As director of strategy and services at London Underground, Parry has been overseeing the deployment of a new generation of high-tech advertising display formats in and around the Tube network. As things stand at the moment, there are nine digital panels - usually located in escalator wells - and a further 70 LCD screens.
And CBS Outdoor - the company that manages advertising on behalf of the network - has just installed a bank of projectors at Euston Station. Located on the Victoria line, they are casting full-motion video on to the walls opposite platforms.
And slowly but surely, this new technology is transforming the London Underground environment. The network's growing estate of digital panels and LCDs has enabled advertisers to bring moving pictures and animated graphics to a space that was once characterised by static images.
The cross-track projection (XTP) system takes this a stage further. Once it is fully up and running, XTP will enable advertisers to target TV/cinema-style ads at the travelling public.
Nicky Cheshire, director of CBS Outdoor Alive, believes the content carried by XTP will be well received creatively by those who use the Tube.
"On average commuters are on the platform for three minutes waiting for trains," she says. "During that time, they want to be distracted. This is an ideal medium to engage their attention."
It has to be said that the XTP system is still at the test stage. London Underground plans ultimately to install 150 projectors in 24 stations, with the roll-out beginning in earnest at the start of 2008.
However, before that happens, the technology is being put through its paces using content provided both by LU itself and CBS Outdoor. "At the moment, we're proving the technology and assessing interest from the advertising community before we take advertising and export XTP to other stations," says Parry.
Limitations
XTP does have its limitations. For instance, images must be turned off as trains come into the station. At rush hour on the Victoria line, that could mean each advertising message lasting only for a few seconds.
In common with other outdoor formats, advertisers will also have to tell the story without sound, so simply running creative content originally designed for TV or cinema won't necessarily be appropriate. Agencies will have to adapt to the medium.
Nevertheless, the project has excited not only London Underground but the outdoor advertising community as a whole. Ivan Clark, managing director of the Destination Media Group, a division of outdoor advertising company Kinetic, says XTP could be a winner. "If they can prove that the technology works then I think it will be very heavily demanded by advertisers," he says.
London Underground's roll-out of digital technology reflects developments elsewhere in the outdoor advertising industry.
For while the market is still dominated by traditional poster sites beside roads, railways and in shopping malls, there has been a slow but steady migration to digital panels.
According to the Outdoor Advertising Association, revenue raised from digital sources was just four per cent of the total in 2006 but this expected to rise to 16 per cent this year as investment in digital screens rises.
The Tube is seen as something of a prime mover in all this but it is certainly not the only player.
For instance, mainline stations are also in the digital game, with ad management company Titan operating a number of screens that carry both editorial and advertising content.
Out on the roads, Clear Channel provides advertisers with a number of digital billboards beside motorways. Meanwhile, the British Airports Authority (BAA) and advertising solutions company JCDecaux have been creating a cornucopia of digital opportunities at the soon-to-be-opened Heathrow Terminal 5.
"We're introducing digital screens at all our airports," says Duncan Tolson, media director at BAA. "But Terminal 5 has been a catalyst for us."
As Tolson explains, Terminal 5 has allowed BAA to plan its advertising environment from the ground up. When the new terminal opens its doors to passengers, the digital format will be the order of the day.
For advertisers, that will mean a choice of whether to put still or moving imagery on digital screens, with the added option of running certain ads at specified times of the day. "It's a very flexible system," adds Tolson. "For example, retailers will be able to use the screens to put up timely messages, such as details of special offers."
Immediacy
Potentially, that represents a huge opportunity. With conventional posters - which have to be printed and then booked on to a site for a set period - there is no opportunity to alter the message. Digital brings immediacy of the internet or TV to the poster site.
Cheshire cites the example of ads run by McDonald's for its Deli menus on London Underground screens. "Details of their sandwiches were posted and changed every day. You can't do that with conventional posters," she says.
But it's early days. Tolson admits that many advertisers will be on something of a learning curve, not least because content on digital screens is something of a hybrid.
"The real challenge is in coming up with the creative," he says. "It isn't TV because there is no sound and it isn't a conventional poster because you can build in movement. "
So what we're likely to see is some content that is reminiscent of TV or cinema and a lot creative that draws inspiration from multimedia online ads where sound is generally thought of as intrusive.
"At the moment much of the creative work comes from online agencies," says Cheshire.
Creative agencies also face the challenge of producing tailored content for the various formats. On the Tube, LCD screens are running short ads on loops of just a few seconds as they tend to be located where people are walking past quickly.
The ads on digital panels run on longer loops, as they are "broadcast" to commuters as they are carried up and down escalators. When XTP ads arrive, the expectation is that there will be more scope for creativity.
At Terminal 5, Tolson expects the advertising messages to be tailored to the customer journey. Screens in the check in areas will carry short, practical messages. In the departure lounges and at gates, Tolson sees scope for more complex creative.
"People are more relaxed and more receptive once they get to the departure lounges and gates," he says.
Digital technology is set to change outdoor advertising by bringing in creative that has more in common with TV or online advertising than traditional posters.
In the process, it will also change and perhaps enhance the face of our public spaces. In the case of London's Tube system, a little more distraction may be no bad thing.