Combined advertising power on Lake Geneva

Jean-Claude Schmalz (left) and his All Star Team from TP Pub at the presentation in Lausanne.Jean-Claude Schmalz heads the new company called TP Pub. For the past eight years, he has been general manager of TPG Publicité, the advertising division of Geneva's public transport company. "This merger comes at the best moment, because the Lausanne public transport network is in full development. The most important elements are the multiplication of commuter trains on the Lausanne-Echallens-Bercher Railway (LEB), growth on the m1, m2 metro lines, and the future m3."Geneva modelHow did this merger come about? "Our colleagues in Lausanne admired our successes (in Geneva) with billboard, wraparound, and indoor advertising spaces and recognized the opportunity to increase their revenues as well, based on our relationships and expertise," explains Schmalz.Behind this new alliance are serious preparations. The partners in the two cities on Lake Geneva are concerned with optimally meeting the requirements and expectations of both national and local advertising customers. Schmalz: "We hired two new sales consultants who will serve clients throughout the agglomeration from Lausanne. National sales are handled by our branches in Geneva and Zurich."For Swiss-German advertisersTP Pub's new offering is also aimed at meeting the wishes of advertising customers from German-speaking Switzerland. "These prefer a single point of contact with a uniform rate and uniform coordination," Schmalz is convinced, "with TP Pub as a partner, they can reach millions of bus, streetcar, train and metro passengers in the two Lake Geneva cities and conurbations, as well as in neighboring France. Of course, they can promote one or the other region individually or all together."Lower cost per contact"The new organization reduces the advertising costs per contact," assures Jean-Claude Schmalz, "a major contribution to this is the standardization of formats for the means of transport as well as for the transit zones."On the way to the national platform"This alliance is only the first step towards a joint advertising platform for the public transport operators of the most important Swiss cities," Jean-Claude Schmalz is convinced. "For national clients, there is clear added value from mergers. They can advertise larger coherent regions with clearly less effort. In this sense, the Geneva-Lausanne convergence is a full-scale test in a market of over one million participants. Of course, local clients are also close to our hearts. They will continue to benefit from a wide range of offers for local advertising."