The Biggest Indoor DOOH Billboard In Europe Derailed At London Station, Just A Year After Lighting Up
October 8, 2024 by Dave Haynes
Europe’s largest indoor digital billboard has been switched off less than a year after being installed, but not for technical or energy conservation reasons. The government-owned company that manages the UK’s train network and stations has ordered the big ad display shut off because of larger problems, like overcrowding, at London’s Euston Station.
Network Rail has introduced a five-point improvement plan for the central London rail hub, including switching off a 15 meter wide by 4 meter tall LED ribbon billboard put in and sold by out of home ad giant JCDecaux.
The rail operator was criticized for swapping out platform and departures boards for the giant ad display, called Motion+. New passenger-focused information displays were put in, but they were smaller and were thought to lead to crowding in the central hall of an already swarmed rail station. I was through there a couple of times last fall. Crazy-busy, but then all of the ones in London seem to be. Waterloo was a big yikes.
The UK’s transport secretary even weighed in:
“For too long, Euston station simply hasn’t been good enough for passengers,” says Louise Haigh in the network rail announcement of the plan. “That’s why I’ve tasked Network Rail with coming up with a clear plan to immediately improve conditions for passengers. This includes a shutdown of the advertising boards from today to review their use.”
The first item in that now-released plan:
- Reviewing passenger information provision and circulation, including a shutdown and review of the use of overhead advertising boards
This is what the DOOH display replaced …
And this is what was put in for passengers, instead (I really like the layouts, but the problem was not the screens or content design, I think, it was how people crowded to see and reference them) … You can see below how everyone is looking at the big screen, and not the shiny new ones. This photo must have been taken after the new displays went in, but before the Decaux billboard went in and replaced that existing passenger information screen.
I don’t know the background on this, but I can’t imagine JCDecaux is terribly pleased. They can’t sell ads and recover an investment that would have undoubtedly had a whole bunch of zeroes in the price. And Network Rail in turn will not see a share of that revenue it can put to operations or improvements. I’d imagine if compensation for the media company has not already been arranged, it’s being sorted out. If not, oh dear.
Hat tip to AV for first noting this story …
Hail, plain old signage!