Maiden Outdoor snatches South West Trains and Virgin
Maiden Outdoor has won the pitches to sell advertising on trains and railway stations operated by Virgin and South West Trains.
The South West Trains contract, which will give Maiden the right to sell outdoor advertising at stations and on trains, will now run over six years – two years more than the four originally tendered for.
South West Trains, owned by Stagecoach Group, is the largest rail franchise in the UK and runs 1,635 trains every weekday, serving 207 stations. London Waterloo is the hub of its network.
The contract with Virgin Trains, owned by Stagecoach and Virgin Rail Group, runs for three years, covering 17 West Coast mainline stations and 430 poster sites.
Last week, Maiden also scooped the centralised Network Rail outdoor advertising account, worth up to &£350m in advertising revenue over ten years. Before the pitch, Maiden shared 90 per cent of the Network Rail business with JC Decaux.
However, it lost a pitch for London’s bus shelter contract to incumbent Adshel. The contract is worth an estimated &£250m in ad revenue over ten years and covers half the capital’s bus shelters. Adshel, part of Clear Channel, already controls the other half.
