London, 22^nd February, 2024: Talon, the global independent Out of Home (OOH) agency, today announces the appointment of Sue Frogley as Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead the business globally as it targets further growth and expansion.

Frogley is an accomplished industry leader with over 30 years’ experience growing successful global media businesses. She will join Talon from Publicis Groupe, where she was CEO of its media arm in the UK for over six years. Under her leadership, Publicis Media UK grew into a £2bn+ billings operation, thanks to several new business wins across its media agencies Zenith, Starcom and Spark Foundry. Before that, Frogley was President of Global Client Solutions at Publicis Groupe and previously spent over 13 years at Dentsu (then Aegis Media), where she held several global leadership roles, most latterly as Global President of Commercial Operations.

This appointment follows a rigorous selection process.  Frogley will report to Stewart Easterbrook, chairman and joins Talon’s global board.  Eric Newnham, who has acted as interim CEO for the past few months, will revert to the role of Founder and strategic advisor to the board.

Frogley is the latest in a series of new senior hires, signalling Talon’s commitment to ongoing strategic growth worldwide. Last year, Stewart Easterbrook joined as Chairman, the appointments of Mike Saunter as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Henry Lucas in the newly created role of Group Chief Commercial Officer soon followed.

Frogley’s appointment follows a period of significant growth for Talon, which celebrated its 10^th anniversary in 2023. Since Equistone Partners Europe, one of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors, invested in the business in July 2022, Talon has completed the acquisition of Evolve, the fast-growing, independent specialist OOH business, and the acquisition of Novus Media Canada Corp (now Talon OOH Canada).  

In her new role, Frogley will focus on further international growth, driving Talon’s digital capabilities and awareness of OOH as an effective, creative, data-driven media channel.

Stewart Easterbrook, Chairman, said: “Sue is a formidable and dynamic leader with a wealth of experience leading global media businesses.  I am thrilled to have someone of Sue’s calibre leading our business and look forward to working with Sue, and with our teams, to drive further growth in the scale and ambition of Talon.”

Sue Frogley said: “I have long admired Talon’s proposition, ethos and trailblazing spirit to challenge perceptions and drive growth in the OOH sector. Over the past 10 years, Eric has developed a talented team that has successfully built a unique and expanding global business that holds an enviable position in the industry. I can’t wait to get started and help unlock even more growth potential and shape Talon’s next important chapter.”

The pioneers of Out of Home

At Talon we’re the changemakers, the trailblazers, the provocateurs, the pioneers of Out of Home (OOH). Combining a heady mix of creativity, technology and data, our team share their expert opinion on their OOH predictions and what they’d like to see more of in 2024.

“A continued push towards automation and data driven decision making. More intelligent optimisation of campaign briefs to ideal plans.”

Anant East, Chief Technology Officer, Talon

“I’d like the whole industry to be more collaborative. If we put our efforts together, I think we have a real shot at generating more effective outcomes, growing OOH and making more meaningful change happen.”

Sophie Pemberton, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Talon

“Data has been a hot topic in OOH for a number of years and rightly so but sometimes the focus on optimising media plans at site level has come at a creative cost.

Thankfully, we’re already starting to see the dial turn back and our clients and agencies are increasing the attention they give to the creative that sits within the poster. If we fail to make creative impact, no amount of audience optimisation can deliver the ROI our clients need and deserve.”

Jay Young, Chief Client Officer, Grand Visual

“Exciting. Looking forward to playing in new spaces and technologies. In particular the new Printworks ceiling and Battersea Power station promise to be fantastic new canvases for brands.”

Ben Gardiner, Head of Client Services, Grand Visual

“Definitely more digital, more data, more automation and more AI across the OOH landscape. Hopefully more sustainability, and equity being promoted within out of home organisations.”

Amy Horton, Group Chief Transformation Officer, Talon

“I think the OOH Industry in Ireland is going to be one to watch in 2024. 2023 marked the resurgence of so many brands to our medium, through clever executions and creative displays. Continued investment by media owners in roadside DOOH, a focus on sustainability initiatives and measurement of OOH are going to be hot topics for 2024 and set OOH apart.”

Caroline Decourcy, Insight Director, Talon Ireland

“The global OOH landscape is rapidly evolving and it’s been fantastic to see some of our partners developing the inventory to follow some of the industry’s trends and technology advancements. The rise of DOOH enables more and more flexible and efficient campaigns which our teams are taking full advantage, as well as offering creative opportunities that I’m looking forward to seeing of more and more.”

Camille Uzan, Business Director, Talon International

“OOH is an exciting industry to work in and is undergoing not only a renaissance as a medium but transformation as an essential communications channel. OOH and other media will be in a race to adopt, centralise and integrate the right AdTech and MarTech to transform business processes and enable smarter, faster and better service to marketers and their agencies.

The businesses that commit to the investment will grow faster and those that watch and wait will be left wondering about all that lost opportunity.”

Melanie Lindquist, Managing Director, Talon APAC

“OOH will continue to be uniquely positioned to deliver on both shifting brand awareness metrics and driving action. As data and technology increases, appetite in programmatic DOOH will continue to grow and attract new advertisers into the channel.”

Aoife Hudson, Deputy Managing Director, Talon Ireland

“I love how ambitious our industry is and at Talon we strive to be bold and at the forefront of change. In general, I think that industry wide we will continue to grow and evolve our ESG strategies, deepen DEI further into the fabric of our organisations and dare I say it… AI will become more prevalent in our working culture which will bring about new learning opportunities and productivity efficiencies.”

Hayley Tiptaft, Group People Director, Talon

Here’s to a successful 2024 and a happy, healthy and successful New Year to all our clients, agencies and partners.