned in by continuing to deliver the hits they love.”

JCDecaux and Southern Cross Austereo partnered with media agency Wavemaker to create the campaign seen by millions of commuters throughout April and May 2019.

Southern Cross Austereo’s ‘Now Playing’ campaign ran between 22 and 28 April at JCDecaux’s Epping Road overpass at North Ryde in NSW, and at the Gateway Motorway at North Bracken Ridge in Queensland. In Victoria, the campaign is still running until 19 May on the South Eastern Freeway at South Yarra’s Cremorne Street overpass.

JCDecaux has been providing high quality, architecturally designed street furniture in Australia since 1997. Its Australian business includes street furniture and transport advertising, plus its recent acquisition of APN Outdoor in Australia and New Zealand comprising 40,000 assets spanning airports, rail, transit, static and digital billboards. JCDecaux commissions and maintains a range of street furniture assets, including bus and tram advertising shelters (either traditional or digital), automatic public toilets, self-service bike rental scheme and retail kiosks with integrated advertising panels.

Quorum have used #OOH2019 to launch, what they describe as, a new ad platform for the out-of-home advertising industry. In booth #137 they are showing how OOH Sales reps can easily add companion mobile and social advertising to existing physical OOH placements within their client’s media plan.

Ezra Doty, CEO and Co-Founder of Quorum told us “By applying mobile retargeting to consumers who have been exposed to brand-focused billboards, with direct response-oriented mobile and social advertising, creates a 1-2 effect, compounding the ROI for both channels. The analytics that come from centralizing data across physical, mobile and social touch points allow marketers to optimize physical media buys like never before, shift digital bulletin budgets on the fly, and better understand what’s driving OOH performance in a local market. The result is more effective outdoor programs and stronger relationships between OOH sales reps and media buyers.”

The Quorum system is pre-loaded with Geopath’s complete database of billboard and transit locations across the U.S., and has the most advanced technology available for building segments of consumers who have traveled past (in the correct direction) specific billboards. Fully integrated with mobile advertising inventory sources including Google Display Network and Facebook, Quorum gives operators and advertisers full access, transparency, insight and control over their mobile and social companion advertising.

We are told that Quorum provides advertisers Mobile Ad Retargeting following consumer engagements with OOH and store locations, OOH Performance Analytics, OOH Location and Creative Testing, and Predictive OOH Campaign Performance across all OOH operators and platforms.

Australia’s TorchMedia has secured the exclusive advertising rights on the newly launched Canberra Light Rail. The Light Rail is part of Canberra’s Sustainable Transport Plan (2004) and represents one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the ACT.

Kirsty Dollisson, TorchMedia Managing Director told us “The addition of Canberra Light Rail to our transit portfolio provides advertisers with unparalleled access to a valuable demographic over indexing in OG1s. Over 63% of Canberra’s population are Managers, Professionals or Administrators and the Out-of-Home advertising options available to reach this target are limited – until now. The current network connects the Northern Suburbs with Canberra’s CBD, representing a prime opportunity to capture passengers on the daily commute to and from work and while out and about visiting the main entertainment, dining and shopping precinct”.

Canberra’s population which is forecast to exceed 500,000 by 2030 has until now had to rely on buses as the main form of public transport. The Light Rail now provides locals from suburbs such as Gungahlin, Franklin, Dickson and Braddon with an efficient alternative mode of transport.

As regular readers will know, on the last Friday in every month we feature in our CEO Spotlight, the biggest, brightest or most innovative DOOH media owners. These appear online but also play a key part in DOOH INSIGHTS: Volume 8 which will, as always be ready for distribution in London in September and in October during New York Digital Signage Week.

This year we have already featured Simon Wall, Tractor Outdoor and Phil Daniel, Admedia, Managing Director Sales and Marketing; and will soon be featuring (in no particular order) Phil Clemas, LUMO Co-Founder & CEO, Chad Harris, Las Vegas Billboards, Danny Tournier, Beyond Outdoor and John Partilla, Screenvision.

In 2018 we interviewed Karine Moses, President, Astral at Bell Media and Vice-President, Bell Media Sales Québec (TV/Radio), Montreal (recently promoted to Présidente Bell Média Québec), Mike Tyquin, CEO, Adshel , Sydney, Candice Simons of Brooklyn Outdoor, Jeroen Hillenaar of Hillenaar Outdoor, Ben Walker, Shopper Media Group, Australia and François de Gaspé Beaubien, Chairman and Chief Coaching Officer of ZOOM Media, Executive Chairman of Ayuda Media Systems, Executive Chairman of Hivestack (majority owner of all three) and Chairman of the DPAA.

All earlier CEO Spotlights (and we have 10 years’ worth now) are available online (click here), as well as in print in the following series of books: –

• DOOH INSIGHTS: 2008 To 2012
• DOOH INSIGHTS: The Best of 2013
• DOOH INSIGHTS: The Best of 2014
• DOOH INSIGHTS: Volume 4
• DOOH INSIGHTS: Volume 5
• DOOH INSIGHTS: Volume 6
• DOOH INSIGHTS: Volume 7

New analysis by Juniper Research has found that smart city traffic technology solutions deployed to ease chronic congestion in cities will generate $4.4 billion in revenue in 2023, up from $2 billion in 2019. These solutions typically use sensors in combination with machine learning software algorithms to dynamically alter traffic light phasing according to traffic levels; smoothing urban traffic flows.

Juniper’s new research, ‘Smart Cities: Leading Platforms, Segment Analysis & Forecasts 2019-2023‘ found that these technology-driven traffic solutions, which lower the emissions footprint of cities, will save the equivalent of over 780 billion passenger vehicle miles’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions over the forecast period. It identified North America alongside Far East & China as major investment regions; driven by strong prevalence for technology deployment over policy-driven solutions to lower traffic congestion.

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