The impact of COVID-19 is being felt across the entire economy with many employees furloughed and businesses being forced to pause trading. The use of public transport has also significantly dropped as people are staying at home.

This has impacted advertising reach in sectors from all industries such as pubs, restaurants, cafes, stadiums, events and cultural destinations.

Ocean Outdoor is behind the funding which will see businesses given access to advertising space across its screens in 12 UK cities.

Phil Hall and Steve George, joint managers of Ocean Outdoor UK, comment: “Previous crises have seen a reasonably rapid return to ‘normality’ for strong brands – and research from Kantar shows that stronger brands recover nine times faster.

“However, for many SMEs, income streams and operating costs are under incredible strain. Ocean hopes to alleviate some of that stress through this fund. If we can leverage our network to help keep businesses and local economies going, or kick-start them even, then that can only be a good thing.”

Working with local authorities, screens in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, London, Bristol and Southampton will be opened up in a bid to generate more revenue for businesses suffering at this time.

While the vast majority of people who can are working from home, according to Ocean, one in three people are not able to. In addition to the 67% of people who are leaving the home to buy food, essential supplies or exercise, people are still in a position to access outdoor advertising.

For this reason, the message from Hall and George is: “Brands, retailers and SMEs need to continue to market themselves, so our message is do not go dark”.

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