Media: Headliner - The robust innovator taking outdoor forward.(Julie France, Clear Channel)(Biography)

Julie France, Clear Channel's new group managing director, has plans to revive the large-format billboard.

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 pounds 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.