Independent to use digital escalator ad panels

by Juliette Garside, Media Week 03-Oct-06, 11:02

The Independent newspaper is to run the first time-sensitive campaign on Viacom Outdoor’s Tottenham Court Road digital escalator panels.

From 13 March, the panels will feature a different piece of creative on each day of the two week campaign, incorporating that day's front page of The Independent.
The campaign is designed to drive daily sales on the strength of the lead news story. Design agency Grand Visual will take digital feeds from the paper every evening when it goes to press. The creative will then be dropped into a template and uploaded onto the screens.

Signing a newspaper advertiser is a breakthrough for Viacom. When the Tottenham Court road panels were introduced in May 2005, it was hoped they would attract new types of advertisers to outdoor. The medium is often avoided by retail and news or magazine advertisers, whose promotions tend to be time-sensitive.

David Greene, The Independent's marketing director, said: "This dynamic medium is ideally suited to the fast-paced world of newspaper publishing and, as a company with a reputation for intelligent innovation, we see this as an ideal fit for our media strategy."
Grand Visual designed the creative in partnership with The Independent's creative agency Walsh Trott Chick Smith. Media was planned by Walker Media and bought through Posterscope.