Value of advertising space extended to £14million

Hundreds of SMEs and retailers have benefited from Ocean Outdoor’s out of home advertising fund which has proved an overwhelming success and surpassed the £10million originally promised.

One month after its launch, the fund has now closed having allocated £14 million of free out of home ad space across Ocean’s premium out of home network to SMEs and retailers.

The fund was established to boost a small army of businesses and stimulate jobs and local economies during the coronavirus pandemic.

• More than 350 companies applied to Ocean’s fund
• The beneficiaries include a broad range of SMEs across multiple sectors including food and beverage, direct to consumer, health and wellness, leisure, tech and B2B.
• 300 campaigns worth £14million are now being carried across 12 cities where Ocean has a presence
• The digital campaigns will be posted until June

Ocean Outdoor UK joint managing directors Phil Hall and Steve George said: “This has been an exceptional project which has without doubt helped some businesses keep their heads above the water, build brand equity, connect with new audiences and generate sales during a difficult period.

“Ocean’s sales team has been working at pace with all the business who applied, many of whom are new to out of home, to get their campaigns live. To meet demand we have also injected a further £4million into the fund.”

Business owners who applied for space include Manchester based Didsbury Gin, which recently switched operations to produce one million bottle of sanitiser in the space of seven days.

Co-founder Liam Manton said: “Now we’re grateful to have received this support from Ocean Outdoor in return. We haven’t let these challenging times dampen our spirit or creativity – and we’re really proud of this campaign. Hopefully, it will help drive sales on our website, which we’re reliant on now more than ever.”

Mark Middlemas, CEO and founder of The Athlete Media Group said: “Ocean Outdoor’s SME scheme gives a small business like AMG a fantastic national platform.  We have never had more engagement as a business and several hugely promising new business leads have come off the back of the campaign!”

“It is a difficult time for both athletes and the many charitable good causes they support so to be able to act as a force for good and deliver such a positive message for them is priceless!  The fabulous lucky7 creative work has helped us to connect in a more meaningful way to a much wider audience than we could normally.”

Scotland based l’Art du Vin is an artisan wine merchant, selling wines from small, independent growers to restaurants and hotels.

Managing director Philippe Larue said: “Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have had to alter our business, concentrating our efforts on contactless home deliveries to members of the public.

“The Ocean SME campaign helped us to successfully spread the word about our change in business model. We received lots of great feedback from customers who had seen our campaign in prominent locations around Scotland. Without question, the campaign was a fantastic tool to enable us to gain the upper hand in our attempt to remodel our business in these challenging times. “

Ocean’s in-house production team Ocean Studio were on hand to advise and assist with creative production as this was the first experience of digital out of home for many brands

The Ocean SME support fund was opened on April 6 for small to medium sized businesses affected by the coronavirus and operated in association with the Local Authorities Ocean works with. To qualify, participants needed to be open for business or be able to trade in the short term.

l’Art du Vin on Liverpool Media Wall

Didsbury Gin on The Screen @ Manchester One

l’Art du Vin on Liverpool Media Wall

Didsbury Gin on The Screen @ Manchester One

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