Kyiv’s architectural heritage to be freed from boards and hoardings
Kyiv Rada to consider Draft Concept for Outside Advertising on January 26
The Kyiv Rada (city council) is planning to consider and adopt new rules of placement of advertising boards and hoardings in the capital soon. The Draft Concept for Outside Advertising is scheduled for consideration by the Kyiv Rada legislators on Thursday, January 26.
“We seek to create a nonaggressive, comfortable environment, where advertising is not an eyesore, but rather a decoration,” said deputy mayor Oleksandr Puzanov as he presented the Draft Concept at a work meeting with Kyiv’s outdoor advertising operators.
The Draft Concept suggests that the city administration is going to divide the territory of the capital into four zones for placing advertisements. The authors of the Concept promise that in each of them special rules will be applied concerning the number and format of outdoor advertising facilities. It is noteworthy that in the so-called zero zone (which, according to the draft, will comprise the fender territories of architectural historical preserves and UNESCO cultural heritage sites, architectural and historical monuments and adjacent quarters, landscape parks, and the administrative center of the city) the placement of any advertisements will be totally prohibited.
Besides, the Draft Concept stipulates for the implementation of integrated placement of outdoor advertisements within the city limits, with account taken of operational requirements to their placement. The Draft also provides for the implementation of a standard advertisement classifier, and the improvement of tariff policies, with the view to increasing the city budget’s earnings from the placement of outdoor ads.
Serhii Smolin, director of Doors Consulting LLC and one of the leading experts in the outdoor ad market, believes the Concept to be very timely and absolutely indispensable for the capital. In an interview to The Day he emphatically remarked that “any concept is better than none at all,” hinting that until now the authorities have not had any definite policy in this sector.
According to Smolin, the worst problem on the capital’s outdoor advertisement market (which operators are not able to solve on their own, and thus need the interference from the city authorities) is the overabundance of outdoor displays. “This mars the cityscape and harms advertising operators,” emphasizes Smolin. The excess of advertising displays [according to Doors Consulting, there are some 25,000 outdoor displays in the capital. – Author] considerably reduces the market prices. “If goods are overabundant, they cannot be expensive,” says Smolin. “And by the way, our outdoor ad prices are the lowest in the CIS countries.” Besides, according to the expert, the advertisement-packed market triggers the effectiveness problem. “Seeing endless hoardings and screens, all those messy constructions, advertizers more and more frequently prefer investing in Internet ads, television, promotions, or something else like that.” This is the worst threat, believes Smolin. “If an advertiser wants to switch to another sector, for example, mass media, it is next to impossible to win this customer back,” said he. And the loss of a customer is much worse for a market than low prices.
Smolin is convinced that 25,000 outdoor displays is way too much for a city like Kyiv. Besides, such contamination is aggravated by the incoordination of advertisement market in the capital. “It would be totally different if, like elsewhere in Europe, we had smaller displays in the center: three or four, or eight square meters at the most. But here in Kyiv we have huge hoardings, up to 18 or even 20 square meters.” In his opinion, if the advertising business is well-balanced (with smaller hi-tech displays in the center, and large boards and hoardings in the outskirts), the city would need no more than 10,000 displays.
The operators on the outdoor advertising market also agree that it is necessary to reduce the offer. However, they fear drastic intervention. According to them, if the authorities opt for a rule of thumb decision and order an immediate reduction of displays, this can cause immense damage to adverts operators, or even destroy some of them. As Andrii Kashpur, PR director of Prime-Group, emphasized in his interview to The Day, an evolutionary path is necessary, but one must follow this path discreetly and sensibly. “Drastic action right from the start [while the market is just beginning to rebound. – Author] can bring about unpredictable results,” warns Kashpur.
COMMENTARIES
Oleh NEVELCHUK, CEO, RTM-Ukraine Group:
“The Concept is the result of the cooperation between the experts from the Chief Administration for Advertisement, lawyers, advert operators, and manufacturers proper. It seeks to solve a number of problems which have recently become intrinsic to the outdoor advertisements in Kyiv. In particular, the distance between outdoor displays is to be determined, which will bring down their number and thus reduce the irritability of our media in advertisement-packed areas.
“The implementation of the Concept will require considerable investment from the operators. But it will also put in balance the offer and demand in Kyiv’s outdoor advertisement market, and increase the value of our media.”
Kostiantyn HEIBOVYCH, CEO, state-owned enterprise Perekhid Outdoor:
“My opinion of the Concept is rather positive than negative. But everything depends on the city government’s ultimate aims. If the new Concept seeks to put Kyiv’s outdoor ad market in order, decrease the number of outdoor displays in the central streets and squares, dismantle all illegal constructions, and make Kyiv look like a European city, then it is absolutely positive. But if the adverts are reduced just to vacate the space and issue new leases for our old spots after Euro-2012, it is absolutely inadmissible. The more so, that the dismantling of the old, outdated constructions, the installation of new outdoor displays, and the re-endorsement of licenses requires considerable material expenditure on our part. All operators in the outdoor advertisement market believe that the number of displays in Kyiv’s center will not grow. We hope for the integrity of our authorities.”
