New Advertising in Dublin
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@StephenC wrote:
I think asking Andrew Montague to resign is rubbish!
JCDecaux to gain €63m from bike scheme
French advertiser to earn €9m more than Dublin city council from “bikes-for-billboards” projectColin Coyle and Ruadhan MacEoin It was christened the “free bike scheme†but JCDecaux, the French advertiser chosen to run a “bikes-for-billboards†project in Dublin, actually stands to earn €9m more than the city council from the project.The contract signed by the council and the advertising company, which has been released to The Sunday Times after a ruling by the Information Commissioner, reveals that JCDecaux is due to make €63.38m in advertising revenue over 15 years from the 72 advertising billboards it has been allowed to erect.
By contrast, the council will receive benefits estimated to be worth €54.36m over 15 years, including 450 bicycles, 40 bicycle “stationsâ€, €23.4m worth of advertising on the billboards, and a “wayfinding†system of 100 “fingerpost†signs directing tourists to attractions in the city.
The council has said JCDecaux was chosen to operate the scheme because its proposal was “costneutralâ€. Originally due to start two years ago, the scheme will now begin in mid-September. Bikes will be free to hire for the first 30 minutes, and are then paid for.
The city council had refused to release details of the contract, citing a confidentiality agreement with JCDecaux. Emily O’Reilly, the Information Commissioner, ruled, however, that “the public had not been given sufficient information on which to assess the council’s handling of the matter and to understand what the city might stand to gain or loseâ€.
O’Reilly also criticised the council for not releasing all the records relating to the deal to her office until a late stage in her investigation. The council apologised, saying it had “inadvertently omitted†some documents due to an oversight. She said that “the very existence of secrecy [with the process] carries with it the scope for abuseâ€.
Based on JCDecaux’s advertising rate card for the billboards, the company could have made in excess of €170m had every one of its “metropole†units and smaller “metropanel†advertising stands been rented continuously over 15 years.
But a spokesman for the council defended the deal, saying that the projected net revenue of €63.38m had been agreed almost three years ago, before an advertising downturn took hold.
“My understanding is that, based on the current market, the company is not achieving the projected rates agreed in 2006. The deal has worked out well for the city, and our advertising campaigns, particularly the anti-litter campaign and a drive to get people to visit their local library, have been a huge success,†he said.
In an internal council report conducted on 32 of the advertising units, it was found that only eight were free from “road-user infringementsâ€, with some blocking drivers’ sightlines and causing “blind spotsâ€.
JCDecaux agreed to remove 50 of its existing advertising hoardings to reduce “visual clutter†in the city. Details of the negotiations reveal that the council originally planned to give JCDecaux permission for 170 advertising units, in exchange for 500 bicycles and a number of public lavatories. Under that agreement, Decaux would have made €125m in advertising revenue over 15 years, while the council would have recouped €101m in benefits. This deal was later renegotiated to give JCDecaux permission to erect 120 advertising hoardings, but only 72 were granted planning permission following appeals to An Bord Pleanala from locals and An Taisce.
Ian Lumley of An Taisce said: “Dubliners appear to have got a poor deal. There should have been an environmental impact assessment, and new units built close to historic buildings should have been referred to us.â€
Take €23m out for advertising panels that one does not see the council getting in the prime pitches or need and the benefit is €31m over 15 years whilst if the original Montague deal were done JC Deceaux would have according to the article have walked away with €170m.
A dogs breakfast made of the public interest only slightly mitigated by the actions of concerned citizens and a heritage group.What’s wrong with a bit of ambition? 5,000 may be a touch too many but certainly the numbers currently in use could do with expansion.
Dublin and its small scale is a bicyclist’s paradise, notwithstanding the poor state of the roads and cycling facilities.Would €170m invested directly in cycling facilities over 15 years not have been a better outcome than 500 bikes and few signposts?
As a civilisation we moved on from barter centuries ago.
To correct this punk deal I propose an immediate dispatch of valuers from the VO to attach rateable valuations on all external advertising signage excluding shopfronts and facias and that all external advertising be rated at rate of 80 cents in the euro this would be done nationally; that is one property tax the population could buy into; raising taxes that do not surpress demand is difficult this one with the upwards only nature of rent reviews gets pay back from an industry that has actively encouraged a complete flouting of planning laws since day 1.
It is to be welcomed that the city council is apparently adopting a bicycles without billboards approach. That this is seemingly now the agenda of City Hall, is in no small part down to discourse on this site and a number of concerned city dwellers.
The bicycles of themselves have been a tremendous success – and it was a real pity that they were ever tarnished by association to the rotten billboard element, where massive cash was missed out on – and the city’s aesthetic appearance degraded.
I really wish the billboard-free extension well – Dublin can be a great city for bikes, and despite many reservations voiced here and elsewhere, neither have bicycles been stolen nor have there been any fatalities / serious accidents. The localised selection of location of the stands seems to have worked far better than the Paris model, in that passive security was clearly a priority and resultingly, far less vandalism, theft, and general anti social behaviour has taken place. So credit where its due.
Of course we must continue to monitor the scheme with vigilance. Regrettably past experience has led one to not have confidence in key people centrally involved with the scheme and its implementation:
@PVC King wrote:
Would €170m invested directly in cycling facilities over 15 years not have been a better outcome than 500 bikes and few signposts?
This is a key point that must never be forgotten – €170m revenue potential in exchange for 500 bikes and some finger posts was a scandalously atrocious deal in the first instance; I laugh every time I hear that the bikes are ‘the most used bikes in the world’ – of course they are because so few were provided in exchange! And obviously major issues were raised earlier this year by dcc’s misuse of Part 8 in developing another couple of billboards for JC Decaux… Hence by experience to date, vigilance must be maintained – its highly likely the city would be getting plastered with dodgy billboards right now, were it not for sites like this and posters therein.
Provided bikes without billboards proceeds ‘as it says on the tin’, the city can be onto a real winner. The extension is intended to take place over ten years, which seems reasonable to me – yet at the same time ambitious as an extra 500 bicycles should be coming on stream each year.
It also throws up new planning challenges; anti-cycle one-way streets should be re-evaluated. To my mind there’s absolutely no reason that we continue to have streets such as Kildare, Francis, and Werburgh Streets as one-ways (to name but three), if we have moved on from a mindset of 50 years ago, when the aim was to facilitate motor traffic moving at the fastest speed possible through city streets. It is shameful that both Kildare and Francis Streets are left one-ways, as each of them has ample roadway capacity to allow two-way vehicular traffic. In other instances, where roads must remain one-way, I would favour adopting the Paris model where cyclists are allowed cycle counter-flow – this is clearly road-marked, I hasten to add. Another suggestion I would make is that the bicycles should each have a clearly identifiable registration plate, so as to deter dangerous / illegal misuse by DB users – hutton just survived being part run over by a tourist going the wrong way last week 😀
Now if councillors will put as much enthusiasm as they have focused on the bicycles into other matters – such as the deteriorating appearance of city centre areas like College Green / Westmorland St – we can be on the way to having a successful city 🙂
Can’t agree with you about Francis Street and Kildare Street, the one-way system is what keeps them relatively traffic-free. If they are arbitrarily made two-way, the potential is there to turn them, particularly Francis Street (in the evenings), into complete rat runs. Leave them as they are, the width is certainly there for a counter-flow cycling system, if DCC is willing to sacrifice some onstreet parking.
Leinster Street always annoyed me; you come in from Mount Street, Merrion Sq onto Clare St; heading for the area around the end of Grafton St or Dawson Street and you have to go the whole way around Westland Row, Pearse St and College Street to correct. Just a short contra flow back onto Kildare Street allows the connect across Molesworth Street and back onto the right direction down Dawson Street
Linking Luas would do a lot more good than just connecting two tram lines it would once and for all gunther cross city car journeys right through the core and hand the initiative back to sustainable modes such as cycling, tram etc.
The €170m in advertising revenue not paid if the Sunday Times article is on the money.
Barter kind of went out in the dark ages.
@PVC King wrote:
The €170m in advertising revenue not paid if the Sunday Times article is on the money.
The ST stated it; the Examiner ran it, as did other media outlets. No dispute of the amount was ever made afaik.
€170m / €12.5m p.a. – think of what could be done with now 😡
more dodgey advertising deals
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2011/jan/30/billboard-poster-lost-revenue-row-erupts/?q=Pat%20Egan
DUBLIN City Council has been criticised for passing up on hundreds of thousands of euro in potential advertising revenue from a company it allows to hang posters on public property around the capital.
The local authority has had a longstanding agreement with Irish Poster Advertising Ltd (IPA) – an events promotion company – which advertises gigs and other events on hoardings and in public spaces.
In response to a recent query, council officials said they did not receive any fees from the company in exchange for advertising space but that in return, IPA takes responsibility for maintaining the hoardings.
The claim was denied by IPA, which insisted it has always paid a “rate” for the privilege but was unable to elaborate on the arrangement.
Both parties were due to meet last week in order to clarify matters.
Advertising revenue set to drop by 5% this year
ADVERTISING REVENUES are on track to fall by more than 5 per cent this year, but will stabilise next year and return to growth from 2012, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).Growth of 12 per cent in internet advertising will only slightly mitigate an expected 5.8 per cent decline in television advertising in 2010, PwC’s Entertainment Media Outlook report states.
Despite the return to growth in 2012, traditional advertising channels such as radio, outdoor and press will decline over the next five years, PwC said.
Across the Irish entertainment and media sector as a whole, internet access and advertising, video game revenues and TV subscriptions will be the main growth areas. Traditional branches of the sector will “continue to struggle”, in particular if they are dependent on advertising spend.
Overall, the sector will grow by a compound annual rate of 4.1 per cent over 2010-2014, when total revenues will reach €4 billion.
However, this rate of growth falls short of PwC’s forecasts for the global entertainment and media sector. The accountancy firm expects the global market to grow 5 per cent annually between now and 2014, reaching $1.7 trillion (€1.2 trillion).
The uncertain economic background “has done nothing to slow the ever-advancing digital transformation or the rapid consumer uptake of new media experiences”, PwC said.
“The trends in Ireland are similar to what is happening worldwide. The advancing digital transformation is driving audience fragmentation to a level not previously seen,” said Susan Kilty, a partner in PwC’s entertainment and media division.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1012/1224280877194.html
DUBLIN City Council has been criticised for passing up on hundreds of thousands of euro in potential advertising revenue from a company it allows to hang posters on public property around the capital.
The local authority has had a longstanding agreement with Irish Poster Advertising Ltd (IPA) – an events promotion company – which advertises gigs and other events on hoardings and in public spaces.
The terms of this contract need to become public knowledge; are the city council even collecting business rates on these fittings? Its not like they don’t know they are there…
LONDON (Dow Jones)–The U.K. competition regulator Thursday said it would probe whether contracts with some U.K. public bodies offered by outdoor advertising giants JC Decaux SA (DEC.FR) and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. (CCO) break competition laws.
The Office of Fair Trading said it would probe contracts the two companies offered local authorities for advertising on street furniture, such as bus shelters and information panels, in particular looking at the long durations of the contracts and potentially restrictive terms.
“There are some concerns around barriers to entry and expansion for media owners and the OFT has launched a competition investigation in order to assess whether certain street furniture agreements are compatible with U.K. and E.U. competition law,” Heather Clayton, the OFT’s senior director of infrastructure said.
“No assumption should be made at this stage that there has been an infringement of competition law,” Clayton added.
The OFT said it had decided that it wouldn’t refer the matter to the Competition Commission yet.
The U.K. has a two-tier competition regulation system, with the OFT probing possible competition concerns and then referring the matter to the Competition Commission if it believes that antitrust rules are being broken.
The OFT said it had looked at the whole of the U.K. outdoor advertising market. It said that while the market seemed to be functioning well, it had some concern over a system of rebates. It said it had some concerns that the rebates could distort how advertising campaigns are booked and recommend that advertisers take steps, such as using media auditors to monitor campaigns, to ensure agencies and specialist buyers act in the advertiser’s best interests.
Under the rebate system, when an advertiser pays for an outdoor campaign, the media agency and the outdoor buyer receive commission, the OFT said. At the end of a year, the outdoor buyer receives a payment from the outdoor media owner and is entitled to volume rebates related to the aggregate amount spent with the media owner over the year. Rebates tend to be negotiated with the larger outdoor media buyers.
France’s JC Decaux and Clear Channel of the U.S. are two of the biggest outdoor advertising companies in the U.K.
-By Steve McGrath, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9284; steve.mcgrath@dowjones.com
Was a second bidder even asked to submit a proposal in Dublin?
Was a second bidder even asked to submit a proposal in Dublin?
There was a tender for expression of interest. There was also a fact finding trip by officials to Lyon (JCD’s flagship city for bikes scheme). Draw your own conclusions.
Yay!!!!! New wayfinder signage finally going in across the city. The observant among you may have noticed some changes! According to an informed source, the main city centre should be completed by 17th March in time for Paddy’s Day and the traditional start of the tourist season. The second phase (essentially taking in areas currently missing and installing 20 new map panels) should happen by end of summer.
Some examples of the newly installed signage on Westmoreland Street (with some decluttering of empty poles…anyone notice?) and Parliament Street.
I look forward to seeing the programme progress.
Found this on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/5469040064/
Anyone got any pics of the decluttering of empty poles as SC mentioned?
Whatever of the preposterous Gaeilge debacle and resultant less than satisfactory information display, this signage really is beautifully designed. Wonderfully crisp and coolly elegant. All of the text is also spot on, with the notable unfortunate exception of ‘Christchurch’.
A few points. I don’t think Luas or anybody else should be entitled to colouring on the signage. It should be white and nothing else, bearing in mind we’re probably soon to have DART, national rail and probably other non-transport interests with their own colours shortly. Secondly, it would be helpful if the dublinbikes logos had a simple indicator for which station is closest, such as 1 min or 3 min. The below sign on St. Stephen’s Green North, for example, shows two dublinbikes stations, but without suggestion of which is closer. Indeed in this case, neither is closest to this sign! Though it must be noted that it is locations with attendant stations that are being fingerposted, not stations per se.
Surely Merrion Square would be a lot more useful than the Eye and Ear?!
@GrahamH wrote:
Surely Merrion Square would be a lot more useful than the Eye and Ear?!
LOL, I was thinking that myself. I could just imagine someone in DCC stuck for ideas 5 mins before lunch. “Fuck it, the Eye n’ Ear will do”.
Heheh.
Delighted to stand corrected on the ‘Christchurch’ spelling. It has been, well, corrected!
Good to see someone has a sharp eye. In the above case, Dublin Castle is given one direction and the Chester Beatty Library – located in its grounds – another. No harm though in directing people towards the ceremonial entrance of the Castle rather than via the Ship Street Gate.
The i’s dot is missing from the Castle on the other side. Odd.
The smart little db logo. There he goes!
Lovely sharp arrows too.
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