Clear Channel International is the London-based international business division of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings (NYSE: CCO).
CCI’s Chief Customer & Revenue Officer Stefan Lameire sat down with Digital Signage Pulse to share the latest developments and his outlook for the nearest future.
What markets does Clear Channel International serve?
CCI operates in 22 markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia. Our portfolio spans some of the world’s major cities including London, Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, Rio, Rome,Shanghai and Singapore.
Clear Channel International, DOOH advertising
What type of OOH formats do you use?
We have a diverse portfolio which includes street furniture, bus shelters, smart bikes and billboards. These assets are located in various environments such as airports, shopping malls, supermarkets and transit, including buses, trams and subways.
And of course, a growing digital out-of-home (DOOH) network of 13,000+screens – again, in a variety of formats and environments.
We’re investing heavily in digitizing our assets to allow more advertisers to benefit from DOOH’s increased flexibility and creativity.
How has the ad business been in 2018 relative to last year? What’s your forecast for 2019?
CCI is enjoying a strong year. A significant driver of growth is the build-out of our digital networks in key cities such as Madrid, Spain, and Stockholm, Sweden. Our national DOOH network in the UK is a strong contributor to growth.
Nowadays, we see more advertisers turning to OOH. Especially as we can now offer them the scale and flexibility to reach the right audience at the right time, in the right location, and with the right message.
As we continue to get better at targeting our audiences and proving its effectiveness, I believe that 2019 will see more advertisers increasing their investment in outdoor.
Who are some of your leading repeat advertisers?
As you would expect from a multi-market business, it differs across the regions. Some of the biggest CCI advertisers include McDonald’s, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen and Ikea.
In Europe, we are seeing increasing spend from such tech brands as Google, Twitter, Apple and Netflix. These giants have realized that to reach vast audiences, they need to turn to the world’s last remaining mass medium.
In China, this has been the case for some time with the likes of Alibaba and JD.com among our top advertisers.
At a time when online media is facing major challenges with credibility, Outdoor is inherently capable of building brand trust. That, coupled with the flexibility of DOOH, presents good prospects for growth for us in Europe.
Where are your offices located?
Our commercial approach varies slightly by market in order to reflect local specifics. Each market has its own sales team led locally.
We also have an international sales team based in our London HQ. Its role it is to grow our long-term relationships with global advertisers and agencies. The HQ team coordinates strategies with our sales offices around the world.
In Clear Channel Outdoor’s recent Q3 financial report, “digital transformation” and programmatic were cited as “key sources of growth.” Please tell us about these trends.
Undoubtedly, technology has revolutionized outdoor advertising. To illustrate what this means in practical terms: A paper billboard site displays one single ad every two weeks; a digital billboard can now show 100,000 ads in the same two week period.
We are expanding the use of the latest digital technology to bring more creativity, flexibility and measurability to our advertisers.
Furthermore, Clear Channel International is putting in place the systems that automate the process of buying of our assets for advertisers. They can now do it with less effort but with greater precision and accountability.
Media buyers are now able to connect to our inventory using the same audience-based approaches as online media, and the tools to self-manage their campaigns.
CCI was the first to market in Europe to offer a proprietary programmatic DOOH buying solution, starting with Belgium and the UK.
We continue to add further inventory, additional functionality and scale internationally so that more brands can incorporate OOH as part of their omnichannel planning strategy.
All of the above efforts are attracting new advertisers while existing clients are increasing their spend in our OOH assets.
CCI’s leadership team:
William Eccleshare.
Chairman & CEO, Clear Channel International.
As CEO, William is responsible for leading the business’ operations in 22 countries across Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Justin Cochrane.
CEO, Clear Channel UK.
Justin Cochrane is the CEO of Clear Channel UK with overall responsibility for the UK and Irish region for Clear Channel.
Philippe Baudillon.
Regional CEO, Clear Channel France, Belgium, Netherlands.
Philippe has overall responsibility for all aspects of Clear Channel’s French, Belgian and Dutch businesses.
Boutaïna Araki.
Managing Director, Clear Channel France.
Boutaïna Araki is responsible for pursuing and accelerating the company’s digital transformation.
Richard Cross.
Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Clear Channel International.
Richard Cross is responsible for leading the digital strategy at the heart of the business’ tech-fuelled transformation and driving the collaborative efforts across CCI’s 22 markets to achieve this.
Aris De Juan.
Regional President, Latin America and Southern Europe.
Aris De Juan is responsible for operations of CCI businesses in the fast-growing regions of Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru, and the established European markets of Italy and Spain.
Ola Klingenborg.
Regional Vice President Northern Europe & CEO, Sweden.
Ola Klingenborg is responsible for Clear Channel’s businesses in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Stefan Lameire.
Chief Customer & Revenue Officer, Clear Channel International.
As CCRO, Stefan Lameire oversees all sales, marketing and digital activities across the business’ European markets. He is also Chairman of Clear Channel.
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To learn more about Clear Channel International, visit: https://www.clearchannelinternational.com/
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