Outdoor ad battle heating up

THE outdoor walls of Perth’s Forrest Chase lift will soon house billboard advertising as one of Western Australia’s outdoor advertisers beefs up its signage portfolio.

The new eight metre by six metre “portrait” outdoor signage will be launched by Outdoor Plus in July and its rivals Cody and Eye Corp, are also hoping to expand outdoor advertising operations in the WA market.

The move to expand outdoor signage will be put to local authorities this week as part of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Australia’s visit to WA.

The industry body has chosen to hold a board meeting in Perth in an effort to utilise the time to lobby key stakeholders.

OAAA executive officer John Gooley said Perth had been some-what off the radar in recent years.

“We left it up to representatives in each State to look after the industry but with the tyranny of distance WA has been left in a position where it has not been supported as well as the eastern States,” he said.

Mr Gooley said the board would be meeting with the advertising industry as well as talking to government representatives.

He said it was difficult for its members to acquire new sites for advertising and the OAAA hoped it could educate key stakeholders about the medium.

“The new structures are pretty flash and well engineered,” Mr Gooley said.

He said certain ads did cause a public stir although, on the whole, the industry has a good track record.

“There were more than 24,500 outdoor advertising campaigns in the three years ended December 30 and there were 19 complaints. Sixteen of those were for three adverts,” Mr Gooley said.

There are four main categories of outdoor advertising – supersites (12.66m by 3.35m), 24-sheet posters, street furniture and transport.

WA’s supersite market (billboards) is made up of three major players – Cody, Eye Corp, and Outdoor Plus.

A supersite is the industry standard billboard. However, most companies provide smaller, and cheaper, options including super eights (8m by 2.22m) and posters (6m by 3m).

Australian Posters operates a large number of WA sites but does not operate supersites.

Outdoor Plus has nine supersites, two super eight sites, nine six by three poster sites and will soon have two portrait positions (8m by 6m).

Cody and Eye Corp did not wish to disclose the number of sites they operated in WA.

Outdoor Plus state manager Matthew East said its latest 8m by 6m portrait outdoor adverts in Forrest Chase added an extra dimension to its business.

“It’s a New York-style portrait,” he said.

“We’ve wrapped the Forrest Place lift tower and there will be two skins (posters) on display.”

Mr East, who is also the OAAA WA division chair, said there was potential to expand WA outdoor advertising.

“We want to expand the WA market significantly,” he said.

“We have an issue with market coverage. Local government bodies here are very restrictive. That is beginning to change but it has a long way to go.”

Eye Corp marketing executive Kirsty Dollison said there had been a growth in outdoor advertising spends.

“There has been an increase in expenditure across the WA market,” she said.

Ms Dollison said there had been an increase in demand for its supersite supporters.

“We are seeing a growth in Super8s or supersite supporters,” she said.

“These are smaller than supersites and typically a client creates a campaign that is a supersite dimension and they scale it down to fit the Super8 which is 8 metres by 2.2 metres,” she said.

Ms Dollison said the automotive and airline industries had increased their use of outdoor advertising.

On average, a supersite costs between $6,000 and $15,000 per month.

The site’s location, its traffic flow and the size of the area determine the pricing structure.

Posters, which use a different material to supersite adverts, cost between $2,000 and $5,000 per month.