DailyDOOH

Australian digital outdoor media company QMS has revealed its plans for the Paris 2024 Olympics Games, including the launch of a ground-breaking Olympics screen network and innovative partnership packages.

QMS Executives L to R – Mark Fairhurst, Sara Lappage, Adrian Venditti

During an event at Sydney’s Opera House QMS outlined its vision for Paris 2024 and introduced five Olympians spanning a range of new and established sports to talk about their Olympic experiences and aspirations for Paris: Steve Solomon (athletics), Melissa Wu (diving), David McKeon (swimming), Cameron Girdlestone (rowing) and Rachael Gunn (breaking).

Welcoming AOC sponsors, media agencies and media, QMS Executive General Manager, Mark Fairhurst, said: “We’re incredibly proud that QMS is the official Outdoor Media Partner of the Australian Olympic Committee [AOC] for the Summer Olympics in 2024 and the Winter Olympics in 2026. With just over a year to go to Paris, the countdown to this out of the ordinary event is well and truly on. Our multi-year partnership will see QMS and the AOC work hand-in-hand as we engage, inspire and unite Australians through the power and spirit of sport. Sport is interwoven into the DNA of all Australians and Paris 2024 will be a unique opportunity to leverage the influence of outdoor, delivering diverse audiences at scale and extending reach in a completely brand-safe environment that is proven to make brands famous,” he said.

Mr Fairhurst said one of the key reasons the AOC partnered with QMS was its premium digital-first asset coverage: 94% of QMS’ saleable inventory each week is digital, making it best placed to bring the news and stories of the Olympics to more Australians in real-time as they unfold.

The QMS partnership opportunity has been developed with this content at the forefront and will be displayed across the Olympic screen network, optimised across its best digital large format, City of Sydney, Impulse and Gold Coast street furniture assets.

The AOC’s Chief Executive Officer, Matt Carroll said “The Olympic Games is the greatest sporting event on earth and Paris 2024 will deliver an exceptional Games. Following the outstanding success of the Australian Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Games, which reached a global broadcast audience of more than three billion people, we know Australians will get behind their athletes as they represent Australia with pride. Once again, the Olympic Games will capture imaginations and inspire all ages, cultures and regions. We are excited about working with QMS to bring the stories, news and achievements of the Australia Olympic Team to big audiences across Australia via their extensive premium digital network.”

QMS has developed three levels of Olympic Podium partnership – Gold, Silver and Bronze – with each level guaranteeing category exclusivity across the Olympic screen network.

The Australian Outdoor Media Association (OMA) has released its 2022 Annual Report, reflecting a continued commitment to sustainable communities and innovations for advertisers.

OMA CEO Elizabeth McIntyre said “The Outdoor industry had a successful 2022, with revenue goals reached, a growing membership and positive market feedback across initiatives including the Creative Collection, Creative Guidelines, Industry Standards, and the launch of MOVE 1.5. This positions us well for the launch of MOVE 2.0 which will revolutionise audience measurement, and provide increased granularity on Out of Home audiences. It’s all part of our evolving strategy to build a stronger, more prosperous and resilient industry into the long term”.

Key Highlights from the report include:

• Community responsibility: OMA members have generously donated advertising space valued at more than $126M to over 218 organisations. This includes the OMA led healthy eating campaign Better than you Remember, launched in partnership with Health and Wellbeing Queensland and Nutrition Australia, valued at $8M and reaching 10.4M people over four weeks.
• Digital transformation: The industry continues to grow digital Out of Home (DOOH) opportunities, with DOOH revenue reaching 64.1 per cent of total revenue.
• Innovation propelling growth: The OMA launched MOVE 1.5, a significant upgrade on MOVE to provide audience data and user-friendly reporting for both classic and digital signs. Industry Standards and the Neuro Impact Factor (NIF) are giving agencies and advertisers a qualitative measure to help better understand the impact of their campaigns and supercharge their campaign decision making power.
• Future Focused: Attention, reach and impact metrics will be coupled with the release of an industry Impression Multiplier that provides a standard measurement methodology for campaigns bought programmatically. The automated Insertion Order (IO) is also in development, allowing for one source of information for media owners, agencies, and verification providers. All set for release in 2023 and paving the way for what’s to come with MOVE 2.0.

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The 2024 World Out of Home Organization Global Congress will be held in Hong Kong from June 5-7 2024.

This is the first time the Global Congress has been held in the Far East although a highly successful in-person regional event was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October 2022.

The recent 2023 Global Congress in Lisbon attracted a record 525 delegates from across the world.

Edge1 has been selected by Valuewise Services, a leading outdoor advertising media owner in Delhi.

Valuewise Services has emerged as a prominent player in Delhi’s outdoor advertising industry, boasting a strong network of prominent DMRC media locations.

With a commitment to delivering diverse advertising solutions to both local and national clients, Valuewise Services recognized the importance of a robust software solution to elevate its business processes.

After meticulous evaluation, Valuewise Services chose Edge1 OOH Software as the perfect partner to drive its outdoor advertising business forward. Edge1 offers an array of advanced features, an intuitive interface, and a comprehensive suite of tools that empower Valuewise Services to optimize resource allocation, streamline operations, and achieve unparalleled efficiency.

Valuewise Services plans to transform its outdoor advertising business through digitization and automation of key processes such as campaign planning, inventory management, billing, and reporting. This digital transformation will not only enhance operational efficiency but also enable Valuewise Services to deliver a seamless and exceptional experience to its clients.

22Miles had a unique giveaway at their #InfoComm23 booth, namely a conversational #AI version of the tradeshow app, powered by ChatGPT.

22Miles used publicly available event information and ChatGPT integration to create a custom conversational interface capable of answering questions about the event and guiding attendees to booths, meeting rooms, sessions, and special events. The web-based app, accessible via 22miles.ai or by scanning a QR-code at the booth, received the Best in Show award from Digital Signage magazine for the first-time exhibitor.

The 22Miles InfoComm app had a multi-lingual chat box instead of standard interface. Attendees could search using text or voice inputs, asking questions such as “Where is the 22Miles booth?” or “Is Elon Musk speaking at InfoComm?” The AI chatbot responded with related information, usually including a hyperlink to 3D wayfinding with turn-by-turn directions.

Larry Darling, Classroom Technology Manager for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and co-host of the AV Superfriends podcast said “We found ourselves relying on the 22Miles app more and more throughout Infocomm 23,” said . “The user experience was vastly superior to the official show app and allowed us to quickly access the information we needed to successfully navigate our schedules. We can definitely see this product being useful for our events teams on campus as they create the best and most accessible experiences possible for visitors to campus.”

However, this was no mere tradeshow stunt: the 22Miles conversational interface is real and a currently available feature that can be inserted into any existing app. Current 22Miles SaaS customers using the company’s Mobile 3D Wayfinding app can upgrade their experience with a GPT-powered chatbot today.

Signagelive has kick-started an ambitious customer-focused expansion strategy with the appointment of its first Head of Customer Success Management, Sylvie Harden.

An integral part of the company’s global plans, the move will ultimately see Harden head up a Customer Success Management Team, dedicated to continuously increasing customer engagement and satisfaction.

Signagelive Chief Commercial Officer, Frank Larsen, told us “We’re excited to have Sylvie on board. A highly accomplished professional, she has the experience and strength of character we need to take our expansion plans to the next level. With Sylvie at the helm of our customer strategy, we can deliver an ever-higher standard of personalised support for end users, which, in turn, will help us boost reseller revenue opportunities.”

Silvie is well-placed to take on the challenges of her new role. Over the course of her twenty-two-year career, she has emerged as an industry leader in customer advocacy, growing, and heading up global customer success in corporate, scale-up and start-up companies all over the world. A multi-lingual, globe-trotting Customer Success Manager (CSM), she has gained her experience across multiple sectors, including the IT, pharmaceutical life science and clinical research industries.

Serving as a bridge between Signagelive and end users, Harden and her team will identify the individual business needs of end users and keep them informed of relevant features and opportunities that will help realise their goals. Harden will also liaise closely with Signagelive sales and support departments on behalf of end users to optimise the customer experience.

GoodNews, the Spanish start-up specializing in the sale of coffee in kiosks and small stores, has digitized twenty of its points of sale in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris with nsign.tv’s digital signage platform, which allows them to display visual content interactively, improving the experience for its customers and increasing its turnover.

GoodNews which has converted traditional newsstands into Grab&Go coffee outlets, was looking to replace the illuminated menu signs with a more interactive and visual system that would help to better convey its brand beyond the product offering, offering the 360º experience that GoodNews is pursuing.

Toni Viñals, CEO of nsign.tv, told us “We would like to thank the GoodNews team for having trusted our platform for their digitalization. We are proud that a young and modern company has seen the potential of digital signage to enrich their premises with dynamic and attractive visual content that helps them to impact and interact with their audience through any type of screen”.”

GoodNews installed at point of sale several LCD monitors, mainly 50 inches, all managed by nsign.tv software, which allows them to broadcast both the menuboards and new creatives and campaigns.

The GoodNews Design team is in charge of managing the content using nsign.tv. GoodNews is currently opening new stores in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam.

JCDecaux Australia has released a foresight report written in collaboration with global strategic futures consultancy The Future Laboratory, into how to connect with the increasingly important Gen Z consumer.

With Gen Z making up 20 per cent of Australia’s population, and 30 per cent of the world’s, the Gen Z: IRL Opportunity foresight report provides important insights for brands and marketers trying to capture their attention and stay relevant. JCDecaux highlights how Out-of-Home advertising can be shaped to drive engagement and brand advocacy among this group.

Essie Wake, Chief Marketing Officer at JCDecaux told us “What’s become apparent is Gen Z customers are sophisticated, discriminating and continuously pushing businesses to take action and provide genuine social change. Growing up online, they recognise the confines of digital participation and are now seeking a step change as they pursue and embrace real-world encounters.”

As part of the investigation, JCDecaux surveyed over 1,000 Australian Gen Zs, finding that:

• 64% Gen Zs agree brands should use more Out-of-Home advertising to engage them;
• 85% Gen Zs have acted after engaging with Out-of-Home advertising.

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Daniel Root has joined Barco to lead the Meeting Experience division’s global alliance team.

He will be responsible for driving strategic alignment as ClickShare accelerates its momentum. We are told that with his experience and deep understanding of the market, he will be well equipped to lead ClickShare’s partnership and alliance program into the future.

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Swave Photonics, a spin-off from Belgium’s imec and Vrije Univeriteit Brussel has raised a further €3 million to further develop its diffractive optics technology for extended reality (XR) applications.

The top-up brings its total seed funding to €10 million, following the €7 million previously provided by imec’s own xpand venture capital fund, alongside the Flanders Future Techfund (FFTF), and QBIC, a Belgian inter-university venture fund.

The additional funding has been secured from a combination of the original backers, plus two new US-based investors in the form of Seattle’s Acequia Capital, and Rochester’s Luminate NY photonics incubator fund.

Luminate NY’s investment is we uderstand a result from Swave’s recent selection as a finalist in its photonics-focused accelerator program and competition, while the firm also won SPIE’s Startup Challenge at Photonics West earlier this year.