QMS Media has successfully secured an exclusive 10-year agreement with the City of Sydney, one of the world’s biggest outdoor advertising assets.
Following a long selection process, the agreement incorporates the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of what will be a predominantly digital advertising landscape.
The contract is believed to be around $300 million.
QMS Group CEO, Barclay Nettlefold (pictured) said QMS was honoured to win the lucrative City of Sydney contract.
“The City of Sydney Street Furniture contract is universally recognised as the jewel in the crown of Australia’s OOH industry. QMS is proud to be recognised for our credentials, capabilities and people in securing this contract.”
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the new suite of furniture equipped with predominantly digital panels would support the City’s post-Covid recovery and refresh the city centre streets.
“The new suite of furniture will help modernise our streets while also providing significant revenue to the City, which will help us maintain high quality services and public spaces for our residents, businesses and visitors,” the Lord Mayor said.
“This deal means we will have the capability to display real-time event, transport and emergency information on modern, sustainably designed and energy-efficient street furniture.”
The account, which was previously held by JCDecaux since the late 1990s, went to tender after the French-outdoor advertising failed to submit a bit to the tender last year, with the contract expiring at the end of January 2020.
JCDecaux ANZ CEO, Steve O’Connor said: “JCDecaux is not the preferred tenderer for the City of Sydney’s Street furniture contract. We are, of course, disappointed not to retain this contract.
“The City of Sydney was JCDecaux’s foundational contract in Australia, and we have since built a tremendous business here and in New Zealand.
“While a meaningful contract, it is not of the same calibre as the one we entered into in 1997. Irrespective of the result of the tender, JCDecaux will maintain a significant presence in the City of Sydney into the future due to its payphone contract with Telstra.”
Commenting on the significance of this win, Nettlefold added: “This is a game changer, not only for QMS but for the broader OOH industry. The scale of such an opportunity does not come along often.”
QMS will develop a new Sydney based operations hub to support installation, maintenance, cleaning and repair with a dedicated operations and maintenance crew to service the new Street Furniture contract.
The new contract will see QMS begin the inventory rollout in the second half of 2021. Prior to this, there will be expansion of the business with more than 40 new appointments reflected across all key business functions as part of the commitment to outstanding service delivery for the City Of Sydney.
