CDP veteran sets his sights on the great outdoors; Alan James will be joining outdoor's trade body at the right time. (Newsmaker/Alan James).(Outdoor Advertising Association)(Brief Article)

Alan James' appointment to the new role of chief executive of the Outdoor Advertising Association marks a sea change in the direction of the trade body.

With its origins as a pressure group it has traditionally been concerned with lobbying the Government on matters affecting its own backyard, and was most recently run by the former Labour MP Matthew Carrington.

But the OAA is now taking on greater responsibility for the conceptual promotion of outdoor as a medium to advertisers and agencies--and the hiring of James is a key part of the strategy. Some believe that this move to a more coherent trade body is overdue.

"Individual contractors have been very good at marketing themselves but in the past there has been no centralisation of selling outdoor as an industry," MindShare's head of outdoor, Catherine Bosworth, points out.

Such is the excitement generated by the "new" OAA that some have started to make optimistic comparisons between it and the widely acclaimed Radio Advertising Bureau.

But James, although admitting that the OAA will be borrowing some ideas from the RAB, dismisses these suggestions as rash.

He says that he will be concentrating on getting himself in front of creative agencies as well as media agencies and their clients.