Marking its first use of Digital Out-of-Home as an ‘international news and content platform’, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. [1] announced a campaign Monday which leverages the flexible capabilities of its visual digital out-of-home network to deliver New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world to the U.S. and Canada.
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Starting at approximately 6:00 a.m. EST, December 31, when New Zealand, Australia, Japan and China are among the first countries to enter 2014, Clear Channel Outdoor will begin displaying AP Images [3] of international New Year’s Eve celebrations across its inventory of more than 1,000 digital billboards in 37 major U.S. markets and select locations in Canada. The campaign will conclude when Alaska, American Samoa, and the U.S. Islands of Baker Island and Howland Island are the final countries to enter into the New Year between 4 a.m.and 7 a.m. EST Wednesday, January 2.
AP Images, the commercial photo unit of The Associated Press [4], was selected by Clear Channel Outdoor North America to collaborate in this groundbreaking use of out-of-home digital media because AP owns the world’s largest collection of historical and contemporary photographs, including timely, powerful and informative images that cover topics including breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather, fashion, and travel. CC OutdoorNA will place AP’s images of New Year’s Eve into outdoor creative emblazoned with #NYE4all to encourage social engagement and sharing on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
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CCOutdoor’s growing digital inventory and innovative use of these screens have moved the company from a traditional outdoor advertising business to a powerful real-time broadcast medium that provides a more creative, timely, flexible and relevant way for brands to message and interact with consumers. Advertisers are increasingly using these new capabilities to engage consumers with contextually aware messaging that stimulates deeper brand experiences and dialogue in social media.
“Consumers are a very important part of the out-of-home advertising value chain. Our New Year’s Eve displays will provide interesting, topical news and images via our digital platform, a clear illustration that out-of-home advertising is a more flexible and useful medium for advertisers than ever before, while encouraging increased consumer focus on the messages found there,” says Vicki Lins, chief marketing officer of CCOutdoorNA. “Our digital screens can enable consumers to find the scores of a big game, or the results of an election, or the winner of last night’s reality show competitions – and sometimes they’ll find important safety information like FBI Wanted searches or AMBER alerts. Today, out-of home is a vital new real-time medium in an increasingly fractured media environment.”
“Pushing the creative boundaries of out-of-home, especially via our national digital platform, is a strategic imperative for us at Clear Channel Outdoor,” says Paul Livornese, vice-president and creative director, CCOutdoorNA. “It’s my goal to elevate the creativity of the medium, and I can think of no better way to do that than by using our digital screens to give some of AP’s most amazing photography a whole new stage. There will be much more to come as our creative teams across the country help clients dramatically expand their creativity with our new digital capabilities.”
There are 36 US and two Canadian cities participating.