Advertising at a low level
A new company is offering large-format advertising spaces—and in doing so, is brightening up gloomy places like underground parking garages. Publicitas is the lead marketing agency.
What is it: it's gray, gloomy, smells of exhaust fumes - and you leave it as quickly as possible? That's right, a conventional parking garage. But this type of parking space could soon be a thing of the past if the young company CS Media is successful in this country.
CS Media, founded a few months ago in Basel, is the only licensed provider for Canada and Europe (excluding Portugal and Austria) of CarSpaze, a new product in the field of outdoor advertising. ¬CarSpaze consists of at least 20 Eternit panels measuring 1.5 meters by 1.2 meters, which are not covered with paper but printed using a special process. CS Media has now started to equip heavily frequented parking garages with these 24-metre-long advertising panels. They cover the gray concrete walls in front of which the cars are parked. At the same time, CS Media is retrofitting the lighting so that the CarSpaze walls are illuminated and the corresponding parking garage floor loses some of its often oppressive discomfort. CS ¬Media describes the change as follows: "CarSpaze transforms parking garages into an impressive media landscape and significantly improves the parking experience."
The first CarSpaze wall in Switzerland is being unveiled today, August 21, in the station parking garage in Bern. SBB was the first customer to have the entire third floor (150 meters in total) fitted with an impressive advertising motif. Of course, this is not a short-term affair: CS Media needed six weeks for production and installation. "The billboard, which is primarily suitable for image advertising, usually lasts a year, but at least six months," says Grégoire Schnegg, COO of CS Media. A minimum panel length of 24 meters costs around CHF 100,000, a fifth of which is for production. CarSpaze panels are recyclable.
CS Media has already concluded contracts with around ten other parking garage operators throughout Switzerland. Negotiations are also underway with several advertising customers. Schnegg, who incidentally was CEO of cinema operator Pathé Suisse until eight months ago, expects to have around four more CarSpaze advertising walls by the end of the year. CS Media is also ready to launch in Germany and the UK. "For the time being, we are focusing on parking garages, but we can imagine other locations, for example outdoors. We have some ideas," says Schnegg.
One detail in passing: in order to gain a foothold in this country, talks with the outdoor advertisers APG and Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) were necessary. Some of them have exclusive contracts with parking garages, but only use them at the entrance, exit and elevator. Due to the lower frequency, they are hardly interested in the parking spaces themselves. "Of course they don't enjoy us, but they realized that we do a different job and don't take any space away from them," says Schnegg.
CS Media is active in marketing itself, but also cooperates with other agencies. And PubliGroupe was chosen as the main agency. "We approached P and agreed a contractual partnership with them," explains Schnegg.
Markus Knöpfli
A new medium for PThomas Bargetzi, CEO of Media Sales (Switzerland) at Publicitas, is delighted to now have another medium in the marketing portfolio alongside print, TV, radio, online, cinema, mobile and AdScreen: CarSpaze. "Out-of-home advertising is part of Allmedia and generates net sales of CHF 600 million a year," he says. Although CarSpaze is not directly comparable with the poster medium, it is more of a specialty. "But customers are asking for new forms of communication, so we are obliged to offer them solutions," he says. In the new P structure, which came into effect on August 1, CarSpaze marketing will be housed in the Direct Sales division, specifically in the New Sales department. "This department can now start immediately. In any case, we will actively approach customers," says Bargetzi. (mk)
CS Media, founded a few months ago in Basel, is the only licensed provider for Canada and Europe (excluding Portugal and Austria) of CarSpaze, a new product in the field of outdoor advertising. ¬CarSpaze consists of at least 20 Eternit panels measuring 1.5 meters by 1.2 meters, which are not covered with paper but printed using a special process. CS Media has now started to equip heavily frequented parking garages with these 24-metre-long advertising panels. They cover the gray concrete walls in front of which the cars are parked. At the same time, CS Media is retrofitting the lighting so that the CarSpaze walls are illuminated and the corresponding parking garage floor loses some of its often oppressive discomfort. CS ¬Media describes the change as follows: "CarSpaze transforms parking garages into an impressive media landscape and significantly improves the parking experience."
The first CarSpaze wall in Switzerland is being unveiled today, August 21, in the station parking garage in Bern. SBB was the first customer to have the entire third floor (150 meters in total) fitted with an impressive advertising motif. Of course, this is not a short-term affair: CS Media needed six weeks for production and installation. "The billboard, which is primarily suitable for image advertising, usually lasts a year, but at least six months," says Grégoire Schnegg, COO of CS Media. A minimum panel length of 24 meters costs around CHF 100,000, a fifth of which is for production. CarSpaze panels are recyclable.
CS Media has already concluded contracts with around ten other parking garage operators throughout Switzerland. Negotiations are also underway with several advertising customers. Schnegg, who incidentally was CEO of cinema operator Pathé Suisse until eight months ago, expects to have around four more CarSpaze advertising walls by the end of the year. CS Media is also ready to launch in Germany and the UK. "For the time being, we are focusing on parking garages, but we can imagine other locations, for example outdoors. We have some ideas," says Schnegg.
One detail in passing: in order to gain a foothold in this country, talks with the outdoor advertisers APG and Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) were necessary. Some of them have exclusive contracts with parking garages, but only use them at the entrance, exit and elevator. Due to the lower frequency, they are hardly interested in the parking spaces themselves. "Of course they don't enjoy us, but they realized that we do a different job and don't take any space away from them," says Schnegg.
CS Media is active in marketing itself, but also cooperates with other agencies. And PubliGroupe was chosen as the main agency. "We approached P and agreed a contractual partnership with them," explains Schnegg.
Markus Knöpfli
A new medium for PThomas Bargetzi, CEO of Media Sales (Switzerland) at Publicitas, is delighted to now have another medium in the marketing portfolio alongside print, TV, radio, online, cinema, mobile and AdScreen: CarSpaze. "Out-of-home advertising is part of Allmedia and generates net sales of CHF 600 million a year," he says. Although CarSpaze is not directly comparable with the poster medium, it is more of a specialty. "But customers are asking for new forms of communication, so we are obliged to offer them solutions," he says. In the new P structure, which came into effect on August 1, CarSpaze marketing will be housed in the Direct Sales division, specifically in the New Sales department. "This department can now start immediately. In any case, we will actively approach customers," says Bargetzi. (mk)
