M&A price rise angers buyers

A row has broken out between Mills & Allen and poster buying specialists over the outdoor contractor’s plans to include scrolling units in its new premium sales packages and the price it is charging for them.

A row has broken out between Mills & Allen and poster buying specialists over the outdoor contractor’s plans to include scrolling units in its new premium sales packages and the price it is charging for them.

Specialists, who are in the middle of negotiating fourth quarter rates, are concerned about the extra cost that booking a campaign will carry for clients.

The JC Decaux-owned company is charging &£875 per panel for its new London premium package. Its previous premium package, Headlight, cost only about &£450 per panel for the same two-week period.

M&A has put 400 panels in this new pack, 100 of which are the new scrolling backlight sites.

Specialists have been told by M&A that they cannot opt out of the new scrolling back-lit units if they are buying the London premium package.

One specialist told Marketing Week: “Advertisers might not want backlights in the summer, but we are being forced to take them anyway. Decaux is trying to make advertisers cover the cost of building them, and it’s just not on.”

The specialists claim clients will also have to carry further costs of printing the posters on PVC for the new scrolling units.

No one at Mills & Allen was available for comment.