Clear Channel boosts ambient
US company Clear Channel has acquired a 30 per cent stake in ambient media specialist the Media Vehicle Group.
In exchange for the stake, Clear Channel will invest &£5m in the Media Vehicle Group to accelerate its international expansion.
The Media Vehicle Group, which is best known for ads on supermarket trolleys, launched a Dutch company last August and is now hoping to enter several more countries across Europe.
In the UK, Media Vehicle already has contracts to provide trolley ads in most major supermarket chains, including Tesco, Safeway, Sainsbury’s and Asda.
The company has recently set up a division called Media Vehicle Broadcast, which has been appointed to run “Health Track” – the healthcare TV channel – operating in 4,000 doctor’s surgeries across the UK.
Jessica Hatfield, founder and chief executive of the Media Vehicle Group, claims the company is in advanced talks with several large European supermarket chains, but refused to reveal which.
The Media Vehicle was set up in 1995. The company will remain separate from Clear Channel and Hatfield says there are no plans to merge sales teams with any of Clear Channel’s other companies, which include the More Group.
