2019-2024
Gewista today
2024
The Gewista office moves into the ORBI Tower in TownTown together with Infoscreen, Kulturformat and Megaboard. The close proximity further promotes cooperation between the companies, and marks the beginning of a new era in the Gewista Group with the new Vienna office location.
Gewista Service logistics can still be found at the Litfaßstraße 6 location.
2023
Gewista extends its portfolio with the new Premium Board. Building on the success of the City Lights, a similar principle is now available in a large format and at a height of up to 3.5 meters: the Premium Board is back-lit and backed with glass, thereby standing out from classic forms of advertising. Thanks to these features, it attracts additional attention and can be booked on a weekly basis.
2022
Austria's Out of Home market leader Gewista announces another innovation in the advertising market with its new digital Premium Screens. The first locations are set up in the second half of 2022, with 200 national conversions of the previous rolling boards to digital LED surfaces planned. This opens up an additional opportunity for advertisers to book Gewista advertising space.
2021
In 2021, we celebrated our 100th anniversary. 100 years of Gewista means 100 years of Out of Home advertising, 100 years of billboards, but also innovation, progress and digitalization. In the many years that Gewista has been around, a lot has been going on, and changed, in the field of outdoor advertising. The company and its advertising media have always kept up with the times.
Let's see what the next 100 years bring.
2023
Thanks to OSA, real eye contacts with Gewista advertising media can be recorded. OSA has been available since 2023 and now also records digital advertising media. This enables booking on the basis of gross contacts and CPMs.
2022
Gewista opens another important chapter in its digitalization with its first programmatic Out of Home campaign together with the leading digital out-of-home marketplace VIOOH and MediaCom. The Coca-Cola Out of Home campaign is not only an iconic eye-catcher, but also the first programmatic OOH campaign at Gewista. The beverage company uses the new programmatic possibilities to secure a high-reach campaign launch for the Coke Zero product.
2021
Since September 2021, advertisers in Austria's two largest shopping centers have the opportunity to use new Digital City Lights at highly frequented locations to address their target groups directly at the POS. The possibility of addressing the target group holistically on arrival and directly in front of the store efficiently covers all customer touchpoints and thus has a positive effect on brand image and purchasing decisions. Almdudler is the first mover to rely on this innovative and holistic concept and offers its target group a unique customer journey experience in the Out Of Home sector as part of the “Almdudler Wanderlust” campaign.
2020
In spring 2014, Gewista began developing digital City Lights - initially in Vienna. The initial focus was on Vienna's seven largest subway stations, followed by a further 18 stations. In addition to the subway areas, Digital City Lights were built at highly frequented locations in the city centers of Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and Linz. The regional capitals of Klagenfurt and Bregenz are now new additions to the portfolio. Gewista - with its partners PSG in Klagenfurt and Progress Werbung in Salzburg - has thus supplied six out of the nine Austrian regional capitals with Digital City Lights.
2015-2018
Digitalization, mobility & change
2018
KulturPlakat becomes KULTURFORMAT and is offering, with Daniela Grill as managing director, all services of the previous Gewista unit “Arts & Culture” in one location.
2016
Citybike launches the new website citybikewien.at and from that date on, it is possible to login via mobile devices. In this year, Gewista and Progress are also jointly assuming the marketing of the Innsbrucker Verkehrsbetriebe.
2017
Franz Solta assumes the position as CEO from Karl Javurek. Salzburg starts with Digital Out of Home advertising and builds up 11 locations in Salzburg’s city centre. Shortly after that, Graz follows by establishing 9 Digital City Lights, and at the end of the year Linz becomes digital by launching 13 digital screens. In addition, Gewista founds the project “metro network 1 & 2”.
2015
In November, Gewista starts to equip Vienna’s biggest shopping street called Mariahilfer Straße with Digital City Lights. Furthermore, the deluxe net with 10 locations is built up in inner-city hotspots in Vienna.
2009-2014
Efficiency, technology & internationality
2014
A new area of Out of Home begins: Vienna’s most important metro stations get equipped with high resolution screens so called Digital City Lights, which transform the stations in digital product worlds. The digitalization is accompanied by new pioneering business models, which are extending the digital space into Out of Home advertising.
2014
The semimonthly posting rhythm is replaced by a 14-days rhythm for billboards with a fixed start date. From that time on, the fixed posting day is every second Monday, which simultaneously is the starting day of campaigns in other Out of Home media and therefore accumulates the advertising pressure.
2013
A new era of Out of Home efficiency measurement starts: Since the 1st of January 2013, the Outdoor Server Austria (OSA) exists in Austria, which enables inter- & intramedial as well as international comparable performance values for Out of Home media. OSA data is going to be the new lead currency for the planning and analysis of Out of Home campaigns.
2012
Gewista/JCDEcaux group uses the opportunity to extend the Eastern Europe portfolio consisting of Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia and Bulgaria, by acquiring the Hungarian shares.
2014
The digitalization of media, like City Lights or Rolling Boards, is the next logical step, which Gewista as a pioneer of the Digital Out of Home advertising sector takes. Furthermore, the first public defibrillator in a Digital City Light is introduced in 2014.
2013
Citybike Vienna celebrates its 10th birthday. 10 years ago, Gewista founded the first sustainably successful free citybike rental system, which is used by about 500.000 people. The citybike system of Gewista has been exported globally into approximately 60 metropolises.
2012
Gewista acquires 100% of the Hungarian shares of EPAMEDIA from JOJ Media House and is now the number one supplier of Out of Home advertising in Eastern Europe. Previously, JOJ Media House had acquired all shares of EPAMEDIA from Raiffeisen.
2009
Gewista expands its Competence Centre to include Innovative & Ambient Media offering technical implementation, creative approaches and innovative ideas in response to an ever increasing demand for novel Out of Home advertising forms.
2005-2008
Expansion & developement
2007
Founding of Kultur:Plakat GmbH in October. The 70% Gewista subsidiary is founded after a successful long-term pilot phase.
2006
Gewista forges new paths in the field of Transport Media and establishes the first Total Look advertising and experience landscapes in Europe in the form of "Station Branding" in Vienna's metro system - triggering an enormous positive response among recipients and the advertising industry.
2005
Expansion of the Rolling Board network and City Light stagings: transformation of waiting shelters into multi-dimensional experience landscapes. Expansion of the Citybike network and installation of Rolling Boards in other Austrian regional capitals. Vienna's Ringstrasse is equipped with back-lit columns – a new, high-quality cityscape begins to take shape.
2007
Further expansion into Austria’s federal states: Founding of PSG - Poster Service GmbH in cooperation with Stadtwerke Klagenfurt AG. Rolling Board Austria GmbH is founded as a joint venture between Gewista subsidiary USP and Werbering, thereby closing the last gaps in Austria's national Rolling Board network, which is finally completed at the end of the year.
2006
The company acquires the exclusive sales rights to advertising spaces on more than 2,000 Austrian buses at the beginning of the year – a further boost to growth. In addition, 100 historic advertising columns along the Ring are replaced by rotatable, backlit City Light columns which have since added modernity and new life to Vienna's most history-laden street.
2001-2004
Gewista an international company
2004
FEPE president KR Karl Javurek organises the world congress in Dubai that opens up new prospects for the future of Out of Home advertising. Gewista also establishes a new dimension of Out of Home in Austria: Virtually overnight, 330 Rolling Boards are installed at heavily frequented locations. The dynamic Rolling Board with its changing motifs will become Gewista's most successful product.
2002
JCDecaux acquires shares in B&C Holding and becomes the majority shareholder in Gewista. The company is now an integrated component of the world's largest urban furniture network and the largest Out-of-Home enterprise in Europe. Gewista launches a quality offensive for the City Light to reposition the medium that is rapidly becoming a top seller.
2003
Gewista develops the "Citybike Vienna" concept for the city of Vienna and presents a complex electronic system that is subsequently adopted by other cities.
2001
Vienna becomes a major hub for the Decaux Group. The company's expansion into the economic areas of Central and Eastern Europe is managed by Gewista and its subsidiaries.
1991-2000
Gewista is growing
2000
Gewista launches its Culture City Lights. This special category consists of around 150 City Lights at top locations in Vienna's 1st district, such as Kärntner Strasse, Kohlmarkt or Tuchlauben, and made available exclusively for advertising cultural events.
1996
Gewista acquires the advertising company Progress Werbegesellschaft. The additional billboard surfaces in Austria's regional capital cities further extend the national network. The company also enters into a partnership with APG, Switzerland's largest outdoor advertising company, within the scope of Europlakat International.
1998
Founding of Infoscreen Austria GmbH for electronic advertising in Vienna's metro system. Gewista enters the era of electronic outdoor advertising.
1993
Bank Austria acquires the majority shareholding in Gewista.
1921-1990
The beginnings
1990
Gewista acquires the Hungarian company Europlakat in cooperation with Mahir and Budapest's Municipal Asset Management, thus laying the cornerstone for its internationalisation. Subsidiaries are founded in Prague and Bratislava in the same year.
1974
Gewista is outsourced from the city's administration and integrated in the newly founded Wiener Holding. Wiener Holding holds a 51% interest in Gewista. The remaining shares are allocated to Progress Werbung and IWG.
1976
Gewista installs its first advertising showcases during the development of the pedestrian zone in Favoritenstrasse. This is the kick-off for a new type of advertising carrier named urban furniture; City Lights have since become its most visible form.
1921
Gewista is founded as an administrative department of the City of Vienna. Its main role is the commercialisation of advertising on public transport.