Web content will complement elevator screens
Gannett-owned Captivate Network is the latest digital-signage operator to integrate out-of-home and Web content.
The company is repositioning its Website as a consumer-facing service with news and blog content to complement the programming (pictured) that appears on Captivate’s screens in office-building elevators.
“Fifty percent of the time, when someone’s in the elevators, the next stop is their desk,” CEO Mike DiFranza was quoted as saying. “I can’t tell 
Scala software to be built into gas pumps
Scala’s digital-signage software is to power the screens built into fuel dispensers by global gas-station equipment supplier Gilbarco Veeder-Root.
Gilbarco will use the Scala software in its new FlexPay CRIND (Card Reader In Dispenser) payment unit (pictured), which lets customers pay for their petrol at the pump.
This means some cars spend less time at the pump, because drivers do not have to go inside to pay, speeding
Arbitron: “PPM won’t misrepresent minority audiences”
U.S. audience-measurement specialist Arbitron has defended the ethnic composition of its Portable People Meter (PPM) panels from a growing chorus of criticism.
Since last year, minority radio broadcasters and ad agencies specialising in minority markets – including the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies – have been alleging that some ethnic groups are under-represented on the Arbitron PPM panels.
If true,
Russian advertisers innovate with LED, Bluetooth, radio
The second annual Interactiv advertising design competition is now underway in Moscow, with the winners due to be announced at the Moscow International Festival later this month.
As with the 2007 contest, digital-signage content is well to the fore, and interactivity is also being considered by judges this year.
Interactive screen-media entries reportedly make use of Bluetooth, LED screens, and even radio alongside the video stream.
This
Most OOH advertising banned in historic Xi’an
The ancient Chinese city of Xi’an has become the latest to ban advertising billboards in historic areas.
All billboards in the city’s historic centre, enclosed by the Ming Dynasty city wall (pictured), will be removed when contracts expire, according to local officials, and no new permits will be issued. It is expected that the last sites will be taken down by the end of 2009.
Authorities in the
Future Media names content supremo
India’s Future Media has underlined the importance of effective content with the appointment of Ashim Mohanty as content head for its in-store network Future TV.
In his new role, Mohanty will be responsible for all content that plays on Future TV and will report to Vishakha Singh, director of marcom and strategy.
Acknowledging that crisp content on in-store TV attracts eyeballs and that storytelling has to be done
Swingeing rent hikes threaten Ukrainian OOH firms
Ukrainian companies wanting to advertise their wares on billboards or digital signage have been shocked to hear a proposal to raise the rent charged by the city council of Mariupol by an astonishing 500 percent.
According to Andrey Rudenko, head of the Kiev-based media-research firm LAB, advertising rates in Mariupol will rise by around 40 percent as a result of the new “earth rents”.
The rents in the
Intel refreshes London Tube ads in real time
Intel has become the first advertiser to take advantage of the real-time update facility on CBS Outdoor’s London Underground screens.
A campaign devised by McCann-Erickson and running on CBS Outdoor’s digital escalator panels (DEPs) and cross-track projection displays (XTP, pictured) promotes the artists featured on Intel Studio, a Website where aspiring musicians can upload tracks which are then rated by the public.
Each of the DEPs will feature
JCDecaux in takeover talks with Russia’s News Outdoor
JCDecaux said today that it was in negotiations with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation over the acquisition of News Corporation's Russian subsidiary News Outdoor.
Such a deal, which commentators said could be worth more than $1bn, would likely create the world’s largest outdoor-advertising company, bigger than today’s market leader Clear Channel.
JCDecaux is currently the second-largest worldwide, with operations in 48 countries, although it holds the top slot in
New retail networks expected in Norway, Sweden
The profile of retail digital signage in the Nordic nations could get a major boost from two new networks.
Norwegian retail-technology supplier PSI Group is to provide its MyTV-media interactive system (management software pictured) to Mestergruppen’s building-supplies chain Byggeriet, PSI said yesterday.
With more than 100 outlets, Byggeriet will join other MyTV-media users in Norway such as cosmetics retailer Esthetique, McDonald’s, and the furniture-store chain Skeidar.
Separately,
Ecast adds LocaModa interactivity to bar screens
U.S. bar patrons will soon be able to use Ecast’s EQ entertainment screens as a form of social media, thanks to technology from LocaModa.
The companies said yesterday that Ecast had licensed the LocaModa Embedded platform and applications for incorporation in its EQ network, which delivers music, games, other interactive content and ads to some 10,000 bars and nightclubs via touchscreens.
Isenzo to power South African retail networks
A three-month trial of digital signage at more than 100 automotive repair spares stores across South Africa has been hailed a success, and Moving Tactics – the Cape Town-based retail advertising specialist behind the trial – has signed a major deal with Isenzo for the technology to be rolled out across multiple retail chains.
According to Ray Smeda, Moving Tactics’ business development director, the deal proves the superior return
3D screens “will cost ten percent more than 2D”
Australia’s 3D Motion has stolen the march on many of its rivals in the northern hemisphere with a 3D screens system that does away with the need to wear special glasses.
Currently being trialled in Beyond Internet Gaming – a Sydney Internet cafe owned by the firm, which is also headquartered in the city – the 3D screens display a range of digital-signage content when not in use, but
Ascent Media sells AccentHealth to private equity
AccentHealth, the U.S. digital-signage network in doctors’ waiting rooms, has been bought by a pair of investment companies.
Banc of America Capital Investors, a subsidiary of Bank of America, and M/C Venture Partners, a private-equity firm specialising in media and communications, have acquired the network from Discovery Holding Company, which has owned it for less than three years.
AccentHealth, founded in 1995, originally passed into the hands of
Arbitron signs up campus bookstore network
Arbitron Custom Research has acquired another client for its measurement services – LevelVision’s College Bookstore Network.
It will monitor customer engagement with LevelVision’s in-floor screens (pictured) at some 300 bookstores on campuses across the U.S.
The contract is the latest in a series which demonstrate the increasing interest in metrics on the part of network operators. Among Arbitron Custom’s other recent clients is KidCare TV.
