Cleannes at a cost

2009. 18 August

(english.eastday.com) Known as the "Paris of the East". Shanghai has long been a bright, bold city dazzling with neon lights and billboards. But in less than two months, much of that twinkle will be gone.

This billboard used to erect at the entrance of the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, took 2 million yuan to build 12 years ago. It was the most important outdoor image for Shanghai Volksvagen, one of the biggest automakers in the city. And had brought tens of millions of yuan in revenue for one of the city's top three outdoor advertising companies, Dong Hu Advertising. But with the work of a construction crew and a crane, it's now gone. Han Lixin, marketing manager of Shanghai Volksvagen, sees it as a major loss for the company.

Han Lixin, Marketing Manager, Shanghai Volksvagen

The billboard is the most important one to Shanghai Volksvagen for its unique location. What we needed was an advertising location to cover Shanghai and neighboring areas. The billboard was at the western gateway to Shanghai. Cars both coming in and out of the city from Jiangsu province can see it. More importantly, the express was the only way to Anting town, our production base in Shanghai, so our people and clients can see it on their way to our plants.

Xuan Qin, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Dong Hu Advertising & Decoration Company, described the removal as a painful point in his career as a advertiser.

Xuan Qin, , Vice Chairman//Shanghai Dong Hu Advertising & Decoration Co.

The billboard was designed as a landmark for the western gateway to Shanghai when Shanghai-Nanjing expressway started operation in 1997. It is one of the biggest projects of our company. After the billboard was built up, we got very positive feedback from both public and our client. The contract is worth several million yuan a year.

Taking down the Volkswagen billboard is just part of a campaign to improve the city's environment prior to the 2010 World Expo. Under the plan, Shanghai will re-arrange the setting of outdoor advertising, including the removal of about 30,000 advertisements which have been deemed as 'disturbing the surroundings' by the end of September this year. That accounts for about 60 percent of the total number of outdoor advertisements.

As a result, major city infrastructure will no longer be allowed to carry commercial ads. Since July last year, thousands of billboards were taken off highway ramps and buildings across town and advertisements were banned from pillars along elevated roads. But there are exceptions. The plan has set aside billboard display zones, where outdoor advertising is allowed along commercial spots such as Nanjing Road and Xujiahui. However, the business of many advertising companies are suffering.

Jim Liu, Managing Partner, Kinetic China

We carried out adjustment in advertising package once we got the notice last April. And many of the billboards we do are in commercial areas so they are not affected. But we still lost 10 percent of our business due to the campaign. The bigger pain is now the media of advertising is slashed so we have to think of alternative ways to advertise for our clients.

Shanghai is among the three major advertising markets in China. Together with Beijing and Guangzhou, they account for more than half of the entire advertising industry in China. Shanghai is growing by double digits in recent years due to rapid expansion of new outdoor advertising forms such as LED and LCD screens. With 60% of outdoor advertisements being removed, about 4 billion yuan worth of business is being lost. The campaign so far has affected more than 3,000 advertising companies. No one in this industry was immune to the problem no matter how fast they tried to react.

According to government documents, the new policy is aimed at clearing visual distractions and improving urban planning for the expo and beyond. That is for sure a good cause. But is it necessary to remove 60% of outdoor advertising in the city? How will the government carry out the effort in such a way that minimizes impact to advertisers? And can the industry itself find alternative solutions to keep business afloat?

Obviously, the action to remove outdoor advertisements has brought big impact to the advertising industry. However, most local residents agree that it is necessary to clean up the environment by imposing tighter control on ad placement.

Source:english.eastday.com