Times Square Owners Create Ad Network

Sept 24, 2009

- Katy Bachman

NEW YORK A newly formed group of media companies controlling some of the biggest digital signs in Times Square will make it easier for brands to simultaneously put their names in lights across multiple venues.

Called Times Square Domination, the networking effort offers marketers a one-stop shop for creating an unprecedented campaign in the nation’s largest out-of-home arena, visited by 565,000 people each day.

The network will be able to sync marketers' messages across many of Times Square’s most captivating video billboards, including Clear Channel’s Spectacolor HD sign, ABC SuperSign, the Nasdaq monitor and News Corp.’s Astrovision sign. As part of the package, TSD offers accompanying marketing and event services such as sampling and the use of street teams to create brand immersion.

“Sometimes, the benefits of coming together as an industry for customers are so compelling that even strong rivals see the value,” said Harry Coghlan, president of Clear Channel Spectacolor, one of the companies participating in the network along with ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales, Nasdaq, News Corp. and Reuters.

TSD will also include the Times Square Network, a fully integrated platform created around Clear Channel’s Spectacolor HD sign at 47th Street at Duffy Square. When it launches next year, Clear Channel is hoping to turn the sign into a new entertainment source, complete with original programming broadcast from a Times Square studio and streamed on a companion Web site. Short segments will focus on popular interests, including major product launches or interviews with people on the street. Sponsored advertising will air in pre-determined slots and be combined with live-event marketing, mobile messaging, polling and contests.

“When we build SpecHD, we knew this attraction could also support a new model,” said Coghlan. “We knew that we could enable true interaction with the audience, going beyond traditional one-way broadcasts to create true two-way conversations.”


(Courtesy of AdWeek.com)