JCDecaux Secures Grip On Australian Buses

May 6th, 2024

Tristan Cotterill

JCDecaux has been awarded the Transport for NSW (TfNSW) bus advertising contract for all buses in the Sydney Metropolitan regions (it also successfully renewed its Perth bus advertising contract, in addition to holding the bus contract in Brisbane and the tram and bus contracts in Melbourne).

Ben White, *new* JCDecaux, General Manager, Transit,

Winning the competitive tender process marks a significant expansion of JCDecaux’s current bus advertising contracts across Sydney. It extends JCDecaux’s Transit reach across the whole of Sydney Metropolitan regions into LGAs including the Northern Beaches, the Hills District, Campbelltown, Liverpool, and Camden.

Steve O’Connor, CEO of JCDecaux Australia and New Zealand told us “We look forward to continuing our bus advertising partnership with TfNSW, which confirms JCDecaux as market-leaders in Transit advertising across Australia. In an era of digitisation across most Out-of-Home products, bus advertising maintains significant appeal for advertisers through its distinctive blend of broad audience reach, high frequency and visibility, and cost-effectiveness. It presents a powerful format for advertisers seeking to build their brand, amplify their message and effectively engage with diverse audiences. This expansion to our portfolio also provides an exciting platform to relaunch Transit later this year with innovations and impactful product enhancements.”

JCDecaux will now oversee advertising for a fleet of over 3,200 buses. This expansion builds upon the existing JCDecaux Sydney Buses network, which already reaches ninety percent of Greater Sydney ever two weeks*.

JCDecaux’s successful bid included a strong focus on data innovation as well as positive impact aligned with the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy and Reconciliation Action Plan. Transit advertising offers brands the opportunity to support sustainability and invest in our cities by delivering revenue that helps finance public transport services. In addition, JCDecaux has created the Low Emissions Bus Network product, allowing advertisers to display across the growing electric bus network. JCDecaux will continue to innovate more sustainable products such as this, so advertisers can actively choose to support the climate transition in transport and advertising.

This latest win confirms JCDecaux as the only Out-of-Home operator with a national transit network of coverage across all five major capital cities. This month, JCDecaux was also successful in retaining the Adelaide bus advertising contract after a competitive tender process. The contract, managed by the South Australian Department of Transport & Infrastructure (DIT), commences immediately for seven years. JCDecaux will continue to provide extensive coverage along the most popular commuter bus routes in both metro and suburban areas of Adelaide, from the CBD to the suburbs, the airport, Adelaide Oval and numerous local shopping precincts.

The impending launch of MOVE2, combined with all-new access to real-time transit data, will provide advertisers with more detailed audience movement patterns. This enhanced capability will allow advertisers to better understand the reach and impact of their campaigns, as well as optimise targeting strategies to connect with their desired audience segments more effectively.

To oversee its market leadership in Transit, JCDecaux has promoted Ben White to the role of General Manager, Transit, overseeing the entire national portfolio. Ben has been working across a portfolio of diverse and innovative projects within his role as National Director – Customer Growth & Head of Nurture.

QMS Australian Turf Club Agreement

May 6th, 2024

Tristan Cotterill

Leading digital outdoor company QMS today announced a further expansion of its NSW network, signing a new agreement with the Australian Turf Club to manage key assets at Sydney’s iconic Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.

QMS Chief Operating Officer, Sara Lappage, told us “QMS is thrilled to be working with the Australian Turf Club for the first time. Rosehill Gardens Racecourse is a vibrant lifestyle and entertainment destination, and these new premium digital billboards will further enhance our expanding Sydney network, allowing advertisers to gain even greater reach of a growing and influential western Sydney audience.”

The agreement, which was secured as part of a competitive tender process, takes effect on June 3, 2024 and covers six locations along James Ruse Drive.

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Scott Pollard Joins @onemediaUK

May 3rd, 2024

Andrew Neale

Scott Pollard has joined UK AV and workplace distributor onemedia as account director.

Scott brings over 20 years of experience in the pro AV channel to onemedia, with roles including technical director at True Colours, project director at Midwich and, most recently, regional sales manager (UK & Ireland) for Mersive Technologies.

We uderstand that he will also be responsible for working with onemedia’s systems integration partners and AV consultants.

Amanda Pui Joins Seedtag (Canada)

May 3rd, 2024

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Former Vistar Media exec Amanda Pui has joined Seedtag as Canada National Sales Director, effectively expanding the company’s operations into Canada with the appointment.

In her new role, Amanda will be responsible for opening the Canadian market and building brand awareness for Seedtag as global contextual leader while developing partnerships and driving revenue across Canadian agencies, brands and publishers.

“Seedtag is very proud to be investing in the Canadian media industry, hiring local Canadian media professionals and supporting Canadian publishers,” said Brian Danzis, President of North America at Seedtag, “With Amanda heading our Canadian expansion, Seedtag is ideally positioned to bring a new era of privacy first, AI-enabled advertising to an important and exciting new market.”

Amanda spent 12+ years in the digital media space, on the agency-side and in sales roles on both the SSP/DSP side. Most recently, she spent six years at Vistar Media building that company’s programmatic DOOH offering in Canada. Over her tenure, she managed a team covering agency and brand-direct clients, helped scale Vistar’s presence to 15 people and created a mature DOOH product in the Canadian market.

Natalie Kessler Joins Williamson & Associates

May 3rd, 2024

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Natalie Kessler has joined Williamson & Associates as Associate Broker. Natalie brings over two decades of experience in the outdoor advertising sector. Throughout her career, she has fulfilled various roles within the industry, including owner/operator, sales executive, real estate manager, and site developer.

Her professional journey commenced officially with Lamar Advertising in Ohio and Georgia, followed by a tenure at Morris Communications in the Newspaper industry. Natalie later returned to Ohio to contribute to the development of the digital billboard network at her family’s out-of-home company, Kessler Outdoor. After helping develop the digital billboard network in Ohio, Natalie, alongside her family, established K2 Media, Inc, a billboard company that covered the Panhandle of Florida. Through strategic guidance from our firm, the billboard assets of K2 Media were successfully divested in 2020. Subsequently, in 2023, the billboard assets of Kessler Outdoor found new ownership once again through the assistance of Williamson & Associates.

President and CEO, Marty Williamson, told us “I first had the privilege of meeting Natalie along with her father, Bob Kessler, around six years ago at an OAAA conference. That connection led us to assist the Kesslers with the divestiture of K2 Media to TierOne Media in 2020. Natalie had been running that part of the Kessler Outdoor family. After the sale, we stayed in touch and over time began to talk about the potential sale of Kessler Outdoor in southeast Ohio. Natalie was highly involved in the sales process and ran point on getting the house in order with all that was needed internally prior to a successful closing. She did an excellent job! Amber and I were always very impressed with her and enjoyed the collaboration. After we closed with Oliver Outdoor at the end of 2023, I asked Natalie what her plans were now that the family was no longer in OOH. She said that she was considering some business brokering to which my reply was ‘well then my goodness, why don’t you join us and broker billboard assets?’ Natalie, much like my daughter, Amber, grew up in the industry and her knowledge and experience, especially after going through the sales process at Kessler and K2, give her a special understanding of what sellers go through in the entire process from listing to closing. With her unique experience and impressive credentials, she is very well qualified to help our clients through the M & A process and we are excited to see what is in store for her!”

Natalie is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a degree in Marketing, she later earned her MBA. She holds the designation of Accredited Business Intermediary (ABI) from the American Business Brokers Association, is a member of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA), and is a Florida licensed commercial real estate agent.

Sean Rigby Joins QMS

May 3rd, 2024

Tristan Cotterill

Forner oOh!media Group Revenue Director Sean Rigby has joined QMS as National Trading and Partnerships Director.

Sean left oOh!media earlier this year and will replace at QMS the role left by former General Manager – Trading, John Glynn. He will join QMS in quarter four 2024 and will be based in Sydney.

QMS Chief Executive Officer, John O’Neill told us “I’m delighted to welcome Sean to QMS, and I know his experience, relationships and passion for OOH will make a significant impact on our business. As QMS continues to expand and lead the industry in digital OOH, we are constantly on the lookout for the right people. So, when Sean became available, we jumped at the opportunity to bring him on board to head up our trading team and continue to help foster strong relationships with our client and agency partners. Sean’s experience within the Australian media industry will be a tremendous asset to our business. His proven experience and commercial understanding will prove crucial to our ongoing expansion and success”.

With over 20 years’ experience in the out of home industry, including key agency sales roles at JCDecaux and Clear Channel in the UK, the appointment will see him responsible for revenue strategy, analytics, pricing and inventory, business intelligence, revenue reporting and trading partnerships.

New @LumenResearch Shows @FueledByGSTV Delivers

May 2nd, 2024

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Coming out of the 2024 NewFronts, GSTV, the national on-the-go video network engaging and entertaining targeted audiences at scale across tens of thousands of fuel retailers, unveiled this week a new study in collaboration with Lumen Research, the leading technology company for attention measurement, that for the first time quantifies actual visual attention paid to real ads on the network.

Lumen found that GSTV viewer attentiveness exceeds attention benchmarks for digital, CTV, and linear television advertising. The study was conducted in alignment with Dentsu’s Attention Economy initiative, enabling comparisons with norms from the agency’s 5-year attention measurement program.

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ADStruc Acquired By Vistar Media

May 2nd, 2024

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Vistar Media has announced the acquisition of traditional OOH planning and buying software, ADstruc, from PJX Media.

“We live in a world powered by software, and the OOH media industry is no different,” said Michael Provenzano, CEO & Co-Founder of Vistar Media. “Vistar has had an amazing journey across our programmatic marketplace and enterprise software businesses, but at the same time, our customers consistently remind us that digital OOH—and programmatic within it—is just a portion of the greater OOH landscape. Our rebrand says it all: Vistar Media is ‘the home of out-of-home.’ To truly embody this, we must substantially contribute to how OOH is traditionally bought and sold. ADstruc completes our commitment to the industry and brings ADstruc customers and partners the software they love, with the engineering scale and service excellence that is Vistar.”

For almost 15 years, ADstruc software has automated the traditional OOH planning, buying, and selling workflow. By eliminating routine tasks, ADstruc frees agencies to focus on strategy, creativity, and ROI for their clients. The tool streamlined media operations for PJX Media, enabling them to efficiently handle hundreds of millions in OOH billings with a team of experienced OOH experts. In total, the ADstruc platform processed over $1B of combined OOH investments for PJX and other agency subscribers. Now, backed by Vistar’s robust engineering, exceptional customer support, and experience scaling software globally, ADstruc is poised to become the go-to platform for the OOH industry worldwide.

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oOh!media And POLY Greening Australia

May 2nd, 2024

Tristan Cotterill

To mark oOh!media’s community partnership with Greening Australia, creative and innovation hub, POLY has developed a two-phase campaign that leverages weather triggers and dynamic digital executions to drive brand awareness and donations.

Greening Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation with over 40 years of experience restoring Australia’s diverse landscapes and protecting biodiversity. oOh! announced its partnership with Greening Australia at Outfront last year as part of its ongoing commitment to ESG initiatives across Out of Home and support for community organisations.

Kate Smith, director of marketing, communications and director of Greening Australia Foundation said “For more than 40 years Greening Australia has been dedicated to restoring our diverse landscapes and protecting biodiversity. Our work is more relevant today than ever and we welcome the opportunity, through our partnership with oOh! and the creative campaign from POLY, to highlight the broad scope of our activities across its national Out of Home network.”

The initial phase of the ‘Restoring nature for regenerations to come’ pro bono campaign focuses on restoration, fighting extinction and direct action of planting trees, to build awareness of Greening Australia’s mission and work.

Head of POLY, Josh Gurgiel, told us “We’re delighted to be working with Greening Australia to showcase their mission and encourage people to donate so that they may continue their vital work for many years to come. This campaign has been designed to grow awareness of the role Greening Australia plays in sustaining Australia’s natural ecosystem utilising innovative Out of Home tech and scalable networks that help make their brand unmissable”.
In the run up to the end of the financial year, the second phase will rotate these brand awareness messages with donation messaging, including a dynamic EOFY countdown timer, to encourage people to support Greening Australia’s important work.

The campaigns will run across oOh!’s billboards, street furniture and full motion digital screens on oOh!’s national Office, Rail, Retail, and Airport network, including its Melbourne Airport screens which are now powered by renewable electricity sourcing GreenPower.

Both campaigns will be linked to oOh! Outcomes – providing detailed insights on campaign performance using data from oOh!’s partnership with Westpac DataX, which taps into consumer behaviour across more than 12 million customers.

T-Mobile’s New Retail Media Network

May 2nd, 2024

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

This week, T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) announced the expansion of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions during its first-ever presentation at IAB NewFronts.

“T-Mobile has a simple mission: Be the best in the world at connecting customers to their world,” said JP Colaco, SVP and Chief T-Ads Officer, T-Mobile. “T-Mobile Advertising Solutions has the unique opportunity to propel the industry forward, delivering more personalized, customer-centric advertising driving higher engagement and superior outcomes for marketers.”

The expansion includes exclusive owned and operated inventory, including an in-store Retail Media Network (RMN) with more than 20,000 screens across T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile retail locations nationwide plus mobile inventory through its T Life app that reaches more than seven million engaged customers.

T-Mobile is also adding Plex, a global streaming media company, as a connected TV (CTV) partner to expand inventory for advertisers and innovate on the connection between mobile and CTV.