Poster showdown in Zurich

Outdoor advertising The city of Zurich writes
will soon be reallocating their outdoor advertising sites. The race between APG and
CCOP is probably going to be tough for anyone who puts up posters on public land.
and market their land requires the approval of the
a concession in the respective municipality. In cities, this is usually a
Submission carried out. This is due to take place soon for the city of
Zurich. The Office for Urban Planning, which is in charge of this matter
is planning the invitation to tender this spring.

Preparations are in full swing. But project manager Martin
Bunjes is tight-lipped. Last December, he already wanted to talk about
The company cannot provide any information on the number of poster sites to be advertised.
"The matter is highly political, a lot of money is at stake, which is why the
procedure must be carefully considered," he said at the time. A current request
again, this time with the remark that the authorities would soon
inform.

Delicate coexistence
The nervousness is not surprising when you look at poster submissions in
other Swiss cities. Almost without exception, they were financed by APG
won. However, in the last major awards in Basel and Lucerne
there were legal disputes and therefore considerable delays and
loss of income (see box). In Basel, the agreement between
City and APG come into force a good six years late, in Lucerne
it took two and a half years.

The fact that these battles are being fought with a tougher edge has to do with the
constellation in the Swiss out-of-home advertising market. Essentially
two poster providers are facing each other, the domestic
Affichage subsidiary APG and the Clear Channel Group in the USA.
owned Clear Channel Outdoor Plakanda (CCOP). While APG focuses on
market share of around 75 percent and is currently available in almost all
Swiss cities is the sole concessionaire, the
CCOP market share 25 percent. It only has solo concessions from
Zurich Airport and from the city of Bellinzona.

To make matters worse, the two competitors in the last
Sommer on their joint poster research "Swiss Poster Research"
(SPR) are at loggerheads. Nerves are now frayed on both sides.

This makes the Zurich tender all the more important not only from a strategic
symbolic significance: until now, Zurich was the only city in which
Thanks to a consortium agreement, CCOP and APG have been awarded the concession for their
market shares accordingly. How well the city is doing in the
Martin Bunjes does not want to comment on the past,
nor whether a three-city CCOP-APG will be possible again in the future.
would come into question.

However, in view of the harsher climate between the two providers
the city has little interest in working with both under one roof.
carriage. It is also questionable whether consortium agreements from
have a future from a competition law perspective. However, if the Zurich
coexistence, possibly tearing apart the last bond between the
both poster companies.

From a strategic point of view, even if the submission is only
to the city as a political municipality and by no means to the
"Million-Zurich" or the WG 43, but is nevertheless the largest
Swiss metropolis. If APG is awarded the contract, CCOP will, so to speak
with their pants sawed off. If the reverse happens, CCOP wins
a strategic base, which - in combination with the
Airport poster sites - in the international
clear channel portfolio. APG should have a
Accept damage to image.

That's why both the city and the billposters in the
prepared in recent months. From a legal perspective, the city ensured
a clean slate by writing letters in December against unauthorized
poster sites in shop windows. In this way, it is able to
The new tender will present a clean outdoor advertising situation in Zurich.
This is also a signal that the grantor of the concession is in compliance with its
wants to defend the (advertising) space provided. This is not
New: When it comes to wild posters, the rules of the game have actually been
which was met with praise from all sides.

Hedging strategies
For their part, the two outdoor advertisers want to compensate for the damage
in the event of the loss of a concession by already having
now "occupy" as much urban space as possible. In the last
acquired Plakatron in the summer and increased its market share in Zurich.
expanded. Many of these illuminated billboards in
Prism turner technology, although exclusively on private land,
are also so clearly visible from the road that they are sometimes
Devalue poster sites on public land.

APG is doing something similar: it has expanded its presence at highly frequented
stops of the Zurich public transport company (VBZ) - for example at the
Bahnhofplatz and in Bahnhofstrasse. These locations are subject to a
separate consortium agreement between VBZ, CCOP and APG and reach
currently not up for tender. However, they dominate their environment in this way,
that they - similar to the poster sites - do not allow posters to be put up on the
surrounding public land.

Markus Knöpfli

A lot of money is at stake
According to reports, around 700 poster sites in the city of Zurich
to the tender. In comparison: in Berne there were 2000, in Lucerne 250
and in Basel around 1850 surfaces in various formats. Another
Comparison: Plakatron has cut around 400 jobs in Zurich alone.
private property.

People in this profession are reluctant to talk about the duration of contracts,
but Berne awarded a six-year term, Lucerne a ten-year term and Basel
a 13-year concession.

People in the concession trade are extremely reluctant to talk about financial matters.
After all, in Lucerne it is well known that APG is able to make a profit from its gross sales,
generated by the Lucerne posters since 2004, the city 46
percent, but at least one million francs annually,
Previously, the average was 700,000 francs.

In Basel, it is official that the city lost a total of 18 million francs due to the six-year delay. (mk)