Poster ‘audience’ revamp delayed

By Marketing Week 13 Dec 1996 12:00 am

The outdoor industry’s move to sell posters by audience figures rather than site numbers has been delayed by problems converting Postar data into a sales and booking system.

Six-sheet contractor Adshel announced six weeks ago that from April it would be the first poster company to use the new method (MW October 25).

The company has written to poster specialists warning them that the new packages will not be ready until July 1997 at the earliest.

But specialists believe the company has recognised that none of its rivals were able to follow its move and buyers would therefore convert its audience figures back into site numbers.

“We underestimated how long it would take to convert research company NOP’s Postar data system to our packages,” says an Adshel spokesman. “It is better to be late and get it right than push for the April deadline.”

Mills & Allen is planning to launch audience-based packages of 48-sheets from June next year.

City securities house UBS last week downgraded its profit forecast for Maiden Group from 8.3m to 8m this year and from 10m to 9.5m next year. Maiden’s share price fell 26p on the news.

Railtrack has given in to a request by Maiden to be allowed to sell political posters on Railtrack stations and property. The decision makes an extra 2,700 48- and 96-sheet format posters available to political parties.

How humour helped Nationwide position itself as the ‘antithesis’ of other banks

Grace Gollasch

Nationwide’s TV ad ‘In your best interest’ uses humour to cut through a “serious” category, which lands it in the top 8% of all UK ads, according to Kantar’s ‘The Works’ study.