Left to right: Jonny Brackenbury, Andrew Kelly, Cennydd Roberts
The former CEO of 8 Outdoor, Cennydd Roberts, has launched a new digital out-of-home (DOOH) business based in the UK: Foris Outdoor.
Specialising in large format digital 48 sheet landscape roadside screens, Foris Outdoor hopes to deliver more digital large format screens in 2020 than any other UK operator, reaching new audiences across UK towns and cities.
Roberts has over 13 years experience in outdoor advertising, having held senior positions at CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel and Wildstone.
He was most recently CEO at DOOH sales house 8 Outdoor Media, a position he held between February 2016 and April 2019. Roberts left the company just four months before it fell into administration, following the loss of its contract with Insite and consequently approximately two-thirds of its portfolio.
Commenting on his new business, Roberts said: “This is a hugely exciting and entrepreneurial period for the out-of-home sector and I’m very excited to be leading a great new business with a big ambition.
“We are going to replace the paper poster with a network of broadcast digital screens across both small towns and big cities and to every corner of the UK. Our high-quality digital screens will provide advertisers with a cost-effective UK wide distribution, at scale to meet the rising demand of DOOH.”
Foris Outdoor will commence trading on November 25, with its first 20 screens going live in towns and cities including Glasgow, Barnsley, Birmingham and London at the end of January next year. A further 20 screens are to go live every month through 2020 to build a network of 500 by the end of 2021.
“Our proposition will combine a quality product; a broadcast audience; a cost effective solution to advertisers and the right tech partnerships to ensure the business is ready for the digital future,” Roberts added.
Roberts will lead the business as CEO, while Jonny Brackenbury, formerly director of Credit Suisse, and Andrew Kelly, the founder of Open Outdoor, will join the board early next year as chairman and non-executive director, respectively.
Meanwhile, Iotec Global’s Pete Goldring joins as commercial director, Jane Garry of Adshel Australia, APN and Clear Channel joins as head of operations, and Lucy Holder of Admedia, 8 Outdoor and JCDecaux joins as head of sales.
Adwanted UK is the trusted delivery partner for three essential services which deliver accountability, standardisation, and audience data for the out-of-home industry.
Playout is Outsmart’s new system to centralise and standardise playout reporting data across all outdoor media owners in the UK.
SPACE is the industry’s comprehensive inventory database delivered through a collaboration between IPAO and Outsmart.
The RouteAPI is a SaaS solution which delivers the ooh industry’s audience data quickly and simply into clients’ systems.
Contact us for more information on SPACE, J-ET, Audiotrack or our data engines.
