CBS keeps National Express account with five-year deal

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Media Week 02-Oct-07

CBS Outdoor has retained the £40m contract to manage advertising on National Express buses in the UK for a further five years.

The contract covers the company's bus fleet, which includes the Travel
London, Travel West Midlands and Travel Dundee subsidiaries, as well as
Midland Metro, the tram network in the West Midlands.

Advertising will be sold on both the exterior and interior of the trams

and trains.

The trams run across 20km of track, stopping at 23 stations between
Birmingham and Wolverhampton, while the Travel West Midlands bus fleet
operates 970 double-decker buses and 725 single deckers, covering the
cities of Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton.

The tram and bus fleets together are expected to generate more than
£8m worth of revenue a year, although the contract does not cover
National Express' coach fleet.

CBS Outdoor will be carrying out a major investment programme into the
advertising inventory in this and other bus contracts.

The spending will include the introduction of new innovative products,
although no details have been decided to date.

Martin Hancock, marketing and development director at Travel West
Midlands, said that the decision to continue working with CBS was an
"obvious" one.

"Revenues continue to grow for National Express and I'm sure we'll see
further growth in the coming years," he said.

CBS Outdoor owns 95% of the UK bus advertising market, operating
approximately 75 contracts with bus companies, including First Group,
Arriva, Transdev, Go-Ahead, Veolia and Metroline.