In 2009, Amscreen, Lord Sugar’s digital signage company, was appointed by BP’s UK retail business as its exclusive digital signage partner following an extensive procurement process for the contract. Now, the companies have announced an expansion of the relationship into mainland Europe following a deal with BP Europe SE. The contract will see digital signage screens installed in forecourts across the continent initially in Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.
Amscreen’s digital screen media network is claimed to be the UK’s largest, broadcasting on more than 3,000 screens nationwide to an audience of 25 million a week. The decision to expand its forecourt network to Europe will see its audience increase to 40 million a week once this initial rollout with BP is complete. This exclusive five year deal will also see BP UK extending its partnership with Amscreen for a further five years.
Extensive research was carried out by Amscreen including eye ball tracking and exit interviews ahead of these developments which demonstrated several advantages for advertisers, many of whom have an existing global presence. The expansion will offer brands a pan-European media network, enabling them to target a much larger audience in real time.
“Following on from the success of our partnership with Amscreen in the UK, it made perfect sense to mirror this onto our forecourt network across Europe,” said Jurgen Bloemers, marketing and cards director Europe at BP. “Amscreen’s unique ‘plug and play’ technology is easy for us to install and is sure to modernise digital advertising across European forecourts by centralising messaging, reducing wastage and maximising store compliance.”
“We are really excited about our expansion into Europe,” said Simon Sugar, CEO of Amscreen (pictured). “After an encouraging two years in the UK we are keen to further develop the network and this deal with BP is a perfect starting ground to mark our entry onto the European market. The user friendly nature of our digital signage technology means that it can be easily rolled out across the continent and we hope to have our screens installed in over 1,800 BP and Aral sites in the coming months. This is just a start for us in Europe and we will be announcing other European forecourt partnerships in the coming months.”
