DailyDOOH

NYCNext isn’t the first to denounce false narratives speculating that New York would not survive the pandemic, but it might be the loudest. Their inaugural campaign, created by Dumbo-based creative agency Our Man In Havana, sets out to remind New Yorkers that they hold the power to revitalize their city, just by living in it.

In partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO), NYCNext will leverage marquee digital displays in Times Square from October 19 to November 15, 200 but rather than use Clear Channel Outdoor’s displays to advertise the organisation itself, the campaign will launch as a way to spotlight an array of activities, places and people that contribute to the fabric of NYC.

Bold and unapologetic, much like New Yorkers themselves, the campaign’s message calls upon residents to support, enjoy and even drive all the unique stuff that makes NYC special. By telling New Yorkers to eat Bacon Egg & Cheese sandwiches from a local bodega, or to take scandalous pictures of sculptures at a museum, these ads remind inhabitants that they can play a role in ensuring their city’s survival, simply by participating in its culture.

And what the campaign touts, NYCNext practices — the organization has harnessed the power of New Yorkers’ love for their city in order to make all of this happen. All parties are donating their time, efforts and resources to the initiative as an investment in the city’s future and wellbeing.

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Some people are ‘all news’ people, and some are ‘just the good news’ people. If you’re all for the good, then this from Screenfeed, our favourite one stop digital signage content company is for you!

A little bit of good news goes a long way, and Screenfeed has just the thing for your screens and audience. Good News is their newest video content of stories written by their editorial team that will warm audience hearts and make them smile.

Good News is a video content option that offers 60-second stories full of positivity for your audience. Written by their experienced editorial team, you’ll get 10 stories throughout the week about uplifting moments, impressive feats, cute animals, celebrity kindness and more. Good News also has captions that allow it to work with or without audio so you can deliver this flexible and feel-good content on your screens under any circumstance.

Learn more and subscribe here.

COMMB, the Canadian Out of Home Marketing and Measurement Bureau, has selected Amanda Dorenberg as their new president, effective November 1, 2020. Rosanne Caron retires at the end of the year as president.

Known to many in the out of home industry, Amanda has previously worked at Cieslok Media, Dynamic Outdoor, OUTFRONT and most recently at FrontRunner Technologies. She is passionate about OOH, technology, data and marketing.

A vital force at the forefront of digital and programmatic OOH, she possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience in each area.

Michele Erskine, COMMB’s Board Chair and CEO, OUTFRONT Canad told us “With all the changes and the growth of OOH we know Amanda has a lot to offer our industry,” said Amanda’s expertise in programmatic and data makes her a perfect candidate for this next transformational phase for COMMB.”

Rosanne Caron’s contribution to the out of home community, which spans more than a decade as president of OMAC, COMB and then COMMB, is invaluable. Rosanne is recognised as a tireless supporter and ambassador of the out of home industry and leaves behind a legacy.

NDS (Net Display Systems B.V.) and LCS have joined forces in an attempt to become a leading player in the Smart Digital Building market.

With over 25 years of experience the Dutch company NDS has evolved from one of the pioneers in digital signage software into a global player of data-driven solutions with brand presence in 75+ countries. PADS4 is known as a worldwide leading software offering a global response to dynamic display communication challenges, external or internal communication and data connectivity for signage.

LCS, the French partner of NDS for more than 20 years, has been developing its own software platform for Smart Digital Building management, called Crystal since 2017. This includes workspace, wayfinding, #IOT management and digital signage in full integration with PADS4.

LCS founder Philippe Bonnargent will become CEO and former NDS CEO Willie Jan Bons will remain with the company as CTO.

Willie Jan Bons told us “As NDS we have seen a trend of consolidation in digital signage with acquisitions and mergers under global digital signage software companies during the last few years. To secure our position and accelerate growth we decided last year to start looking for a strong partner. I am glad that with LCS we have found the ideal partner for us. Their expertise and products for workspace management enable us to extend our product portfolio. Moreover, because we already had a long-term business relationship it feels like a natural fit.”

According to Philippe Bonnargent, this new organization is a unique chance for new opportunities by combining the strengths of both companies. “With our joined focus on Smart Digital Building we are going to operate in a market which is much bigger than just digital signage and is expected to show substantial growth in the coming years. By combining our products and services we will be able to reposition PADS4 and Crystal as one unique solution on the Digital Smart Building market: both single platform (SAAS or On Premise) and modular. Through the joint forces of NDS and LCS, PADS4 offers the most complete answer in the field of workspace, wayfinding, IOT, and digital signage. Furthermore, the expertise and international experience of NDS will enable us to act as a global player in this market. And I would like to emphasize that we will keep supporting our worldwide partner network with their current and future PADS4 projects, despite the new focus on Smart Digital Building.”

As part of the merger process, LCS received capital from Turenne Capital as a minority shareholder, and raised EURO 4 million to support its growth and business demand.

Amped Digital supply and install fully customised digital signage solutions across Australia and New Zealand and my team and I have been supplying and installing Signagelive around the region for the last two years. It has opened up tremendous opportunities for us as an integrator and allowed the deployment of successful systems for clients, often changing the way these customers think of current digital signage platforms and solutions.

From the initial sales process to onboarding and implementation, Signagelive, compared to other platforms, cut downtime 10 fold, allowing us to streamline operations and focus on efficiently getting the job done.

There are many digital signage software platforms available that have either overshot their offering, causing confusion with the onboarding and management process for customers or the polar opposite, not having key feature requirements and a lack of reliability with too many glitches. With so many digital signage software platforms on the market, it can be tedious and challenging to select the most suitable platform. What may be pitched during a demo may not be the reality once onboarded.

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Out-of-home media company Mesmerize, who specialise in patient education at the point of care, announced the expansion of its pharmacy network through a partnership with Benasource, a group purchasing organisation that combines the power of hundreds of independent pharmacies to provide innovative and cost-effective solutions.

Vinesh Darji, Benasource President said ““Mesmerize fully understands the importance of local independent pharmacies and the benefits they provide patients and their communities. Partnering with Mesmerize equips our member pharmacies with the tools they need to enhance their practice and provide the highest quality of patient care.”

Mesmerize brings great value to the Benasource GPO, by providing custom content for each pharmacy and the community that they serve.

The partnership includes the installation of Mesmerize’s digital screens, dynamically displaying timely and relevant health messaging in all 66 Benzer Pharmacies, a national chain with local spirit in each market. Mesmerize’s screens support the national initiatives of Benasource and educate their patients about specialty services while encouraging people to speak with their pharmacist, a reliable source for disease counseling, medication adherence, vaccinations, general health and wellness information, and #COVID19 concerns.

The Mesmerize pharmacy network is the largest national deployment of patient facing, integrated digital screens in independent pharmacies. Pharmacies play a critical role in providing patients with healthcare resources and are often the most accessible point of care for many patients.

Benasource represents a singular approach in group purchasing that enables independent pharmacies to achieve their financial goals by reducing their annual cost of goods via strategic alliances with wholesalers, low minimum purchase requirements and access to preferred partners in marketing, digital media, and other areas to help support organic growth.

Location Media Xchange (LMX), the independent media supply-focused arm of Moving Walls Group has inked a deal with Kalms (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., a leading retail technologies provider in Singapore to equip their Smart Vending Machine digital screen network with contextual ad-serving capabilities.

Masataka Mukai, Operations Director of Kalms said “We were one of the first in Singapore to integrate contactless payment into our machines while offering a unique interactive customer experience. We are in the business of automation and it is only right that our advertising solution is able to deliver the right messages to the right audiences across all our locations. LMX’s connectivity to the world’s largest digital demand-side platforms will also make these screens available to local and regional marketers alike.”

Kalms’ Smart Vending Machines are equipped with digital screens that can be programmed to serve advertising content. They have already rolled out more than 150 Smart Vending Machines across Singapore with plans in place to deploy even more.

LMX will equip these sites with audience measurement, dynamic ad-serving, and programmatic buying capabilities. With this in place, marketers will be able to extend the reach of their digital campaigns to similar audiences seen to come into the proximity of the Kalms vending machines.

Srikanth Ramachandran, Founder and CEO of Moving Walls Group said “Internet Advertising has grown into a 300 Billion dollar industry because it delivers addressable audiences. As consumers, we spend equal if not more hours of our waking time outside and when we are not looking down at our mobiles, we are looking up. By making audiences around smart vending machines addressable, the LMX platform has made digitisation a profitable exercise for Kalms.”

Some retailers are turning to vending machines as an outlet to automate sales while reducing fixed overheads. Euromonitor International reported that vending machine sales in Singapore would soon exceed USD 72 million by 2020 alone.

Kalms has evolved beyond its original gifting business since 2016. Diversifying its business into Food & Beverages, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Out-of-Home media and it is currently leading the market in retail solutions. Kalms’ Beyond Retail-Next Generation Machine uses the latest innovative technology with deep expertise, experience and passion to help global brands and advertisers capture the opportunities of this fast-paced ever-changing world of e-commerce and mobile advertising.

Rumor is that Doug Pittman, truly one of the most unpleasant individuals you may ever get to meet, has shut down BoardActive.

If true, there will be no mourners. I am sure that many industry associations, those he owed money too and many others, will be raising a glass or two in celebration.

You can read one of the reasons why we were always giving him a wide berth here.

In partnership with GIPHY Arts, OUTFRONT is delivering a one-of-a-kind experience to surprise and delight New Yorkers by delivering the first ever GIF powered dynamic clock. This experience is part of MOMENTS by OUTFRONT, an in-house content and publisher platform delivering editorial style content to earn the attention of consumers in public environments.

From October 12 through to December 6, 2020 MOMENTS by OUTFRONT will feature unique artistic works of four well-known GIF artists in a new content experience titled GIFS of Time. This expression of time is a first in the dynamic digital OOH media channel, and is truly a creative expression that provides attention grabbing utility to transit riders and New York audiences.

GIFS of Time tapped four well-known artists to create their own numerical set of animated stickers to convey zero through to nine using pictorial designs: –

• 10/12 – 10/25: Artwork created by Caspar Wain
  Caspar wanted to create a series of GIFs that could disrupt the slow morning commute and brighten up the days of those people avidly checking the clocks to make sure they’re where they need to be, on time.
• 10/26 – 11/8: Artwork created by Evan Hilton
  Evan has always been inspired by food in his animations. They provide a gateway for creativity through the flavors, shapes, and textures. In his clock series, Evan wanted to play off the shapes/textures to provide this imaginative time piece.
• 11/9 – 11/22: Artwork created by Ali Graham
  For this project, Ali wanted to incorporate classic and cultural NY icons in a retro pixel art style.
• 11/23 – 12/6: Artwork created by Yukai Du
  Yukai’s set of GIFs celebrate femininity and empower women through illustrative style.

The end result is filled with bright colors and patterns, along with playful animations that gives a nod to several themes including femininity and women’s empowerment, food, sports, music, and NYC. GIFS of Time will be displayed throughout the subway and on large format assets, in the Times Square and Penn Station areas of the city.

Our AdTECH: OOH Conference Series is aimed at those already in AdTECH wishing to learn more about the Out of Home Industry, and for those in Out of Home who wish to better understand Automation, Programmatic Buying, Marketplaces, Media Exchanges and Revenue Management.

The industry’s first in-person event since March, 2020, namely AdTECH: OOH – Sydney which took place September 23, 2020 was SOLD OUT and we followed that up most recently with AdTECH: OOH – Sydney, An Extra Slice, a webinar aimed at all those in Singapore, Australia (states outside of NSW) and New Zealand that due to lockdown could not get to Sydney for the actual conference. A recording of that 60 minute webinar is available here.

Registration for AdTECH: OOH – London (an event, uniquely duplicated over two days; Tuesday December 1, 2020 and Wednesday December 2, 2020 at #SamsungKX) is now open and tickets are selling fast. Attendees are invite to register for the Tuesday or the Wednesday as they see fit.

Planning for our ‘far East tour’ is going extremely well and we should have news shortly with regard AdTECH: OOH – Singapore and AdTECH: OOH – Tokyo both of which will be held in April 2021.