General Information

After a vigorous and somewhat chaotic start in 1991 outdoor advertising in Russia, by the end of 1996, developed into a fairly stable and promising business gradually becoming one of the most popular and effective kinds of advertising. The statistics about the distribution of advertising budgets among mass media in Russia provided by the Advertising World magazine ( No. 2 of 1996 ) demonstrate that outdoor advertising-s share of the L advertising pie ╕ in 1995 was as much as 11 %. The number exceeds significantly the average figures for Europe and makes it possible to be sure that existing world trends of the growing popularity of outdoor advertising are fully borne out by the experience of the Russian advertising market.

Allocation of advertising among mass media in Russia

It should be noted that while before late 1994 the interests of major advertising agents and advertisers concerning outdoor advertising were, as a rule, limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg, since 1995 they have been expanding their attention to such cities as Ekaterinburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and other major regional centers. Which, naturally, resulted in the leading Russia advertising companies building up their advertising networks in Russian provinces, along with growing operations of local advertising firms.

With this respect St. Petersburg-s outdoor advertising market is of undoubted interest as the analysis of the 5 year long history of its development provides solid grounds for the definition of the tendencies and specific features of this advertising business in Russia.

It is a known fact that consistent and methodical work done by St. Petersburg-s authorities on the regulating outdoor advertising in the city created favorable conditions for a steady and organized development of the business. Now there already exists in St. Petersburg the legal, organizational and financial foundations for further consolidation of the advertising market. The city government supports the development of outdoor advertising in St. Petersburg seeing the priority for this development in growing income to the city budget from outdoor advertising.

It can be safely stated now that the period of rapid, sometimes tumultuous maturing of the outdoor advertising business in St. Petersburg is over. The stage of gradual stabilization and final distribution has set in.

Nowadays practically all types of the advertising equipment existing in the West are widely used in St. Petersburg. The total number of advertising places sold in the city as of November 1, 1996 is around eight and a half thousand. The data provided in the table demonstrate the distribution of the types of advertising structures. The data only include specialized advertising equipment - billboards, stands, pillars, special public transport shelters, roof and wall advertising signs and others. It is these specialized advertising structures that are the basis of St. Petersburg-s advertising market and the main sources of income for the city-s budget from outdoor advertising. The most wide - spread types of advertising equipment are lightposters ( some 1,100 ), billboards and wall panels ( around 850 ), public transport shelters ( ), pillars ( around 550 ). A new type of advertising structures that emerged in 1995 - 1996 is bracketed signs on light poles and power line supports ( around 2,500 ). These, however, are mainly used for non - commercial advertising and information, as well as for festive decoration of the city.

In spite of the rather rigid stance the architectural authorities of the city have taken there appeared in St. Petersburg quite a number of original large scale advertising structures manufactured of vinyl sheets and using various illumination technologies.

The obligatory evaluation of advertising equipment introduced at the end of 1994, the high standards required of the advertising structures and advertising technologies used on the city-s main streets have shaped St. Petersburg special advertising style which is sharply different from that of Moscow and other Russian big cities. The advertising image of St. Petersburg-s central area now increasingly resembles that of Europe-s major cities.

Today advertisers can find a broadest range of high quality effective outdoor advertising services on offer in the advertising market.

Among the companies - owners of advertising structures operative in the St. Petersburg advertising market the leading group exercising the predominant influence has finally taken shape. The list is headed by the Russian - English joint company LAdvert╕. It is followed by LWennergren-Williams╕, LSt.Petersburg Advertising╕, LRoadrunner╕, LWall╕, LPoster╕. These are the companies that plat the decisive role in St. Petersburg-s advertising set - up. Though one should not assert that all the places have been irrevocably allocated in the business. No less than ten other fairly strong companies are noticeably present in the outdoor advertising market which must not be written off the account bearing in mind that the final distribution of the market has only just begun and the potential of the development of St. Petersburg-s outdoor advertising is very high.

Another sign of the maturity of the advertising business can be the foundation and fairly successful work of the Public Council of Advertising and the Association of Outdoor Advertising of St. Petersburg. The Public Council is the main body of self - regulation in advertising defined in the Federal Law L On advertising ╕. Outdoor advertising is represented in the Public Council, along with other types of advertising, by the State Committee of Anti - monopoly policy and the support of new economic formations, major advertisers and advertising companies.