Diageo-backed Translucis makes bid for retail clients

Translucis, the Diageo-owned start-up offering advertising in bars via giant liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, is planning to move away from its drinks-based heartland and onto the high street.

According to sources, the company is poised to announce its first retail clients. It currently operates a network of 240 bars across the UK.

Ads are beamed into the bars via Internet-linked satellite technology, provided by Kingston In Media, part of Kingston Telecommunications.

Translucis has been operating for more than 20 months and most of the advertisers have been drinks brands. But it has now managed to attract names such as Virgin Mobile, Xbox, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Expedia and Nestlé.

This week, Unilever’s Lynx, the leading male grooming brand, joins these advertisers. It is spending &£20,000 on a campaign to target 193 bars in theTranslucis network, to reach a claimed market of 860,000 consumers each week.

The specially created ads, which run without sound to avoid competing with the bar ambience, use more risqué material than current TV ads.

The creative theme – Lynx’s new formula ensures 24-hour protection from under-arm body odour – is the same, but the bar ads include references to the length of male and female orgasms.

Translucis claims to reach 1.2 million consumers each week – according to research company Ipsos – mainly in the 18to 24-year-old age group. The Lynx ads will run in bars such as Yates’s, Edwards, Walkabout, RSVP, The Edge, Heaven and Po Na Na. The campaign begins on May 31 and runs until June 8, with the ads showing for three hours each night.