John Scorah, the More Group’s former sales controller, has set up a
new sales house to sell a mix of ambient media products on behalf of
their owners.
CPA Scorah, a 50:50 joint venture with washroom boards contractor CPA,
opens for business today with three clients on its books.
They are CPA, which has 5,000 A3 poster sites in Whitbread pubs,
MegaVision, which has dot matrix boards in 60 BP petrol forecourts, and
EPA, which owns 350 backlit six-sheets in NCP car parks across the
country.
Scorah, who is managing director of the new set-up, reckons between them
they could pull in up to pounds 2.5 million in sales in the first
year.
Until now it has been hard for ambient media companies to attract big
brands, but by packaging ambient offerings the new venture may change
that.
He said: ’Lots of developers are coming out with great ideas for
out-of-home media but don’t necessarily know how to sell them or who to
sell them to.’
Poster buying specialist Blade estimates that ambient media will be
worth pounds 51.2 million this year (pounds 64 million if its higher
production costs are included), which is 18.5 per cent up on last
year.
Scorah said the company would only sell on behalf of contractors with
whom it had an exclusive relationship, saying he did not want to be
’pitched against other sales forces’. He will consider taking on all
forms of ambient media if there is no conflict with existing
clients.
SMS is co-funded by Scorah, CPA boss Cark Pickford and a property
investor.
The sales manager is Di Regan, formerly sales manager at CPA. Scorah
will be recruiting two sales executives - ideally with up to two years
experience in outdoor - as the business grows.
Now that Pickford has handed his sales function to Scorah he is
concentrating on growing his portfolio. Current advertisers on his sites
include Nike, Aristoc and a handful of computer games.
Scorah is in talks with other contractors, and is negotiating with two
large retailers about a set of 42-inch plasma screens which he has
developed.
