Media & Marketing:Outdoor advertising in Dublin is about to undergo its biggest change in years with the planned introduction in early 2008 of two new outdoor formats by Dublin City Council and outdoor poster company JC Decaux.
The city council says that its new contract with JC Decaux for more than 100 new outdoor advertising structures is part of its plan to rationalise outdoor poster advertising in Dublin and also to eliminate the 48-sheet poster.
Mary Conway, senior planner in Dublin City Council, said: "The city council wants to bring a much more managed approach to outdoor advertising so we can control the outdoor poster advertising opportunities in the city rather than the poster companies.
"Planning permission is needed for any change to site formats and, going forward, this will be much harder to achieve. It means a general rationalisation of poster advertising in the city. We see there is scope for outdoor advertising in the city and borough, but we don't want to be dealing with planning applications on an ad hoc basis."
While other advertising companies have large billboards on private properties which do not come under the council's jurisdiction, the council hopes that the newer advertising formats will make billboard advertising obsolete and that An Bord Pleanála will look less favourably on granting planning permission for these hoardings.
There are five outdoor companies operating in Ireland - JC Decaux Ireland, CBC, Titan Worldwide, Clear Channel and Avenue Media. The future is bleak for the 48-sheet format but, for the moment, it is still the biggest outdoor medium, with 2,500 such sites across the country.
As the planners continue to clamp down, the poster companies are being forced to innovate and come up with new advertising formats.
Apart from the 48-sheet, newer other outdoor poster formats include six-sheet; 96-sheet (two 48-sheet side by side); platinum square (a 48-sheet on top of another 48-sheet); Europanels (slightly smaller than 48-sheets); bus shelters; buses; Luas, Dart and ad boxes (the trays in which newspapers are displayed outside newsagents).
Digital technology has transformed the industry, with computer-painted outdoor advertising formats.
A recent ad campaign for Deep Heat patches displayed on bus shelter sites used Illumin8 technology to show the Deep Heat patch in action as the golfer in the advertisement took a swing.
There is independent research (JNOR) to tell advertisers how many eyes see their poster, an industry body (the OMA) and a revamped annual awards event.
JC Decaux has set up a specialised unit, JC Decaux Innovate, which allows it to provide its clients with information on specialised outdoor formats and ideas for advertising campaigns from around the world.
For example, the creative used for a recent outdoor campaign for Jameson promoting the Irish Film Festival had its origins in a campaign that had previously run in Singapore.
This all signifies a big change from the years when the poster industry seemed to be in a state of unstoppable decline, with poorly maintained sites and cries for the most basic research largely ignored.
It seems that the poster industry here is finally growing up. Last year, €110 million was spent on outdoor advertising in Ireland - equal to 10 per cent of all money spent on advertising in Ireland.
That puts the sector far behind press (50 per cent) and television (30 per cent), but ahead of radio (9 per cent) and cinema (1 per cent).
The new contract that JC Decaux has signed with Dublin City Council however has already caused considerable controversy. One of the biggest opponents is An Taisce, which has appealed to An Bord Pleanála over permission grants for 20 of the proposed ad formats. A decision is expected early next month.
JC Decaux has secured planning permission for 70 new outdoor advertising structures in Dublin.
The larger formats measure 7sq m and are two metres high. The smaller size panels measure 2.6sq m and are similar in size to a bus shelter. All of the panels will be illuminated and can carry scrolling images.
In exchange for allowing JC Decaux, one of the world's largest advertising companies, to erect the advertising boxes for a 15-year period, the council will receive 450 bicycles that can be rented to use by the general public, four public toilets and a number of tourism and public information signs.
A similar scheme was introduced in Paris earlier this year. According to JC Decaux sales director Pat Mannion, the company also has similar schemes in Brussels, Lyon and Seville.
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