Piccadilly lights switched back on, fashion and beauty take starring role

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 30, 2017

​The famous advertising screens on Piccadilly Circus were switched back on this week with three fashion and beauty brands, L’Oréal Paris, Hunter and Stella McCartney, among its first partners.

The series of screens were replaced with a single state-of-the-art 4K LED digital screen, which has the ability to feature a patchwork appearance for multiple advertisers while also allowing single-brand takeovers of the complete screen.

An innovative live technology has been added to the installation to help the screen to react to certain external factors, such as the weather or temperature. This feature will be particularly relevant for fashion brands, giving them the opportunity to lure shoppers into their stores by displaying weather-appropriate clothing.

The first image to appear on the new Piccadilly Lights was a display of colours, which were sponsored by members of the public as part of a fundraising campaign for Barnardo’s, followed by content from Coca-Cola, Samsung, Hyundai, L’Oréal Paris, eBay, Hunter and Stella McCartney.

Vasiliki Arvaniti, portfolio director at Landsec, the owner of the screen, said on Thursday: “The Piccadilly Lights have been one of London’s icons for over a century, and are an unmissable sight for the 100 million people who pass through Piccadilly Circus every year. We know people have really missed the screen while renovation work has been carried out and both we, and the brands that light up the screen, are incredibly excited to have switched the Lights back on today.”

The screen is managed by Ocean Outdoor, a media company headed by CEO Tim Bleakley. He said: “Piccadilly Lights is one of the world's most responsive, feature-rich advertising displays. Today is a major milestone in the history of Piccadilly Lights and to mark it we have a superb line-up of iconic global brands across six categories ready to exercise its creativity.”