Clear Channel merges sales across formats
Outdoor media owner Clear Channel is to merge its Adshel and billboards sales teams in an attempt to capitalise on a growing trend towards cross-format campaigns.
The two teams will be restructured into four groups: three covering specialists Posterscope, Kinetic and Helix, and one to focus on “non-standard” formats such as Connect, its phone-box advertising medium, point-of-purchase and banners.
The move follows the promotion of former Adshel managing director Julie France and sales director Rob Atkinson to Clear Channel UK group roles two months ago.
France has made clear her intention of reinvigorating the billboards market and bringing to Clear Channel sales and marketing techniques from Adshel.
France believes the restructure will make a huge difference. She says: “The market has been calling out for one sales team. It makes sense if you are an agency or a specialist to send one or two people to sell our whole portfolio rather than four or five people as can happen now. It is a huge benefit to cross-format selling.”
She cites global advertisers such as Coca-Cola and Vodafone, which have embraced multi-format campaigns, from buses to billboards and phone boxes, this year. It is a growing trend, she adds.
“We are selling across formats. There are times when it is right to have separate teams and times when they should be merged. For us, it is the right time to put the teams together,” she says.
