CBS Outdoor To Launch Full Motion Video Trial
CBS Outdoor’s new cross-track projection (XTP) digital advertising screens will begin testing their full motion video in London this week.
The XTP units will go ‘live’ from Friday at Euston station for a four-week observation period, with three more units to be installed on the station’s southbound Victoria platform ahead of a full commercial launch next year.
The new technology, which is part of CBS’s £72 million makeover of advertising in the Tube, allows moving messages to be digitally projected onto the wall opposite the platforms in HD (see Viacom Tube Contract To Lead Digital Ad Revolution).
Once the observation period is complete, the company will roll out the system at 24 major London Underground stations with 150 units installed at the beginning of 2008.
The XTP messages throughout the trial will be from London Underground and CBS Outdoor only, and not from main advertisers.
Andrew Oldham, chief operating officer of CBS Outdoor, said the observation period was an important milestone and would be followed by full production of the final “sleeker and more compact” projection units.
Last year, following an 18-month bidding process, CBS (then Viacom) beat rivals and clinched a deal with TfL to retain management of its outdoor advertising (see Viacom Clinches Tube Contract).
Earlier this week, advertising expenditure forecasts from ZenithOptimedia highlighted outdoor as the second biggest growth medium in the world, after the internet, saying that by the end of 2008, the medium would increase its market share from 5.6% to almost 6%, fuelled by investment in digital.
CBC Outdoor: www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk