• by Karl Greenberg , January 20, 2011

Clear Channel Out of Home has big plans to expand programs that were largely experimental last year. 

The company last year piloted programs featuring interactive digital displays in bus shelters in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. as well as bathroom mirrors and elevator banisters in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Clear Channel plans to expand these programs this year to other markets.

The San Francisco program, which Clear Channel developed with Coca-Cola and Yahoo, involves 20 interactive digital transit shelters that work like giant tablet computers with 72-inch touchscreens. The shelters, which are active through January with the Yahoo program, also offer free WiFi in a 3-block radius according to Jordy Ford, vice president of digital development at Clear Channel.

"The units are sold in four-week increments," he said. "We are working with lots of clients in technology and media to find interactive applications to run on these screens." He said the overall goal is to create a turnkey solution. "The idea is to take customers' mobile and tablet apps and re-purpose them for these screens without losing functionality," Ford noes. The screens display five 12-second spots per minute on 24-hour rotation. The company says the network will exceed 744,204 adults 18-plus EOI per week.

Yahoo's campaign centers on interactive games on the screens and a competition between different San Francisco neighborhoods, all to promote Yahoo's digital apps. The effort, via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, has garnered 150,000 game plays according to Clear Channel. The program includes a real-time measurement system that gauges game play, time, location, usage trends and click streams.

Clear Channel Out of Home is also putting ads in airport mirrors, although you can't see them if you stand directly in front of them. The program, developed by Mirrus, is running on more than 100 bathroom mirrors at Chicago's O'Hare.