Sony signs global sponsorship deal for Avanti DOOH Short Film Festival

Billed as the largest public art event ever, the festival is a global event that is being screened across 14 countries in 64 cities worldwide, on 16,000 screens with an anticipated reach of 188 million people.

Avanti, a UK digital ‘out of home’ media specialist, will broadcast the event across its DOOH network in the UK. Participating European networks include: Screening Media in Belgium, TF1 Outdoor in France, Trend Network and 42MediaGroup in Germany, Cloe Communications and Derecom in Italy and Dotone in Portugal.

For the event, Avanti has also recruited several other high profile operators in the UK including the BBC’s 16 large format LED Screens located in major city centres and City Gateway’s LED screen in Manchester. Through these and other DOOH networks, the festival will be broadcast to an estimated weekly audience of 25m in the UK alone.

Based around the theme ‘Journey’, there have been over 700 entries to the event. The top 30 short film to appear onscreen during the Festival, which runs from the end of May to 3 June 2009.

Simon Rees, CEO of Avanti, said: While the Sony brand is recognised for its technical innovation and creativity, its involvement clearly demonstrates its belief in digital media as a creative and impactful communication platform. Art by Chance is a unique event which we believe provides a step-change in awareness and flexibility of the medium.

Stuart Pemble, of Sony Professional (Europe), added: Working with the Art by Chance Festival we can see how digital media can be used not only for commercial purposes, but also to bring creativity and impact to a broader audience. The engagement people have with screens in their everyday lives means that the ultra-short films presented through this communication channel will really help people to see digital media in a new way.