Wildstone secures GBP £80m deal for London digital billboards
Wildstone has secured a £80 million agreement for the acquisition of 13 digital billboard sites across prominent locations in London.
The contract, dealing with Transport for London (TfL), offers a 99-year lease which ensures continued advertising at some of the city's busiest roadside spots. This arrangement not only strengthens Wildstone's foothold in the digital outdoor advertising space but also provides TfL with an important revenue source to enhance London's transport services.
The high-traffic locations involve more than one million vehicles passing daily, including sites like Euston Road underpass, noted as one of Europe's busiest roads, Silicon Roundabout at Old Street in East London, Chiswick Towers on the M4 towards Heathrow, and the Wandsworth roundabout known for its distinctive advertising structure.
Additional notable sites within this £80 million agreement include arterial routes like the Leytonstone underpass and the A40 underpass in Ealing, offering valuable exposure for advertisers in key London locations.
Such public-private partnerships demonstrate a trend where public sector entities optimise private collaborations to generate revenue and improve urban infrastructure. For TfL, the financial reinforcement is significant as it endeavours to diversify funding sources.
Wildstone, known in the Out Of Home (OOH) advertising sector, viewed this venture as an optimal means to broaden its portfolio which encompasses over 5,000 digital and traditional billboards across the UK and Europe, with plans for further global growth.
The existing media sales for these digitised TfL sites will continue under the incumbents Clear Channel, Global, JCDecaux, and Ocean Outdoor.
Plans are underway from Wildstone to upgrade these newly acquired sites to enhance their attractiveness for both advertisers and road users.
Damian Cox, Wildstone's Founder and Global CEO, stated: "This acquisition reinforces Wildstone's commitment to redefining digital outdoor advertising. We're excited to bring fresh innovation to these iconic sites, working with talented architects to elevate their appeal to advertisers. A huge thank you to the incredibly dedicated team at TfL, without whom this project wouldn't have been possible."
Chris Reader, Head of Commercial Media at TfL, commented: "We're pleased to have worked with Wildstone in this long term agreement which will give advertisers the opportunity to reach thousands of people every day with innovative and creative designs. The money received through this work will be reinvested into the transport network, helping more people travel safely and efficiently across the city."
