News

Digital signage helping to find missing persons

July 11, 2012

Digital out-of-home media company Amscreen is supporting the U.K.'s Missing People charity by donating network space toward the biggest digital billboard campaign in British history.

The campaign will see the U.K.'s largest digital media owner broadcast appeals nationally across its network of screens, Ross Miller, director of fundraising and communications for Missing People, said in a release.

"Amscreen has been able to provide us a very reliable, simple and quick way to deliver this kind of message nationally with no fuss," he said.

The flexible, real-time nature of the network offers the charity the ability to drive national awareness literally within minutes of the individual being reported as missing. With content being donated on around 3,000 sites across Amscreen's health care and convenience store networks, the ads will reach nearly 25 million U.K. adults during the vital days after the initial missing report. Advertisements will include details of individual missing people, creating awareness of the new number to call for sighting — 116 000 — and harnessing the public's help to join the search, said Simon Sugar, CEO of London-based Amscreen.

"Flexibility and speed are both essential when it comes to advertising Missing People appeals, and our ability to get content onto screens across the U.K. within a matter of minutes is a great advantage and we hope it will be of great benefit to the campaign," he said.

The value of the total advertising space donated by Amscreen and other companies within the outdoor advertising industry is estimated at over £1 million ($1.6 million U.S.), and the campaign is estimated to reach a record number during the summer months when — thanks to the Olympics — Britain will be at its busiest.

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