London Gets Set For Summer Scorcher

Chris Sheldrake

CBS Outdoor announced this week that it is launching a series of ‘thermal’ advertising packs for brands wishing to target the millions of consumers on the move, flocking to the city’s parks and bars during the summer heatwave.

The launch of this new targeting innovation follows the release of the last 10 years’ of London Underground entry and exit data from Transport for London which exclusively allows CBS Outdoor to accurately measure the uplift in footfall at key stations during the summer months.

As part of the initiative, advertisers will also have their campaign upweighted as a bonus each and every time the mercury tops 25˚C. The thermal packs will comprise advertising inventory at stations which have 12 or more bars within 500 metres and those stations serving one of the capital’s many parks; and those that historically have higher passenger exit figures during August.

On an average Friday in August for example, exits at stations with 12 or more bars within 500 metres increased by 75 per cent – an extra 432,500 across the five Fridays.

One example showed that passenger exits at Covent Garden rose by 112 per cent, 75 per cent at Piccadilly Circus and 51 per cent at Old Street during hot Fridays in August.

Given the scorching temperatures anticipated this year in the UK, the figures are likely to be even higher this Summer – especially when its proven that tube stations serving parks have in the past experienced a 25 per cent surge in footfall.

Peter Charlton, National Sales Director told us “This initiative gives them an additional layer of targeting and cut-through to hard-to-reach audiences, based on robust data. The scheme is likely to attract a wide variety of advertisers in particular alcohol and other ‘pleasure’ brands which can benefit from the four-fold increase in pub and bar takings typical during warm weather.”

The thermal Parks pack include 220 portrait sites at 19 stations, including 6-Sheet, 4-Sheet and LEPs, as well as network DEPs at Green Park, Hyde Park Corner, Regent’s Park and Holland Park, while the Bars pack features equivalent inventory at 21 stations around busy social centres. An additional upweighting of 10 LCD screens at key Underground stations across the network will be triggered as soon as the Met Office confirms the temperature reaches 25˚C.


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