Edinburgh seeks banner ad deal for council buildings

The City of Edinburgh Council is looking for an outdoor contracting company to submit proposals for the right to run large-format banner advertising on its buildings.

The contract, which will be for three years, is the first of its kind with a local authority and insiders are already predicting that it is likely to be the first of many deals with city councils. Banner advertising is growing in popularity, although in many boroughs in London the medium has failed to get planning consent and on some occasions contractors have been ordered to dismantle sites.

The posters will be mounted on scaffolding on buildings, in prominent locations around the city, while they are being repaired.

Three major companies are expected to submit tenders: Mega Profile, Clear Channel Billboards and Blow Up Media. Clear Channel already works with Edinburgh council through its Adshel bus shelter company and provides some billboards on council property. Clear Channel started selling banner advertising at the start of last year and won the contract to run the ad site at Fort Dunlop from Mega Profile (MW January 16, 2003). It also bought banner advertising company EK Straas in July 2003.