People
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IN DEPTH: Focus still growing Chinese digital networks
Focus Media says it is outperforming the growth rate of the Chinese advertising market, as it once again concentrates its attention on digital out-of-home after discarding its Internet business.
Said chairman and CEO Jason Jiang: “According to Nielsen, the Chinese advertising market grew 15 percent year-on-year during the first half of 2010. [Focus] managed to grow the core business 24 percent year-on-year during the same period, indicating that we 
Focus discards Internet unit to concentrate on DOOH
China’s Focus Media is returning to its digital out-of-home roots and selling off its Internet advertising subsidiary Allyes.
A definitive agreement with technology investment firm Silver Lake will see Focus – which is traded on the U.S. NASDAQ market under the symbol FMCN – receive $124m for its 62 percent stake in Allyes.
Silver Lake will also acquire an undisclosed further chunk of equity in the Internet company
Banking veteran heads new DOOH content firm
The executive who created one of the best-known digital out-of-home networks in the financial-services sector has set up her own content shop, specialising in short-form video for digital signage.
Tracey Crowe, who during 17 years at Wachovia in the U.S. led the creation of a digital-signage network for 1200 branches, says she was prompted to establish Short Bites Media after Wachovia found it impossible to buy ready-to-use content.
Interpublic asks: what makes shoppers buy?
A new shopper-marketing agency from Interpublic Group will seek to establish exactly how purchase decisions are made – or not – both inside the store and out.
ShelfLife, based in Atlanta, is expected to announce its first clients and its management team at the end of this month. Part of Interpublic’s Mediabrands division, working with its experiential marketing unit Momentum Worldwide, and benefiting from a new research lab in
Fluid Music buys Mood Media, eyes U.S. retailers
Mood Media, which provides digital signage as well as music, radio and scent to retailers, has been acquired by Canada’s Fluid Music for €160m ($193m).
Headquartered in Luxembourg, Mood operates in 35 nations and has annual revenue of around $130m, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $31m.
“Fluid Music’s large North America customer base provides an excellent entry point to expand Mood Media’s visual
Motorcycle dealer network shows manufacturer content
A new digital out-of-home network in U.S. motorcycle dealerships is the brainchild of the man behind Blockbuster TV along with two alumni of a major Madison Avenue agency.
The Moto TV network comes from point-of-sale TV firm Agency 225, co-founded by Gary Halpin – who launched Blockbuster TV in 900 branches of the video-store chain in 1991 and saw it grow to 6000 locations – along with J. Walter
British, North American trade associations cosy up
Britain’s Screen Forum and North America’s Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA) are taking the first steps in a partnership that is likely to see each of them grow more active in the other’s territory.
The British organisation’s events programme will cross the Atlantic this summer, with the first date on The Screen Forum’s North American calendar being a 22 June breakfast briefing at the Crosby Hotel in New York’s SoHo.
Sector is poor at interaction, says Reactrix founder
A U.S. pioneer of interactive digital out-of-home has charged that a lack of interaction in most networks leaves consumers and advertisers cold.
Mike Schaiman, managing director and co-founder of Helios Interactive Technologies and previously one of the founders of Reactrix Systems, said: “People don’t leave their homes to watch TV on some street corner. What is initially captivating about digital signage – motion, colour, movement – can quickly become
