TALON
Talon is a significant player in the OOH agency sector, delivering on high standards of media planning, buying, creative excellence and technology-led foundations. Created in 2013, founding partners Eric Newnham, Frank Bryant and James Copley, instilled these core values from the start and grew the business to the multi award-winning company it is today.
Going forwards, Group CEO Barry Cupples, looks to transport the Talon OOH planning and buying skillsets into the global marketplace, as well as transforming how Talon use data and technology.
Photograph of the 'Letter to Zion' campaign on JCDecaux screen
Photography by Casey Guteridge, CPG Photography
Barry Couples
Global CEO, Talon
“I wanted to support wherever possible Cephas and his ambitions for the BBN as we need to find balance and gravity in our society. We are imbalanced with views and perceptions that are deeply ingrained and not reflective at all of society in the 21st century. The inclusive nature and the open architecture of social platforms highlight the inequalities that exist. If the BBN can help address that and ensure a voice that needs to be heard IS heard then it must be supported.
There is not one thing I can pull out from ‘Letter to Zion’ as the whole letter itself is beyond powerful. It’s the fact that Cephas has outlined this indelible vision, one we must all support that makes clear the aspirations and hopes he has for his son and generations to come. It speaks to the father and parent in each of us.”
Letter to Zion
Nationwide Billboard Campaign
"Along my journey, I have come across many people who say that they understand the importance of creating a world with equal opportunity for Black people. They know in their hearts that the world is not a fair place and they want to help, but often I have found they are looking for solutions that make them feel comfortable, as opposed to solutions that bring about meaningful change. The truth is, no one is perfect and even I cannot promise you that I will not make mistakes along my journey. The more I tried to strive for perfection the more I realised ‘perfect’ isn’t real. And so, there is no ‘perfect’, only improvement. You see Zion, There comes a time where we must all hold up a mirror and see things for what they are, this includes those that sit in seats of power, leadership and responsibility using this mirror to evaluate our reality and their systems; the issue is, what is systemic within our culture is not supportive of the change we are trying to make. People must understand that the comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there. Taking into consideration that to improve we must reflect and that the closest thing to perfection is reflection."
Cephas Williams
Extract from 'Letter to Zion' | Click to read full letter
Photograph of the 'Letter to Zion' campaign on JCDecaux screen
Photography by Casey Guteridge, CPG Photography
Cephas Williams & Talon Partnership
In 2019, after the initial announcement of the Covid-19 pandemic Talon released a global campaign titled 'Sending Love' in a time of global unrest and in the face of the pandemic the idea was to use the power of OOH media to send love globally. After the killing of George Floyd, Talon reached out to Clear Channel and Cephas to see how they could work with Cephas more closely in a bid to approach the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that was not tokenistic but came from real understanding. This let to a series of conversations with Cephas and the leadership of Talon to establish how they could work together for the long wrong to systematically use the united power of OOH media and billboards for good. The initial focus became Letter to Zion as Cephas spent the summer of 2020 writing this letter to his son and was already in conversations with Clear Channel about launching this campaign on his birthday October 9th. This conversation quickly led to uniting 8 OOH media companies to support the 'Letter to Zion' campaign with a £1 million pound campaign push.
This campaign has been displayed across the country and is the start of an ongoing and powerful relationship that will be committed to supporting the Black British Network in driving the change we need to see in this country and the wider world.
