±±¾©Èü³µpk10

It has been a hectic couple of weeks for Julie France. At the start of May, she was promoted from her previous role as the managing director of Adshel to group managing director, responsible for all of Clear Channel's formats. She has therefore taken on the area previously run by Jonathan Lewis, the Clear Channel Billboards boss, who is leaving the company to pursue other interests.

Reporting to Stevie Spring, the UK chief executive of Clear Channel, France, who has focused on the six-sheet market since joining the industry seven years ago, is now also charged with taking forward the large-format billboard side of the business. It's a challenge, given that the market dynamics of the two sectors are so different. But she's not had much time to put out her stall - because all this time, the Transport for London bus-shelter contract pitch has been bubbling under. Last week, the news broke that Adshel had retained it.

It's a big bit of business - worth an estimated £250 million in ad revenue over its ten-year term - and Adshel, which had held the contract since 1980, had to fight off fierce competition from rival outdoor contractors including JC-Decaux, Maiden and Viacom.

A good omen for France in her new role - but now the really hard work starts on the billboard side of things. The six-sheet sector has been the focus of growth in the outdoor industry for years now - as the industry has concentrated increasingly on effectiveness, accountability and return on investment, six-sheets have majored on their relative proximity to points of sale in town centres. This has also allowed the medium to draw in new types of advertiser, such as the packaged-goods multinationals.

As the boss of Adshel, France has been the prime mover in the seemingly inexorable rise of the format. And it's not just a case of her being in the right place at the right time - her sales strategies have amplified and enhanced the effect. When she first arrived at Adshel from Express Newspapers, where she had been the deputy advertisement director, many in the outdoor business (not just buyers but rival media owners too) thought her ball-breaking style might prove counterproductive. Abrasiveness has always been de rigeur in the national newspaper market - and, though outdoor was far from being a sleepy backwater, it had its own sense of propriety.

But her straight-talking, no-nonsense approach came as a breath of fresh air and the outdoor industry soon came to appreciate the wit and lively intelligence that accompanies her robust style. She has an impish sense of humour and has been known to pull the odd practical joke at the expense of her staff.

She has tried to innovate. The most successful on the sales side (she initially joined Adshel as a sales director) has been "dynamic pricing".

This involves offering attractive discounts for significant upfront commitments but, as an advertiser gets closer to a particular campaign, the rates on offer will start to rise. Parts of the outdoor industry used to operate the other way around.

But outdoor specialists warn that if she tries something similar in the billboard market, she will almost certainly come unstuck. "It will require fine judgment," one observer says. "In some ways, she'll have to be almost schizophrenic, with an entirely different approach as regards six-sheets and billboards. The latter is very definitely a buyer's market. And we would all be extremely concerned if she tried to introduce conditional selling."

France laughs when she hears this and it's clear she finds this sort of response somewhat predictable. "We have a number of formats," she says.

"That's what is unique about Clear Channel - the breadth and depth of our portfolio. It is in our interest to stimulate demand and we may look at ways to present our whole portfolio. There may be opportunities to sell across formats. Others may call that conditional selling. I certainly don't."

And she's not daunted by the fact that the billboard format seems so unfashionable. These things go in phases, she insists. She and her sales teams (in another recent appointment, Rob Atkinson, the sales director of Adshel, was made the group sales director) will be reminding the market of the medium's most recent golden age, when brands such as Pretty Polly and Wonderbra produced award-winning billboard work.

Her appointment is pretty unanimously welcomed on the buying side of the fence. Her profile and feistiness is good for the medium as a whole, the consensus seems to be . "She's a good operator," Alan Simmons, the chairman of Concord, says. "She's hard but she has managed to steer a pretty good course and has always proved her critics wrong. It will be interesting to see how she approaches this latest challenge."

Indeed. And where does France herself see this in the context of her career? After all, it hardly seems like yesterday when she was regarded as a bit of a square peg, biding her time before returning to the newspaper medium in an even more senior role.

She seems briefly flattered by the suggestion before laughing again.

"I'm not a great believer in going back," she says. "I remember when I first joined the outdoor industry, it seemed like such a small club. Now, I'd like to think that I've become accepted."

THE LOWDOWN

Age: Old enough

Lives: East Sheen SW14 with husband Alex

Favourite ad: Wonderbra "hello boys"

Greatest extravagance: Jewellery - I just can't resist it

Describe yourself in three words: Demanding, demanding, demanding

Favourite book: Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk - very funny and

for anyone who's thinking about leaving this industry to go into the

hotel business

Living person you most admire: Rupert Murdoch

Personal motto: Play to win