After nearly 15 years of steering Route, the audience research body for out-of-home advertising in the UK, Managing Director James Whitmore is to step down.
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The search for a replacement will be driven by the triumvirate, Katherine Almond, chair of Route, and the respective chairs of the associations that represent the buy and sell side of the OOH sector; Chris Daines for the IPAO and Justin Cochrane for Outsmart.
James Whitmore joined Route (formerly known as Postar) as its first Managing Director in November 2005 and leaves after a significant period of work reshaping the joint industry currency and the discipline of OOH audience research.
He has been instrumental in making Route the world’s leading outdoor advertising measurement body and has driven the development of the newly-evolved digitally-led currency that will be unveiled this year.
Speaking about his decision, James Whitmore said; “For health reasons, I have made the decision to stop work. It will be sad to leave, but it’s an exciting time for the business and I am confident that Route will continue to grow under strong leadership”.
Justin Cochrane, Chair of Outsmart, the marketing body for OOH media, said: “James has massively advanced the measurement of OOH media in the UK and indeed globally, providing our members with both a granular understanding of how OOH is consumed and in bolstering the growth in the OOH market with its data.”
Katherine Almond, Chair of Route, said: “With the imminent release of the renewed currency, it is clear that Route will continue to deliver world leading OOH research and analytics, setting benchmarks that allow the medium to flourish and grow. We will begin the process of finding a successor to James immediately. We want to build on his great work in creating not only Route, but also this latest iteration.”
Route is underwritten by the industry, including specialist media agencies, Kinetic Worldwide, Mediacom Outdoor, Posterscope, Rapport Worldwide and Talon Outdoor. The media owner guarantors are Clear Channel Outdoor, JCDecaux and Global.