• October 27, 2003

In an effort to get Madison Avenue focused on the creative applications of outdoor media, the outdoor ad industry Monday unveiled plans for a new ad campaign running - where else - in outdoor media. Details of the media strategy were not disclosed, but the effort, dubbed the "Year of the Creative," was announced during a meeting of the Creative Committee of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America in Los Angeles. The new committee is comprised of artists, designers and advertising executives who will concentrate on five specific initiatives: development of an industry creative positioning and campaign; initiation of a series of innovative seminars to introduce agency designers to the creative opportunities that outdoor provides; expansion of the involvement by advertisers and agencies in the industry's annual creative competition, the OBIE Awards; creation of a speaker's bureau that will focus on outdoor design at ad industry conferences and universities; and improvement of the quality of public service advertising within the medium.