Clear Channel’s ambitious plans to Create the Future of Media, Out of Home

Creativity, Flexibility and Accountability at the heart of Clear Channel’s ambitious plans to Create the Future of Media, Out of Home

– Media owner announces further expansion of Adshel Live, Storm and Retail portfolios
– Adshel Classic next product to join market-leading Ad Platform
– Industry-wide Creative Council launched to help drive Creativity and Innovation in OOH
– MyTown Street Photography competition winner announced
– Future estate development to focus on public utility and aesthetic quality of sites

Clear Channel UK has announced ambitious plans for the future of UK out of home at their annual Upfront event held at RIBA, central London on Wednesday.

The media owner committed to a further multi-million pound investment in its market-leading digital inventory: boosting the Adshel Live network to 2000 screens nationwide and doubling its Wrap digital billboard proposition with the introduction of new cities including Leeds, Newcastle, Southampton and Aberdeen by the end of 2018.

Clear Channel’s distinctive payphone product, unveiled at last year’s Upfront and already in 250 locations across London, will expand nationally, bringing the benefits of high quality digital advertising, the promise of free public wi-fi and interactive local area maps to new cities including Liverpool, Bristol, and Cambridge.

Plans were also announced to continue to expand Clear Channel’s fully-digital retail proposition with the addition of new screens at Sainsbury’s and Asda supermarkets and the launch of a network of digital interactive screens at an initial five key malls.

In total, Clear Channel will add in excess of 1,000 new screens to its digital portfolio in 2018.

Speaking at the event, Clear Channel’s Commercial Director Chris Pelekanou unveiled a series of initiatives to help advertisers maximise the value of digital out of home.

Flexibility and Accountability:

• Clear Channel will expand its market-leading Ad Platform, launched earlier this year, to include its Classic Adshel Estate in 2018.
• A new feature of the Ad Platform launching in Q1 2018 will allow advertiser to track dynamic campaigns in real time, offering dashboard reporting of creative, location and plays against the campaign schedule.
• APIs are being developed to integrate the Ad Platform with the planning tools used by Clear Channel’s out of home Specialist Partners.
Creativity

Clear Channel’s CEO Justin Cochrane announced the launch of the Creative Council. A cross-industry initiative bringing together experts from Out of Home Media Owners, Creative Agencies, Media Agencies and Brands to drive creativity in Out-of-Home.

At launch, the members of the Creative Council are Lou Stubbings, Creative Director, Clear Channel UK; Catherine Morgan, Head of Creative Services, Ocean Outdoor; Dino Burbidge, Director of Technology and Innovation, WCRS; Ann Wixley, Executive Creative Director, MEC; Matt Pye, Founder, Procreate; Rick Hirst, CEO, Carat; Dane Hamer, Marcomms – Brand Creative & Media, O2; and Kenyatte Nelson, Group Marketing & Creative Director, Shop Direct.

The Creative Council will meet bi-annually to drive creativity in Out of Home and will challenge and enhance creativity through open discussion, thought leadership and creative testing on both digital and classic.

The winner of Clear Channel’s MyTown street photography competition was also unveiled at the event.

The competition was launched earlier this year and designed to engage the public, who were invited to submit images that captured the essence of their town, while also demonstrating how OOH can function as an inspiring content channel –transforming Clear Channel’s digital inventory into a ‘National Gallery’ of street photography.

The winner Ladies in Waiting by Chris Harrison, which was taken in Newcastle, will be displayed alongside other shortlisted entries on thousands of Clear Channel’s digital sites throughout the autumn.

Future Cities

The event concluded with a pledge that Clear Channel’s future product development would focus on the public benefit and aesthetics of new sites.

“Clear Channel has a long and illustrious history in delivering, not only brilliant advertising for our customers, but also truly valuable public infrastructure.” Justin Cochrane said”

“In recent years this infrastructure has included bus shelters, wayfinding, telephone boxes and even hundreds of new urban trees.

“Today, we are committing to thousands more digital sites up and down the country and to lead the way in delivering creativity, flexibility and accountability for brands.

“We’re also pledging to make cities better. Focussing on the aesthetic beauty of our new sites and ensuring we continue to deliver valuable public services.

“What if every out of home site generated electricity? What if every out of home site helped reduce urban air pollution? What if every out of home site gave the public access to free Wi-Fi? These are the questions we’ll be challenging our development team to answer”.