MediaNation Group subsidiary i-Result Outdoor Serices reported that the rate for a six-metre by 18-metre unipole site near the Beijing airport had risen by 25 per cent, from US$320,000 per year at the start of this year to $400,000.
"The reason for this significant jump is that advertisers are looking for alternative options to spend their money to target a wider demographic base, said i-Result general manager Johnny Lo. "They are finding that the marginal return on spending in television and newspapers is becoming less significant the more they spend on those media."
The company calculated China's outdoor adspend rising by 29 per cent in the first half of the year to RMB747 million (about US$747 million).
But Lo believed about 15 per cent of the increase was the result of the company expanding its geographic coverage to 23 cities across the nation.
As a result, Lo estimated real growth coming in at 14 per cent.
The fastest-growing categories were real estate, service and leisure and entertainment, which chalked up rises of between 36 and 42 per cent.
At the other end of the scale, the telecom, foodstuff and home appliances sectors registered declines of between eight and 15 per cent.
China Telecom and China Mobile, however, bucked the category decline, posting gains of 35 and 54 per cent respectively as the telecom giants battled for market supremacy, targeting the more affluent markets of Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Other major advertisers were Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Unicom, Agricultural Bank of China and China Everbright Bank.
Lo said the major driver for the outdoor industry were key sites in the primary cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
He predicted that outdoor would grow by 25 per cent this year. Lo believed growing clutter in the print and television media and their high cost would increase outdoor's appeal among advertisers in the coming years.
While most forms of outdoor platforms have managed to increase their rates, bus body and bus shelter operators have been reducing their rates.
Lo attributed the reductions to operators moving away from selling individual sites to offering network packages in a bid to improve their position as competition escalates.
"The effective rate has been reduced due to the fact that advertisers expect volume discounts or value added. The reason why they are switching to selling packages of sites is that they want to improve their occupancy rate, especially in prime areas, he said.
CHINA'S TOP 10 OUTDOOR ADVERTISERS (RMB MILLIONS)
2002 Jan-June
China Telecom 127.7
China Mobile 104.1
Industrial & Commercial
Bank of China 55.7
China Unicom 55.5
Agricultural Bank of China 47.3
China Everbright Bank 38.6
TCL 38.2
China Construction Bank 35.5
Legend 34.5
Motorola 33.8
2001 Jan-June
China Telecom 94.8
China Mobile 67.7
Industrial & Commercial
Bank of China 48.0
Agricultural Bank of China 44.9
Motorola 37.5
China Construction Bank 34.8
China Unicom 33.5
Legend 33.5
Pepsi 30.9
China Everbright Bank 25.5
Source: I-Result Outdoor Services
