Friday, February 09, 2007

Advertising spaces for rent


Like most cities Paris has several advertising spaces for rent. I have been unable to find out how much revenues these spaces provide to the city and I am not even sure they provide any revenue. In fact, as far as I could understand, the city rents these spaces to a company (JC Decaux) which provides, in return a fair amount of street furniture and public facilities (like public bathrooms for instance). Apparently this year, the city demanded that the number of spaces be reduced from 2 000 to 1 628. If someone knows more about this I'd be interested to know.

22 comments:

  1. I've no idea, Eric, but it's thought provoking. I always assumed lots of revenue was raked in by them. It's a large advertising space after all, when you consider how much a quarter page costs in a glossy mag.

    It's one of my memories when i first went abroad, to Spain, was the amount of these things, and stuck just randomly by the side of the road in the middle of a field! Something i just had not seen before. In the UK they are in cities only really, never in the countryside.

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  2. Billboards!! Pollution on a stick! Billboards are a source of enourmous revenue, and I hope the City of Paris is getting a good chunk of cash for the space. You can bet that the company that leases them is making good profit. As a land use planner, I hate bloody billboards. They're ugly, in the way, and the huge coroporations that own them usually are ruthless. Now, advertising in Paris, that's a completely different story. I really can...um...appreciate many of the ads. We're still a bit provincial about that sort of thing here in the colonies...

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  3. As far as I know, street furniture (abribus etc) and outdoors panels have different contract terms. The first one includes obviously providing and cleaning specially designed furniture where the latter is just advertising space.

    But in both cases, the city council gets a "minimum guarantee" (which means whatever $$ the company who sells the advertising space makes, a minimum yearly payment is guaranteed to the council. sometime it's hard to reach) + a substential cut on any $$ above this minumum.

    This system applies in all Airports, Subways, on buses and any public or private spaces with a large potential of eyeballs cruising by...

    Even if we talk big amounts here, advertising revenue is still quite small in the Council, Airport etc revenue chain...

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  4. This seems to be owned by Clear Channel which owns the largest number of radio stations in the U.S. and also owns billbords like the one in the picture. Big contributor to Bush druing both selections.

    Clo.

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  5. The city does receive a large amount of money from the advertising society, wich , in turn, makes a profit by selling the advertising spaces. The reduction in the number of billboards in Paris is coimpensated by the fact that many of these billboards will in fact been equipped with "rolling screens" , meaning that the same billboard will accomodate at least three different adds.

    This year there was an extra clause in the contract : JCDecaux will also provide 20,000 bicycles, available to Parisians in self-service stations, for a very nominal fee.

    JCDecaux was in competition for the Paris contract with Clear Channel. Decaux won, but Clear Channel just announced that they were challenging the decision in court. So wait a little more time before your free bycicle ride in Paris...

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  6. It's a very interesting statistic Eric. I remember when there was an "outbreak" of grafitti on posters in the Metro by anti-advertising people. Some of the comments were quite funny (phrases drawn coming out of the sexy model's mouth in the poster) and others quite rude. I wonder if they have all gone away or didn't feel that they had any impact.

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  7. quelques réponses aux interrogations de Michael:
    http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipub

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  8. its nice giving something back in return. unless too crowded to be understood and too little to be counted

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  9. What, no weather report Michael? You're slipping. Perhaps the old sun's gone in now and you're shivering on the beach, contemplating your return to breezy icy Paris? Ah, my heart bleeds. Hurry home.

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  10. I detect a degree of Gallic style revoltion against anything Anglo-Saxon. The irony is this: the great French company JC Decaux occupies a major position in this industry in many countries, which helps to finance public transport costs. This brings benefits to the French position in the global economy. Transport for the "Masses" is also something that the French understand. It is an ironic world. I am sometimes amazed at the ability of the French to have "double-think" on these issues.

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  11. I live in Lyon where the Velo'V (free bikes located all around the city provided by JC Decaux for the city of Lyon) are available and this is just great. You can bike all around the city, and for free (as an extra bonus). It reduces pollution, stress, traffic...
    I agree that billboards are often a visual pollution but sometimes those advertising company can do good :)

    I never wrote to you Eric but I just want to say congratulations for your blog. I love it. I'm French, I lived in Paris for 3 years before settling in Montreal for 2 years and everyday I used to go on your blog and have a quick view of that city I love. thank you so so much!! Continue!!

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  12. In São Paulo (Brasil´s largest city) it is now forbidden by law to put out these advertisiments in most of the streets. Many approve of this act due to the massive visual polution it caused to the city (it came to a point where there were billboards in the façade of buildings - awful!), but on the other hand, many of the people who worked with this kind of publicity is now out of job! It´s though, but I think the city is better off without them.

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  13. lynn, we've got billboards everywhere in the US too. Cities, country, suburbs...everywhere. They are all down the highways and freeways on both sides, stuck in the middle of farming fields, stuck up on barn roofs by small farm owners who need the cash to get by, everywhere. There's a crappy looking motel not too far from where I live that shares a back yard with one of our major highways. Right up against the side of the motel is a hugh billboard, all nice and brightly lit, right inbetween the windows of two rooms for the top 3 of 4 floors. I would not want to stay in those rooms!

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  14. Gosh Soosha neither would I. Still, i suppose it's colourful at least!

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  15. Clear Channel is one of those mega-conglomerates that seems to have it's fingers in (too) many things - outdoor advertising (which includes hideously colored and decorated taxis), radio stations and other media, concerts, etc. Locally here, they have started using digital billboards with changing or scrolling messages, that some communities are now beginning to ban since they are so distracting to drivers. The thing that makes them "good" adverstising (grab and hold your attention) is exactly what makes them a danger to drivers.

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  16. Ah, erik h., from my part of the world, has been reading the news about Clear Channel's court battle over the message-changing billboards: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/970345.html

    Advertising is an accepted aspect of modern culture. However, there are so many crap commercial messages being shoved at us, it gets tiresome and detracts from the quality of life. Oh, sorry, did I express an opinion? That's a first for me.

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  17. It's a bright obnoxious yellow and the sign is lit from within. I can't imagine anyone can sleep in those rooms.

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  18. Billboards block so many great views. The French have some that are extremely clever in that they are electronic and do fascinating kinds of movement that helps decrease my hate for the boards.

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  19. Soosha; Probably free migraine tablets in the bedside cabinet... oh and yellow? Free sick bags too.

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  20. Thanks for the link Janet! Very informative.

    Sorry Lynn...am back from Singapore now and there's no weather worth mentioning now. Gotta go run and get a sweater now, so ciao.

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  21. This car advertisement reminded me of the ad we saw during the cold days of January 2006 during our visit to our grandaughter. It was above the Place de Costa Rica at the east end of Rue de Passy, and showed an articulated Smart car.

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  22. Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

    I have an search engine advertising site/blog. It pretty much covers internet marketing related stuff but I do offer original eProducts, PHP scripts, and software too.

    Come and check it out if you get time :-)

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