Measurement system to boost outdoor ads
THE launch of an outdoor audience measurement system,
MOVE, in February could boost outdoor advertising by at least a share point
next year, and double its size by 2014 as advertisers test if media budgets are
working.
So
predicts William Eccleshare, the recently appointed president and chief
executive of Clear Channel International, a division of US firm Clear Channel
Outdoor.
CCI
operates outdoor advertising businesses in 27 markets, as well as 140 radio
stations through the Australian Radio Network, which it co-owns with APN News
and Media in Australia and New Zealand.
"MOVE
is as good as anything I've seen around the world," says Eccleshare, who
was in Sydney last week visiting Clear Channel's joint ventures in outdoor and
radio as part of a whirlwind global tour of every territory before the end of
the year. "Outdoor has a relatively low share of spend here, at about 4
per cent.
"I
would reckon it would give us three or four share points over four to five
years."
Australia
is Clear Channel International's fifth-biggest market. The company owns half of
street furniture outfit Adshel.
Eccleshare,
formerly Europe, Middle East and Africa head for global advertising network
BBDO, is confident the Australian outdoor industry will be back in single-digit
growth in the six months to June after shrinking 13.5 per cent in the same
period this year.
In
the context of a "fragile recovery" in most mature markets, that's
significant.
Eccleshare
said Clear Channel was the world's biggest outdoor operator, but it had left
its international territories to develop largely on their own.
Now
he was charged with building them into more of a network that could share
innovation.
He
also aims to build Clear's international profile to rival that of competitors
such as French-headquartered outdoor firm JCDecaux. "My job is to bring
them together to share best practice so we can leverage our scale," he
said.
Touchscreen
digital signs such as those the company operated in Finland were one example of
a technology that could work in markets such as Australia, he said. "We
were sold out almost immediately."
Eccleshare
was silent on the appointment of a new chief executive for ARN, which owns the
Mix and Classic Hits networks in capital city markets.
A
source at ARN said a successor to outgoing chief executive Bob Longwell may be
announced by the end of the year.
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