JCDecaux

Advertising street furniture was a concept invented by Jean-Claude Decaux. Street furniture includes bus shelters, Morris columns, city information panels (CIP/MUPIs) and kiosks. Such formats enable advertisers to reach city centres, where large-format billboards are not available. Cities can retain a portion of the advertising panels for their own use. In some countries, JCDecaux holds a contract in shopping malls.

In order to adapt street furniture to the environment, JCDecaux works with internationally renowned designers, such as: Mario Bellini, Philip Cox, Peter Eisenman, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Patrick Jouin, Philippe Starck, Robert Stern, Martin Szekely and Jean-Michel Wilmotte. JCDecaux also has a design office, which works to improve and modernise furniture.

Street furniture also includes a range of non-advertising sites, such as self-service toilets (Sanisettes), electronic newspapers and interactive kiosks next to public benches, bins, columns, road signs, glass batteries and paper containers.

The term transport includes outdoor advertising in airports, on the underground, on buses, trams, and on taxis. JCDecaux operates concessions in 150 airports and more than 300 subways, trains, trolleys and bus stations. In 2013, advertising in transport accounted for 37.9% of JCDecaux's revenue.[12]

Billboard advertising includes advertising billboards of more than 8 m². These formats can be adapted for many different purposes, such as for event artworks (for example: building wraps), which is operated by JCDecaux under the brand "Artvertising".

Individuals are offered the opportunity to lease part of their property (i.e. wall or garden) to JCDecaux as a billboard site.

JCDecaux originated in France and quickly became established abroad, with its first foreign contracts in Belgium in 1966 and then in Portugal in 1971.

Thanks to its partnership with Wall AG, the company settled in Germany in 1982 and then in Turkey in 1996.

JCDecaux UK was founded in the United Kingdom in 1984 and is the market leader in outdoor advertising. In 2005, JCDecaux UK unveiled the UK's tallest outdoor advertising structure: the M4 Torch. JCDecaux won several important contracts such as: a contract for Outdoor Advertising at St Pancras International in London (2011),[19] and National Rail Outdoor Advertising and BAA Advertising Contracts at Heathrow, Heathrow Express, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Airports. In 2010, JCDecaux completed the acquisition of UK rival Titan Outdoor.[20] In 2015, JCDecaux won the Transport for London (TfL) bus shelter advertising contract.[21]

JCDecaux can now be found in most European countries, including Luxembourg (1985), the Netherlands (1986), Finland (1989), Sweden (1989), Spain (1990), Slovakia (1990), Czech Republic (1995), Norway (1998), Ireland (1999), Poland (1999) and in Hungary (2012). JCDecaux can also be found in the Baltic states (2002), Bulgaria (2007), and Ukraine (2007).[22] Additionally, JCDecaux is present in Denmark (AFA JCDecaux Denmark) since 1989, in Italy (IGPDecaux) since 1995, in Iceland (AFA JCDecaux Iceland) since 1998, in Switzerland (APG|SGA) since 1999, in Austria (Gewista) since 2001, in Croatia and Slovenia (Europlakat) since 2001, in Serbia (Alma Quattro) since 2003 and in Russia (Russ Outdoor) since 2007 through equity or joint ventures.

JCDecaux has been present in the United States since 1993 in major cities and 26 US airports, including New York,[23] Washington, D.C.,[24] and Los Angeles.[25] JCDecaux entered Canada in 2002.

Its North America division has its head office 350 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[26]

JCDecaux moved into Brazil and Argentina in 1998. The company is also a part of the outdoor market in Argentina, Uruguay (2000), and Chile (2001). JCDecaux won a contract for 1000 digital clocks in São Paulo (2012), completing the acquisition of 85% of EUMEX.[27]

The company's operation also covers the Middle East with offices established in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Doha in Qatar, Tel Aviv in Israel, as well as Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah in Saudi Arabia. JCDecaux signed a 20-year exclusive street furniture contract to provide the City of Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, with a wide range of advertising street furniture.[28]

JCDecaux is present in six African countries: Algeria (2007), Cameroon (2011), Côte d'Ivoire (2011), South Africa (2011), Tanzania (2016), Botswana (2016), and Nigeria (2017).

JCDecaux expanded to Australia in 1997. In Asia, JCDecaux can be found in Singapore and Thailand (1999), Japan (2000, as MCDecaux) and South Korea (2001). JCDecaux entered China in 2004, in seven airports, including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The company also has a presence in India (2006), Uzbekistan (2006), Kazakhstan (2007) and Mongolia (2014).[29]

JCDecaux maintains most of the bus stops and MUPIs in the NDMC area in Delhi.

In 2018, the company acquired Australian outdoor advertising company APN Outdoor.[30]

In March 2020, JCDecaux reported that they had been disinfecting bus shelters in Delhi as an effective method to combat the spread of COVID-19.[31]

In April 2022, JCDecaux Australia appointed Max Eburne as their CCO, who confirmed that OOH was "stronger than ever before" and was coming out of the period of considerable losses during the COVID-19 restrictions period.[32]