The Geneva-based marketer Neo Advertising is now getting involved in the city of Zurich
The Zurich City Council has made its decision on awarding the billboard lease for the next five years. Clear Channel and APG|SGA will have a new competitor in Zurich: Neo Advertising.
From July 1, 2018 until the end of June 2023, three companies will share the management of around 1,800 poster advertising sites on public land in the city of Zurich. In addition to the well-known companies APG|SGA and Clear Channel Switzerland, Neo Advertising from French-speaking Switzerland has now secured a share of the poster sites.
As with the last two public tendering procedures in 2006 and 2012, the volume of posters on public land was once again divided into lots. The aim was to identify the highest bidders, allow competition to play out and distribute the lease among several companies if possible.
Posters on public land comprise around 1400 poster sites. 426 poster sites are available for international and national campaigns in the standard advertising formats F200, F400, F12 and F24. 954 poster sites in the F4 format are reserved for local commercial advertising, advertising for cultural events and for political and official posters.
New concessionaire from Geneva
In addition to the poster sites on public land, 52 additional poster advertising sites in the usual formats were awarded on land belonging to the City of Zurich's administrative assets, as well as the contract for the management of its 420 cultural poster sites.
Lots 1, 2 and 5 go to Neo Advertising, lots 3, 6, 7 and 10 to APG|SGA and lots 4, 8, 9a and 9b as well as the contract to manage the cultural poster sites in the city of Zurich (lot 11) to Clear Channel Switzerland.
By awarding the contract to the three companies, the city of Zurich was able to increase its income from billposting by around three percent to around CHF 2.81 million per year. This means that revenue has grown less significantly than in the last tenders. The market for traditional posters currently appears to be exhausted, as the trend in outdoor advertising is also moving away from analog to digital applications, as the city writes in a press release. In 2015, the city of Zurich was able to generate significant new revenue of CHF 3.6 million by tendering for an additional ten advertising screens and twenty illuminated poster columns. Overall, the city has been able to increase its income from outdoor advertising in public spaces from CHF 2.4 million to around CHF 6 million over the last ten years.
Clear Channel "highly satisfied", APG "basically satisfied"
The two previous top dogs in Zurich were satisfied with the award. APG|SGA was at least "basically satisfied", as the company wrote in a press release on Wednesday. A "selective bid" was submitted for the twelve lots put out to tender and the desired lots were awarded. This means that the existing range of analog poster sites can be "optimally supplemented" with the city of Zurich's public spaces in the future.
Patrik Denzler, Head of Acquisition Region East, says: "With the lots awarded to us, our range remains practically the same in purely quantitative terms - but we can refine our products in terms of quality. That is pleasing."
Clear Channel is even more pleased. The company has gained jobs overall, the company reports in response to an inquiry from Werbewoche. The company continues to manage all construction walls in the city center and all 420 cultural poster spaces. In addition, there is one lot for classic poster sites and the lot for rotating light columns. Urs Zeier, Chief Development Officer, is quoted in a press release as saying that the company is "highly satisfied" with this result. (pd/hae)
