Clear Channel Europe unveils LaunchPAD

Out of Home (OOH) advertising giant Clear Channel Europe is strengthening its expertise in targeted campaign planning solutions with the launch of a dedicated new programmatic offering – Clear Channel LaunchPAD - to connect digital buying channels with the company’s extensive Digital Out of Home (DOOH) inventory.

Clear Channel LaunchPAD - which is being rolled-out with initial SSP partners Hivestack and Broadsign - will serve as a critical gateway connecting Clear Channel’s DOOH inventory to SSPs and digital buying platforms, bringing OOH into the omni-channel buying ecosystem. It will allow Clear Channel’ partners to activate OOH in a fast and flexible way.

The service is now live in the UK, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands and Finland. Plans are underway to extend the capabilities in the near future, both in Europe (France, Italy, Belgium and Scandinavia) and in Latin America.

With Clear Channel LaunchPAD, campaign planners have the ability to select and coordinate buying options across multiple regions and metrics. It’s a dynamic and seamless system that brings all the benefits of the existing planning tool ecosystem together to give Clear Channel’s customers greater management and coordination.

Built to enhance precision and agility, LaunchPAD also enables customers to buy advertising slots through real-time bidding and gives customers control of the precise time, location and duration  of their campaign messaging. Building on already rigorous OOH industry impression standards for calculating the exposure of adverts, LaunchPAD enables customers to plan campaigns around consumers’ likelihood to see the content as opposed to the number of content plays. Campaign planners can react to real-time campaign performance data and flex their strategy, messages and spend to enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Andy Stevens, Head of Data and Programmatic at Clear Channel Europe, comments: “Brands are increasingly looking for ways to deliver relevant and timely messages in brand-safe environments, while delivering return on investment. With Clear Channel LaunchPAD, outdoor ads can now be bought programmatically, meaning they can be activated in real-time, and creatives can be optimised to respond to external triggers, and to coordinate with other channels, maximising the effectiveness of the campaign. We know there is huge demand for this and we look forward to introducing existing and new customers to LaunchPAD’s enhanced capabilities.”

The introduction of LaunchPAD reiterates the importance of the OOH medium amidst today’s fast-changing consumer-brand landscape. OOH and DOOH have long been praised as a cost-effective means of delivering targeted campaigns at scale, particularly connecting brands with the elusive 18-34 year-old audience. Increasing advancement in data layering has fuelled significant growth in the DOOH segment in particular, with recent research reporting it now represents more than 50% of the total advertising market, equivalent to $66bn.

William Brownsdon, Managing Director EMEA for Hivestack, comments: "We're thrilled to be building on our global partnership with Clear Channel in the rollout of their new European programmatic offering, LaunchPAD. With its enhanced targeting and measurement capabilities, programmatic digital out of home is gaining momentum across Europe, forming a strong component in campaign plans as audiences return outdoors. It is hugely encouraging to see new technologies emerging within the channel that drive greater efficiencies for buyers and sellers of Digital OOH."

Adam Green, SVP and GM, Broadsign Programmatic Platforms, says: "Digital Out of Home has never been better positioned to expand its role in the ad tech mainstream, as media buyers look for more meaningful ways to connect with consumers in the moment across multiple touchpoints. Programmatic innovations like Clear Channel LaunchPAD are setting the stage for a new wave of DOOH growth, bringing more premium inventory to omni-channel media buyers in Europe looking to execute impactful campaigns with the flexibility that modern times demand. We’re honored to be a part of the LaunchPAD rollout and look forward to continued collaboration with Clear Channel Europe to help expand OOH’s footprint in the omnichannel advertising ecosystem.”

As Clear Channel’s Programmatic channel, LaunchPAD is designed to complement the other existing channels the business already has in place, giving media buyers, agencies and brand managers further control in the campaign planning process and access to multiple programmatic SSPs to make global, omni-channel buying as easy as possible. LaunchPAD unites the programmatic strategy across all Clear Channel Europe markets and the existing programmatic services in Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands will be integrated into the LaunchPAD capabilities. The initial launch is being rolled out through SSP partners Hivestack and Broadsign, and Clear Channel will continue to connect with more partners in the future as the geographies and strategies expand.

Richard Bon, Managing Director Clear Channel UK and Europe Commercial Lead, comments: “Bringing our DOOH inventory onto the omni-channel buying ecosystem is the next step in our digital transformation journey to make outdoor ads more effective, dynamic and impactful. As countries worldwide cautiously ease restrictions, out of home audiences are returning fast and there will be a renaissance in reach. Brands ramping up their outdoor ads to welcome people back to the streets will be able to use Clear Channel LaunchPAD to deliver relevant and timely messages in a brand safe environment, delivering return on investment.”

Clear Channel has already established a successful Programmatic Out of Home (PrOOH) service in the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands, which will be absorbed into the new LaunchPAD brand as a dedicated pan-markets approach. The business is proactively exploring opportunities to extend LaunchPAD across further markets in the near future.

Find out more about Clear Channel LaunchPAD here: Clear Channel's programmatic Out of Home trading gateway.