APG|SGA waives participation in tender of the city of Zurich
APG|SGA has decided not to participate in the current tender of the city of Zurich for advertising screens and interactive city maps.
The tender does not meet the national and international standards for digital outdoor advertising with regard to advertising opportunities, the company wrote in a statement on Tuesday. In addition, the short contract period does not allow refinancing of the investments and the ongoing operation of the total of 16 installations.
Among other things, APG|SGA took issue with the fact that the city prohibited the use of moving images. "In our opinion, investments for digital installations only make sense if the specifications allow moving images - in this case, regularly changing still images or lightly animated spots come into question," the company explains when asked by Werbwoche. "Certain installations that are only allowed to change their subjects every 24 hours are static and not marketable in our understanding."
The city of Zurich has justified the requirement that some locations may only change the subject every 24 hours each static message with the direct orientation of the advertising space to traffic. This is clear from the 26-page questionnaire published as part of the invitation to tender.
In response to Werbewoche's question as to why the tender did not meet the standards, the company explained: "The dynamic display of the advertising screens was severely restricted by the city of Zurich in the present tender. This restriction is not based on the standards we are aware of that are customary in the industry and in compliance with the law. Furthermore, they neither meet the current customer demand for animated, flexible and time-accurate use of the advertising message, nor the trend towards programmatic control of advertising content."
The deadline for submission was June 12 at 4 pm. The background: The city of Zurich has had permanently installed city maps since the 1950s. With the tendered project, a part of the installations is to be replaced by a digital, interactive city map. Where appropriate, the reverse sides are to be provided with advertising.
The tender included the development, implementation and operation of the interactive, digital city map (software) as well as the development and construction of the hardware. An offer was to be submitted to the City of Zurich for the operation and management of the advertising spaces. (hae)
