New York City Outdoor Contract

Cemusa has beaten outdoor advertising giants JC Deceaux, Viacom & Van Wagner et al for New York City’s 20-year contract to sell ad space on bus shelters and newspaper kiosks, according to the city's Department of Transportation.

Viacom Outdoor was the existing contract holder. Cemusa is a Barcelona based firm that is seeking a stronger presence in the United States. Cemusa’s other U.S. operations are primarily located in Miami-Dade County, Boston and San Antonio.

WOW - Hard to compete with this offer..

The 20-year agreement is a franchise arrangement. Cemusa will pay the City of New York $1 billion for the 20-year contract as well as create 3,300 new bus stop shelters, 330 new newsstands and up to 20 automatic public toilets. Cemusa said in a statement it also expects to create 100 new jobs in New York City.

Welcome Cemusa..

Marketers Beef Up Ad Spending Inside Stores

Full credit to Lyle Bunn, Director, Digital Display & Rich Media BTV+ (and Chair, Education Committee, POPAI North America Digital Signage Group) for sending Webpavement the following information. www.btvplus.com

Thought you would appreciate this heads up - the Page 1 headline of the September 21 Wall Street Journal is “In a Shift, Marketers Beef Up Ad Spending Inside Stores”.

The lengthy article starts with “Proctor & Gamble believes shoppers make up their mind about a product in about the time it takes to read this paragraph”. The Proctor & Gamble approach to in-store marketing, Wal-Mart TV, ad agency response and examples of in-store marketing are profiled.

The article is very good news for the profile of digital signage. Some other highlights..

• In store marketing spending was $17 billion in 2004 and is projected to accelerate to over $23 billion by 2009
• P&G (makers of Tide, Crest, Pampers) has cut its commitment to advertise on cable channels by 25% and its broadcast TV allotment is down about 5%. At the same time overall ad spending rose slightly.
• Last year 122 new products were launched on Wal-Mart TV.
• Wal-Mart sells advertising like TV networks, imitating “upfronts” the ad sales extravaganzas put on by the networks.
• PRN says its rates are comparable to those of cable TV.
• Some TV executives say in-store advertising isn’t necessarily competitive. Chris Carlisle, Exec. VP of News Corp.’s Fox network contrasts the relaxed home atmosphere with that of a rushed shopping environment. Fox itself buys ads on in-store networks to pitch DVDs.
• No standard system for measuring the audience for in-store ads exists, and therefore no easy way to charge for the space. The fees for each project are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, a time-consuming task.
• A wrinkle is in how ad agencies get paid. For years, agencies were paid a percentage of the overall ad budget. P&G changed that model several years ago because it worried ad agencies would naturally gravitate toward costly TV ads. It now ties ad agency compensation to product sales increases.

Emily Nelson and Sarah Ellison have written an excellent article. This is one to frame.

Billboard Inventory Selling Fast

With all of the factors driving digital signage growth, the demand for out-of-home billboard inventory has risen to levels unseen since the dot-com days of the late ’90s - aka the "Roaring Ninety's". In 1999, billboards were selling at rate-card prices as opposed to the typical 25% discount. Higher demand causes buyers to book desirable locations earlier -- which means marketers often have to plan their out of home before TV.

“It’s certainly tighter than it has been, but, you know, the economy’s tighter than it’s been as well,” said Jack Sullivan, director of out-of-home media for Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA. Other media buyers agreed that they’re seeing a growing number of marketers add outdoor to their media mixes, or increase existing spending in the area.

Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco are more or less sold out through the end of the year, although there remains room in Atlanta, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Some buyers worry sites are getting picked over -- and say it’s not unusual for them to be booking locations into the middle of 2006.

According to the latest figures, the first half of the year notched 9% outdoor growth, according to TNS Media Intelligence; Nielsen Monitor-Plus reports a 6.9% rise.

Digital Signage solves many of the problems identified above. In our opinion, many static billboards warrant a change to an electronic format. With electronic billboards - you can sell under short notice, you have more inventory, you don't need crews to change advertisements because they're not physically printied on vinyl.

Please contact us to discuss your electonic billboard(s) project. Webpavement has been contracted for electronic boards in Washington DC, Times Square, Ohio, Madrid and other locations.

Interactive Campaigns in Times Square

The famous Reuters sign in Times square must have a Return on the Intital investment by now. Numerous campaigns and advertising run on the display. Here are a couple of interactive campaigns.

Lexus
The program includes a Web site, www.TheNewIS.com, where visitors can pose questions about the car to chief engineer Suguya Fukusato, and upload photos to the Web site to enter a sweepstakes to win the car. Some of those photos will be used to form a photo mosaic on the Reuters digital billboard in New York's Times Square, starting Sept. 3. Story - No Pics

Nike
In its customary way of going for ever bigger and more different promotions, Nike purchased a build-your-own-shoe media placement on the 23-story-high Reuters sign on the Reuters Building in Times Square. Story and Picture of Reuters Sign

There are many more examples. Oh - here is one by CK you might enjoy. It doesn't involve a digital sign and it's not on the Reuters sign, but it is - some would say - interactive.

Calvin Klein
This campaign featured a "Live Billboard". See PICTURES.