If there is anyone to whom the words ‘passionate and protective’ of the out-of-home and digital out-of-home industry can be applied, it would be Antonio Vincenti, current president of FEPE [1], the worldwide association of outdoor advertising companies.
[2]FEPE stands for the Federation European Publicité Exterieur (its French name due its founding in Paris in 1959 by Jacques Dauphin, the late French pioneer of outdoor advertising).
While the national outdoor advertising federations of France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands were the original members, today’s annual FEPE congress last year was attended by the CEOs and other very senior executives from 39 countries.
Membership today stands at about 300, including direct members and ones that are via some of the national associations.
Known since 1996 as FEPE International, the organization had been formally registered in Zurich, Switzerland, to be neutral, a year earlier, although the permanent staff of three: John Ellery, executive director; Mark Flys, general secretary; and Richard Saturlay, marketing manager; work out of London and the fourth permanent staffer , Anna Pisano, congress organizer, is in Italy.
We interviewed the Italian-Lebanese Vincenti – who will also be our CEO SPOTLIGHT feature next week as the head of media owner Pikasso [3] – from his home in Beyrouth, Lebanon, last Friday, where he brought us up to date, waxing enthusiastically about the upcoming 57th FEPE Congress June 1-3, 2016, in Barcelona, as well as the work of volunteers and especially the work done by the Board of Director – I attribute his passion to his Latin roots and his protectiveness to his love of the OOH/DOOH industry, Ed.
Vincenti has only ever missed three FEPE Congresses since 1987, and he says, “My dream, with the Board, is to bring new blood and to bring back from Barcelona a congress of learning, education, great debates. We feel that since 2010, there has been a major turn-around. FEPE decided that there would be no more congresses in ‘cities by the sea’ where tourism played a big role and there was less emphasis on learning. Personally, I’ve learned so much from our meetings and annual congresses. The learning, the exchanges, that’s what’s important. It drives the international view.
“Of course, wars and conflicts have played a role in where we have meetings. The upcoming congress is an example of that. A year ago, when we visited, Istanbul, Turkey, the plan was to hold the upcoming Congress there. It was a big metropolis, beautiful, and with accommodations large enough, so why not? However, recent problems there meant that we switched to Barcelona – but Istanbul is on our short list for sometime in the next five years.
“The problem is always to find a hotel with a room to hold – with our growing attendance – of up to 500 attendees, and that is not too high end and, realistically, not too expensive. Last year, we had well over 300 delegates, and we also have a growing, though limited, exhibition area with between 10 and 20 exhibitors. Our members are from country associations, suppliers, Out-of-Home and Digital Out-of-Home companies, agencies, from around the world, and all Congress meetings are held in English.“
[4]A FEPE Board of Directors meeting
Vincenti says, “We want to be as close as possible to technology. That’s why we want to be close to suppliers. Our next priority is to reach out to marketers and thus have more clients first attend our congresses and then become members.”
Although a couple of early congresses were held in Toronto and Montreal, it was decided that it was less expensive for more delegates from more countries to attend them in Europe, and since North Americans usually like to visit there, the decision was made to hold them on that side of the world.
In addition, there are a lot fewer delegates from the Americas attending, although Vincenti hopes to see more. (François de Gaspé Beaubien, chairman and CEO, Zoom Media [5], is one of the regular North American-based attendees, as is Nancy Fletcher, president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America [6] – and in a scan of photos from the 2014 Vienna congress, we spotted Andreas Soupliotis from Ayuda Media Systems [7]. Further, Jeremy Male, CEO of OUTFRONT Media [8], was a short-term president elect of FEPE when with JCDecaux UK, but resigned in Autumn, 2013, without taking office when he moved to his new position in New York.)
“The members of the Board each have certain responsibilities and all meet a minimum of three and often four times a year,” says Vincenti. “They give of their time to it all year (Vincenti himself spends one hour every day on FEPE business) and it was our board member from Australia, Brendon Cook, CEO of oOh! Media [9], who gave us the idea for our current research project.”
Along with Cook, the other current Board members include:
- Karl Javurek, CEO, Gewista/JCDecaux [10]. Austria;
- Matthew Dearden, President, Clear Channel Europe;
- Christian Schmalzl, COO, of Stroer Media AG [11], Germany;
- Shaun Gregory, CEO, of Exterion Media, UK [12];
- Tom Goddard, Chairman of Ocean Outdoor [13], Executive Chairman of DigiCom OOH [14] and Chairman of Airport Media OOH, UK [15];
- Stefano Gennari Litta, general manager of SGL, Italy.
“The research suggested by Cook, resulted in us commissioning Charlie Makin to produce a research document on ‘The Future Direction and Goals of FEPE International’, with a very clear brief on what our vision and goals should be for the next five years, and this will be initially revealed at our Barcelona conference which we have themed ‘The Road Ahead,’” Vincenti says.
While the Barcelona conference program wasn’t fully ready for release when we talked, Vincenti did tell us that there will be two break-out sessions on transport and research. There also will be, at least, an initial look at some special research being done by AM4DOOH [16]; composed of APG|SGA [17], Clear Channel Outdoor [18], Exterion Media and JCDecaux [19] to know the true effectiveness of DOOH and to develop the first standardized industry approach to measuring DOOH audiences. FEPE is making a major contribution to the funding of this industry collaboration, being led by Urs Zeier, of Clear Channel Outdoor and Neil Eddleston of JCDecaux.
We also may see a round table panel to tackle the thorny subject of cannibalization of static OOH media by DOOH. Knowing how government regulations play a role in OOH and DOOH, we asked Vincenti if representatives of governments ever attend the annual congresses.
“I believe the Mayors of a couple of cities have welcomed the delegates attending at the openings, and a few government representatives may have attended in the past, but I don’t know whether we should have them,” he says. “We have a lot of debates and internal discussions. However, they are welcome. Maybe one day, we’ll have city congresses to bring an international view.”
The Barcelona Congress will include the usual pre-opening night networking reception, as well as the usual first night Gala Dinner at which FEPE Awards, inaugurated last year under Vincenti, will be presented.
As Vincenti said in his New Year’s message to FEPE members, “We are living through exceptional times in our industry; many new things are happening every single day. Technology and OOH are coming together as never before.”
He says, “We have great momentum. Technology is very important to our industry. There is a big shift and we must embrace technology and master it. I see trends related to automation, programmatic and much more. That’s why FEPE has a role to play and why I want to see a huge effort made on education, learning and research. We had research last year that showed OOH advertising as the second most trustworthy (at 24%) just behind television (at 28%).
“We are also directing ourselves to become a major source of data and information on OOH.”
Vincenti will give up his role to a new president, already chosen and approved by the Board, whose name will also to be announced at the Barcelona conference.
“I am totally opposed to a president spending more than two years in this position,” says Vincenti. “I feel blessed to have been chosen and that I’ve had the trust of the Board, the members and the press. Everyone should have this experience. It takes a lot of time and good will and cooperation, but we all also have businesses to run. eg. Pikasso (founded by Vincenti) is now in five countries and will be in 10 countries on three continents: Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, in the next year.”
Our readers can learn more about Pikasso in Vincenti’s upcoming CEO Spotlight [20] next Friday, Jan. 29/16.