The poster buying specialist, Concord, has called for higher
standards of planning in the outdoor advertising sector, and has created
a new strategic planning operation to spearhead improvements.
The unit, called Quantum, is designed to focus on developing innovative
ways of planning outdoor campaigns to improve the standout and impact of
poster advertising.
According to Lara Salem, the newly appointed head of Quantum, the poster
industry must take a more active role in strategic planning issues.
The idea is to provide a forum for tackling outdoor advertising issues
that would not otherwise receive the necessary level of attention.
Quantum claims to be the first strategic planning unit to be set up by a
poster specialist.
Its first objective is to provide guidelines to advise planners on how
many poster sites their campaign requires and how many times people will
ideally need to see them for the ads to be effective.
Research is being conducted to quantify the correlation between weights
and frequency versus effectiveness - an area which Salem said has not
been the subject of a formal report before. ’This will be a definitive
study which will maximise the investment made in the poster medium by
advertisers, and avoid wastage.’
Salem, a Concord board director, will report to Concord’s managing
director, Nigel Mansell, and head a team of three other executives:
Nicole Guerretta, Oliver Ford and Tom Ransome.