VBZ: Clear Channel largely replaces APG as marketer

VBZ put the marketing of its billboard sites out to tender again this summer. The bidding competition, which was conducted in accordance with the rules of public procurement, will lead to a significant improvement in revenue from the previous 5.5 million to 11 million Swiss francs per year from 2017, according to a statement. The reason for this lies in the demand-oriented conception of the tender as well as in the resulting, significantly higher levy rates and guarantee sums of the providers. The additional funds will fully benefit public transport and the partners involved. They flow to the Zurich Transport Association (ZVV) via the VBZ invoice. This relieves the ZVV's budget, which ultimately benefits both public transport customers and taxpayers.

New: Clear Channel instead of APG

Most of the approximately 1,200 poster sites will now be marketed by Clear Channel. The Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft APG, which previously managed the majority of the poster sites for VBZ, will only take over a small part of the existing offering. No additional poster sites were created for the tender. New advertising spaces will be added at most in the event of conversions or new stops. According to the statement, the primary challenge for VBZ was to divide the illuminated poster network, which has an above-average number of sites compared to the rest of Switzerland, into sensible lots in such a way that both the needs of the marketers and those of the advertisers could be satisfied. Only this allowed VBZ to achieve a maximum yield within the framework of the new tender. Previously, poster sites had generally been offered on the basis of geographical or random allocation. The new regime includes six lots each for "branding" and "coverage" and allows marketers to sell advertising across the city regardless of the number of lots won. The branding lots include a strong selective presence in very high-traffic select locations, while the coverage lots reinforce a blanket presence throughout the city via individual locations. Clear Channel submitted the highest bid for the majority of the lots and was thus awarded the contract for them.

Clear Channel is pleased with the award and considers VBZ's invitation to tender in lots to be "very positive". The fact that participation was open to all providers enabled greater competition between the suppliers, Clear Channel said in a statement. Jürg Rötheli, Vice President Central Europe and CEO Clear Channel Switzerland: "After winning the tender for the digital screens and the illuminated turnstiles of the city of Zurich, this is another milestone in the realization of our strategy to offer our customers the most attractive and customized advertising solutions."

APG regrets decision

In a statement sent out on Monday, APG regrets the end of the long-standing cooperation with VBZ. Markus Ehrle, CEO of APG|SGA, said: "We would have liked to continue our long-standing partnership with VBZ on economic terms and regret VBZ's decision. From an economic point of view, we were not prepared to pay any price. Quite obviously and for us completely incomprehensibly, our competitor has made an offer that is higher than our current effective sales." However, the poster company emphasizes that it is still the market leader in the city of Zurich despite the reduction in space. (pd/hae)