Outdoor Advertising (RLE Advertising) 9781136669309, 9780415817981

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: ADVERTISING

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Its Function in Modern Advertising and Marketing

With a foreword by C. B. WREY R. NELSON & A. E. SYKES

Volume 8

First published in 1953 This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1953 R. Nelson and A. E. Sykes All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-415-63749-7 (Set) eISBN: 978-0-203-07915-7 (Set) ISBN: 978-0-415-81798-1 (Volume 8) eISBN: 978-0-203-58261-9 (Volume 8) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

Outdoor Advertising

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R. N E L SON & A. E. S Y K E S

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IT S FUNCTIO N I N MO DE RN A DVE RT IS ING AND MARKET ING

With a FOREWORD by

C. B. WREY

LON DON

G EORGE ALLEN & UNW IN LTD . MUSEUM STRE ET

By Paste We Flour ish

COP YRIG HT 1953 R. NELSON AN D A . E. SYKE S PR INTED IN ENG LAND BY T HE FANFARE P RESS LT D, LO N DO N

C ONTENTS

I NTR O D UCTI O N 7 FO REWORD

PA RT 1 CHAPTER I

11

Poster Sites and Poster Contractors 15

CHAPTE R II

The Outdoor Advertising Agency 27

CHAPTER III

Poster Design 37

CHAPTER IV

Poster Printing 45

PART 2 C HAPTE R V

Outdoor Advertising-The Medium 57

CHA PTE R VI

Using Outdoor Advertising 67

CHAPTE R VII

The Outdoor Agency in Action 73

PAR T 3 CHAPTE R VIII Measuring the Poster Audience 87 CHAPTE R IX

PAR T 4 CHAPTER X CHAPTE R X I

Further Development 95 Social Aspects 0/ Outdoor Advertising 105 The Town and Country Planning Act /13

R EF E RE NC E S AP P ENDICES I The Population of Great Britain & Northe rn Ireland 2 Costs of Poster Campaigns 3 Transportation Advertising-Traffic and Poster Sizes 4 Transportation Advertising-Schedules and Costs 5 Standard Co nditions of Trading 6 Sections 31 and 32-The Town & Country Planning Act, 1947 7 Glossary

A UTHORS ' NOTE

Outdoor Advertising as with all media has a number of technical terms and these are given in Appendix No.7. There are three words however, frequently employed throughout the book, which may not have quite the same meaning to everyone. It is best therefore to give our definitions now (they are repeated in the Chapter on Audience Measurement) in order to avoid confusion. Audience is the number of different people who have the opportunity of seeing the advertising.

Cover is the audience expressed as a percentage of all the people we want to reach.

Frequency is the average number of times pel' week that a member of the audience has the opportunity of seeing the advertising.

Introduction THE POSTER as we know it dates from the Industrial Revolution, although one form or another of outdoor advertising has existed for many centuries . The reason for this is soon discovered : industrialisation meant that producer became separated from consumer while production for mass consumption rapidly increased, so that a development was necessary in the methods employed in bringing to public notice the merits and very existence of many goods. At the same time, although more and more people learnt to read, newspapers at abou t 6d. each were too expensive for all but a few of the population.

In the early years of the 19th century , billsticking-so much a hundred and no guarantee of posting-was in full swing and the fact that in 1839 the Metropolitan Police Act made it an offence to stick bills on property without its owner's consent gives some indication of the poster's widespread use as an advertising medium even at that early date . 'Flyposting,' as it was called, brought out the billstickers in the early hours of the morn ing to steal a march upon their rivals, and obscuring of bills was rife. In 1862 the United Kingdom Billposting Association was formed with a membership of a hundred; but it was not till a few years later that Edward Sheldon, a Leeds billposter, took the step that put the business on a proper footing . In A History of Poster Advertising, Sheldon's grandson Cyril tells how his father and two rivals, Wood and Holdsworth, 'arrived early one morning at a good site at the same moment, and the physical struggle which ensued to gain possession was so severe that Mr. Sheldon said he would not like to go through another like it as it was dangerou s to life and limb. It was his wife, who, like a true helpmate, came to him in his dilemma with the suggestion that he should rent the site. He at once adopted the suggestion and fairly astounded his competitors.' In this way came into being the outdoor adverti sing stations which today form the stock-in-trade of billposting contractors. Billposting, also by Cyril Sheldon, is the one authoritative textbook which up to 1952has been written on Outdoor Advertising. It is dated 1916. t On the one hand, therefore, we have a practice going back long before the days of the poster's competitors, but on the other hand no attempt at a codification or record of common experience. Outdoor advertising drifted on, being used when t This book was re-written, ex tended and published

ill 1927 under the title of' Poster Adm°tising'.

8

OUTDOOR ADV ERTISING

there was money available after press requirements had been satisfied, although of course there have been certain advertisers who have always used this medium. For most, however, the poster schedule was a piece of paper , unheralded and unexplained . Posters were used without proof, on hunch ; which is not to say that the hunch was a wrong one (in essence, our experience has shown that when they were good they were very, very good, though when they were bad..... !) but, in a time when the press was beginning to be dissected and it was no longer possible (or sensible) to boast of circulation without a supporting audit, those concerned with outdoor advertising, agents and contractors alike, scorned newfangled ideas. There were sporadic attempts to prove poster audience or circulation, but either these were frowned upon or it was felt that the results of such activities were bound to be inconclusive because the task was impossible. With World War II came an interesting period. Newsprint was rationed and advertising space in newspapers was hard to come by. Some advertisers thus found themselves using the outdoor medium for the first time and there was increased use of the London Underground escalator panels and tube cards (for example) because they could most easily employ the limited pape r sizespermitted. It was only natural that many advertisers were compelled to use the medium without understanding it. There were no reassuring voucher copies, no widely accepted statistical proof of its effect, and they assumed that the medium represented only a second best to the press. What has happened to change the attitude of the advertiser to the medium ? Immediately after the war the Industry was faced with the necessity to renovate and replan during a shortage of materials and labour. It was known that the Town & Country Planning Act would contain clauses regularising the siting of hoardings and when the Act reached the Statute Book in 1947 consultations between the Ministry and the Industry made it clear that the medium had a certain future. The leading Outdoor Contractors at the same time came more and more to recognise that the medium needed explanation and evidence of its efficiency. There are some who think that the outdoor medium is too complex to be proved, but as time passes and surveys are undertaken and come to be accepted, a conversion of those who doubt will yet be seen.

Since 1945 several surveys of the outdoor medium have been undertaken and during that period we at Outdoor Publicity Limited have also been examining the problems: the results of some of that thought will be found here together with the findings of our recent researches. We sincerely believe that these will be welcomed-not only welcomed but used and developed by those who, like us, are thinking well ahead.

9

INTRODUCTION

The book has been divided into three main sections. The first deals with outdoor advertising-the contractor, the agent, the designer and all who are concerned with its practical side: the second with the application of planning, selection, etc., to a product which for purposes of this book will be named Anon: and the third section gives some idea of recent research into the audience of poster campaigns in general. Appendices have been devoted to specialist details of the various media covered by the generic title Outdoor Advertising. Here, then , is a book about outdoor advertising, its design and colourful presentation, its place in the advertising and marketing story.

R. NELSON A. E. SYKES London, 1953.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We have been very fortunate in the number of people who have helped us to produce this book, either by lending material or with helpful criticism. They are so many however that we hope they will forgive us if we do not mention them by name . But we must pay tribute to the work that has been don e by B. D. Copland, our Research Advisor, the results of which will be seen in particular in Chapters VlIl & IX. We are also indebted to the Central Office of Information for permi ssion to reproduce certain poster designs which are Crown Copy righ t.

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Foreword I think the producers of this book are to be congratulated on providing so comprehensive a survey of outdoor advertising. It is forty years or more since anything authoritative was published, and it is time that everyone whose business involves him in any way with poster advertising had up-to-date information on this important subject. Not only do these eleven chapters provide what I regard as an excellent text book for the newcomer, but they contain a considerable amount of information which must be of interest and real value to experienced poster users, including a study of the new research and a comprehensive collection of outdoor sites and spaces. The appendices contain collected material of inestimable value not easily obtained elsewhere. I believe that OUTDOOR ADVERTISING will be greatly welcomed as the standard work by advertisers, advertising agents and the industry as a whole, to whom it renders a considerable service. C. B. WREY, Imperial Tobacco Company .

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PART 1

CHAPTER I CHAPTER II

Poster Sites and Poster Contractors The Outdoor Advertising Agency

CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV

Poster Design Poster Printing

The poster's view of its audience

CHAPTER

r

Poster Sites and Poster Contractors OUTDOOR ADVERTISING is advertising by means of posters. Most people will be content to leave it at that and accept the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a poster as 'a placard posted or displayed in a public place as an announcement or advertisement.' Something less simple, however, is required to define the subject of this book . To the outdoor advertising agent a poster is a placard or display posted or erected to be seen in a public place (that place not necessarily or usually being an actual point of sale but including public vehicles, transport stations and places of entertainment) as an announcement or advertisement.

Thus outdoor advertising in Britain is taken to include what in America is called 'transportation advertising.' Shop signs, by their permanence, do not come within our definition; nor do window displays, which, although they may include posters (in the sense that space in them may have been lent or rented as a hoarding to an advertiser), are not normally available to the outdoor advertising agent. Sites Posters can be displayed alone (solus) or in groups with others. They can be displayed in a number of ways as follows: (a) on hoardings-upright frames erected beside streets or roads (often in front of derelict lots or building works), and varying in size and being constructed to take one or a number of standard-size posters; (b) on gable ends or walls, also arranged to take one or more standard-size posters; (c) on sites on station or Underground platforms, in booking halls and on the walls of Underground passages, lifts and escalators; (d) in panels inside public vehicles, buses, trams, railway and Underground carriages, etc.

16

Chapter I:

POST ER SITES

(e) on panels on public vehicles, buses, trams, vans , etc. The sites upon which posters will ultimately be displayed mu st be rented from their owners or lessees. On special sites outdoor displays can be erected using neon or other illumination and mechanical movement.

Poster Sizes The standard unit of poster size is called 'double crown', measuring 20 inches wide by 30 inches deep . Thi s is frequently used on railway stations and passages, where length of vision is limited. Other posters are normally in multiples of the double crown. The usual size for an outdoor poster is l6- sheet, that is sixteen double crowns, arranged to measure 80 inches wide by 120 inches deep. Bigger sizes are multiples of the I 6-sheet-32-sheet, 48-sheet , 64-sheet and so on , all retaining the l20-inch depth. There are other sizes not necessarily standa rd and these will mainly be found in buses , underground and main line railway carriages, beside escalato rs and on the outside of buses and van s.

The Poster's Surroundings All forms of outdoor advertising have in common the purpose of catching the eye of the passer-by and impressing on him a conci se but powerful sales message in the time he takes to pass . Ju st as the pre ss adverti sement ha s to match its strength with editorial matter, so the poster is normally seen again st a background of buildings and amidst the distraction of people and vehicles on the move. It must do all in its power to attract attention by colour and design and with a few well-chosen words at most. The poster is only one of man y ways of getting the att enti on of the public. Most of the advertising we see and hear come s to us as an apparently free addition to something we have paid for . For example, all press ad vertising reache s the public in close association with news, information and entertainment : the coppers that are spent on a daily newspaper buy both edit or ial and advertising matter, but the reader, ignoring the fact that without ad verti sing the paper would cost him nearly twice as much , believes that he pays for the editorial and gets the advertisements thrown in. In the same way the cinema-goer pays for his ticket and is provided with anything from a few minutes to half an hour of advertising matt er as well as the entertainment films he has gone in to see. By now he accept s this as normal and, as long as the advertising matter has entertainment value too, he raises no

AND POSTER C O N T R A C T O R S

17

objection . Commercial radio, also, offers a mixture of news, information, entertainment and advertising. These three, the press, the cinema and the radio, are all media in which the advertiser relies upon the attractive power of their 'editorial matter' to bring the associated adverti sing to the notice of the consumer. Outdoor advertising is different, and this difference is important. The poster is not directly associated in any way with news or entertainment, in the sense that it must attract attention by its own unaided efforts. Its message is no part of any financial transaction with the consumer : indeed, posters are so free (to the consumer) that nobody who sets foot out of doors can easily avoid being exposed to their influence. This difference is important. Outdoor advertising is a valuable medium because the poster stands alone and makes its presence felt in a different way from any other form of advertising and because posters can be so positioned as to form the final link in the advertising chain which stretches from information and persuasion to ultimate purchase.

18

Chapter I:

POSTER SITES

The Poster Contractor We have said that sites must be rented from their owners or lessees. Who are these owners and lessees? Statistical information relating to the billposting indust ry is scanty. An estimate of the number of billposting contractors in the United Kingdom is given in Advertising Expenditure and Revenue of the Press by Kaldor and Silverman, and some indication of the geographical distribution of contractors is to be found in The Poster Advertising Year Book. The statements that follow are derived from these two sources, supplemented where possible by the opinions and estimates of agents and contractors. Advertising Expenditure and Revenue of the Press says: 'The regular poster contractors number about 800 firms, but five big combines, each covering a different part of the country, control about 75% of the sites. There are also 'solus' poster advertising firms who specialise in erecting boards for single advertisements, while the non-specialist contractors also have some solus sites.' It seems, however, that there has been an increasing tendency during the last few years towards amalgamation in the billposting industry, and the 1939figure of 800 poster advertising firms is not now accurate. The British Poster Advertising Associations states that the members, numbering about 280, include 'practically all the poster advertising contractors in the United Kingdom,' and in its Year Book are listed all the towns in Britain and Eire where billposting contractors are operating. Apart from the Solus

AND POST ER C O NT R A C T O R S

19

Outdoor Advertising Association, which will be reviewed later, there are two main Poster Advertising Associations - the London and the British. Mo st billposting contractors are members of one of these Associations. It is und erstood that members of an Assoc iation agree not to enter the areas of, or to comp ete with , their fellow-members, a nd con sequently to be in the B.P.A.A. is some insurance against undue competition from other members. By arrangement, however, there are some town s where two or more association members are already operating : an analysis of existing dat a shows that out of 104 town s where two members operate, exactly half are in Scotland and the north of England, and represent areas where two large or gan isat ions are competing. There is no agreement affecting undue competiti on hetween the B.P.A.A. and the Solus Association . In addition to contractors concerned with all types of hoarding, there are several contracting organisations specialising in solu s sites who control between them a great number of the solus sites all over the country. It is therefore necessary, in plann ing a poster campaign, not only to make pro vision for contacting the provincial and semi-national contractors, but also to maintain close touch with the London or provincial headquart ers of the solus comp anies.

The Outdoor Advertising Service The diagram opposite shows the position the billposting contractor occupies. It may be seen that the advertiser can make direct contact with the contractor and , in certain cases, obtain from him a complete outdoor advertising service ; that is to say, some contractors are equipped to have post ers designed and printed and to arrange for their display in thei r own ar eas and elsewhere. Again , the ad vertiser can make use of an advertising agency for the whole of his publicity and can delegate to it all arrangements for a poster campaign. The agency mayor may not be equipped to handle the detailed arrangements and to inspect the displays ; if it is not, it can emplo y a specialised outdoo r advertising agency for this purpose. Finally, the ad vertiser can , if he is interested in outdo or advertising only, make direct contact with a speciali sed 'outdoor' agency. Whatever the procedure, the billposting contractors (with whom are includ ed the transport authorities who dispose of outdoor advert ising space of an y (type) must ultimately be approached by either the ad verti ser or his agent s. This variety of contractors ha s an immediate influence on the administrative machinery that is required by agents, involving accu rat e records in head office for ordering and accounting purposes, as well as mak ing it essential for an efficient agency to be in a position to provid e a frequent person al cont act with the billposters themselves. Unles s this is done and unless the agent's

a

A choice of poster spaces on the London Underground system a-Tube' cards b and c-Special Sites d-Escalator panels e-l6-sheet cross-track positions d

b

c c

b-A bus 'side'

a-Bus double fronts

Some transportation advertising spaces

d-Bus double rears; Target and Lower rear

c-A van 'side '

22

Chapter I: POSTER SITES

representatives are on the spot available sites cannot be selected to advantage, and the campaign cannot be efficiently controlled. This situation will be treated in more detail when we deal with the function of the outdoor advertising agent. Transportation Advertising

The owners of and agents for public transport services themselves offer very considerable facilities for the display of advertising material on their premises and vehicles. Transportation ad vertising covers: (a) the display to the general public of posters on premises or property owned by the tran sport authorities, e.g. bridges, stations, etc. ; (b) the display to the general public of posters on the exterior of road vehicles owned by the transport authorities. There are also vehicles owned by private companies, known as private carrier vans. The advertising space on these vehicles can be placed through specialist contractors, who afford a full service, and this includes the production of the necessary posters. (c) the display specifically to travellers of posters on premises owned by the transport authorities; (d) the display specifically to travellers of posters on stations, tube cards and advertisements on the interior of vehicles owned by the transport authorities. The structure of the transportation branch of outdoor advertising has been considerably affected by nationalisation, which brought about the creation of a new contracting organisation handling the advertising on the rail and road services of the British Transport Commission (subject to certain licences granted to adverti sing contractors). This Commercial Advertisement Division is responsible for the rental of all advertisin g space on the premises and rolIingstock of the nat ionalised transport systems. Illuminated Posters and Signs These signs a re treated basically in the same way as an ord inary poster, as far as arrangements for their use are concerned ; but because of the cost of their erection and the individual nature of their structure and wiring, contracts are usually for much longer periods. Their positions are generally the subject of special contracts and either the billposting contractor himself or, more usually, the outdoor adverti sing agent who is acting for his client, makes all necessary arrangements with one of the firms specialising in the erection and maintenance of illuminated signs. The trade bodies in this particular branch of the outdoor

'Piccadilly' - an advertising display in Blackpool

Piccadilly -

the real thing

Chapter I:

24

TH E CONTRA CT OR

advertising industry are The Master Sign Makers' Association and The Electrical Sign Manufacturers' Association. How the Billposting Contractor Works The stock-in -trade of the billposting contractor, whether a solus-board operator or not, consists of a number of hoardings on which one or more posters can be displayed, these hoardings being usually rented from the owners of the property on which they stand or to which they are affixed. The hoardings may consist of a simple wooden frame and backing again st a wall or gable-end, or a complete self-supporting framework of wood or metal. There are also structures known as 'bulletin boards' or special positions comprising, in the first place, the framework and backing for the display of posters, as well as a far more elaborate border to the display space and in front of the board, in addition to f1owerbeds, crazy pa ving and so on. These boards are of various sizes and they are usually arranged to take painted displays. Solus and bulletin boards require for their admini stration only a cardindex system giving the location and the booking dates. The larger hoardings need a rather more complex treatment, and in order to organise their billposting teams (the men who actually post and maintain the posters) contractors usually establish what is known as a 'plan book,' in which are to be found scale drawings of every hoarding with its position marked, together with detai ls of existing and

A brid ge sign

a

c

Familiar variations

d

b

e

a-A Bulletin board b-Another type of Bulletin board c-The Site at point of sale d- Fitting into the surroundings e- Public Information Panels

26

Chapt er I:

TH E CONTRA CTOR

prospective bookings. With this the contractor is able to control the position of each poster on the hoarding; it is then a simple matter to tell the posting team to put the new poster B over the old poster A. The contractor not only lets the space but undertakes to receive the posters from the agent, to fix them to the hoardings and to maintain them in good condition for the period of the display. This includes reposting whenever necessary. Here again , then, the outdoor agent's representative fill s an important function, in that he continually inspects his clients' poster s on the hoardings and ensures that the contractor is maintaining them in a proper condition . The Standard Conditions of Trading drawn up by the B.P.A.A. in which these obligations are embodied have been reproduced in an app endix, the London Poster Advertising Association's Standard Conditions are very similar. In order to keep the agent informed of the space available to him for particular campaigns, most contractors produce a duplicated or printed list of all their sites, so that they can rapidly supply on demand a statement of available positions. The case of contractors who are exclusively concerned with solus sites is however rather different. Here the general practice is not to supply the agent with a complete list of all hoardings, noting against each which are to be free on certain dates , but rather a list of available sites only. Apart from this, the solus site contractors conduct their business broadly in the same way as the other contractors. All contractors continually have to undertake maintenance work on or recon struction of existing structures for the renewal of leases, the loss of existing sites and the finding of new positions. Among the bigger concern s this last job is carried on by 'site getters', whose task is to cover the area concerned , to approach the owners of buildings and of ground, a nd to arrange the rental of the positions. The whole of this activity is subject to the control of Local Government officials and before a hoarding can be erected detailed plans must be submitted to them . Thi s means that draft contracts with the owner of the property have to be drawn up, detailed plan s and blue-prints prepared and the. whole submitted for final approval to the local authority who, under the terms of the Town and Country Planning Act , * 1947, has the immediate respon sibility of accepting or rejecting the application for the erection of a hoarding on the grounds of public safety or damage to local amenities.

• See Ch apte r XI and Appendix VI

CHAPTER II

The Outdoor Advertising Agency

functions between the adverti ser, or his agent , and the contractor; receiving from the one a broad indication of his intentions and accounting to him for the expenditure entailed on his behalf, and translating plans into action with the other. He inspects the work as it is carried out by the contractor and pays him for the space hired. Between these two sides of his business stands his planning department, which can call upon the accumulated knowledge of the organisation in the shape of experience and statistics.

THE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING AGENT

The Structure of an Agency ( I) P LAN N I N G Contact with the client on policy level-the production of a plan of campaign-supervision of research and statistical work necessary for efficient planning-presentation of plans to client-briefing of Contracting Department when plan is accepted. (2) C O N T R A C TI N G Detailed preparation of schedules ill the light of current

conditions- direct contact with outside inspection staff for selection of sites and positions- contact with billposting contractor and booking of sites and positions-confirmation of orders to Accounts Department-instruction s to Poster Store for supply ofposters to contractors- general contact with client on day-to-day progress of campaign. (3) INSPECTION STAFF Site Selection-servicing of displays-improvements

of displays-information and inspection reports to Inspection Control-information on local conditions, etc. to Planning Department.

28

Chapter II:

THE STRUCTURE

The chain of Responsibility

(4) INSPECTION CONTROL Administration of outside staff of inspectors-

passing of credits for unposted sites to Accounts-sorting, checking and passing of campaign reports to Contracting Department. (5) POSTER STORE Receipt of posters from printers- despatch of posters to contractors - record ofstocks held - record ofcarriagecharges. (6) ACCOUNTS Payment of accounts to contractors-charges to clientsexpenses of outdoor staff. The Diagram shows how each department is linked with the others, and the line of direct contact with the client or the contractor. We shall see more of the detailed working of an outdoor agency in Chapter VII.

OF AN OUTDOOR AGENCY

29

The Poster Schedule A poster schedule contains a list of towns, against each of which appears the number of sites that the continual study of the individual towns has proved to be the necessary cover or which is deemed necessary for the task at hand and or the appropriation available. The Pattern of Display Poster advertising practice is with reason based on the knowledge that every town has a number of important points, some or all of which will be passed, sooner or later, by everyone in that town who goes outside his front door. In the course of three months - a usual period of display - it may fairly be expected that nearly every person in the town will have one or more chances of seeing the poster if put up at all these points. As a rule the recommended figure is reached on the spot by allotting posters to such positions that the inhabitants of the town will pass one or more of them at least once a week. This is not difficult, because the pattern of movement in any town does, in fact, repeat itself in the main at weekly intervals. The number of posters required for 'cover' can generally be arranged in various ways, the choice of sites depending on which arrangement needs fewest posters or the frequency of viewing that is required. Towns and groups of towns are topographically separate entities, which means that duplication of posters in a schedule becomes negligible, a simple addition sum giving the 'audience' for the whole campaign, which applied to the adult population of the whole region gives a percentage 'cover.' The questions of 'cover', of 'audience' and the calculation of 'audience' in this context are dealt with in detail in Chapter VIII. At this point we will simply repeat the definitions which are printed at the beginning of this Book, that a poster's audience is the number of different people who have the opportunity of seeing it, and that outdoor advertising cover is that audience expressed as a percentage of all the people the advertiser wishes to reach. The Outdoor Agent's Contribution The practical result of investigating the poster potentialities of a town or group of towns is that the outdoor advertising agent can and does establish a recommended display that will vary according to the size of the town and its pattern of movement. The unwritten but implicit guarantee that the display he recommends will be so placed that virtually everyone in a given town will have the opportunity of seeing at least one of the posters is the most important service

The main points of congregation

the outdoor agent offers to the advertiser. His guarantee is of course dependent on there being an adequate appropriation for the campaign as a whole or at least for the individual town. The service is important because the relation between the required number of posters and the population of any town is not a fixed one; the structures of towns and their association together in groups meaning that a poster/population ratio can be only a rough guide. To take an example: the average full poster showing for Glasgow (1,108,549 population) is 250/l6-sheets , whereas Birmingham (l, 117,900) needs only 2oo/16-sheets.

Chapter II: PLANNING THE DISPLAY

31

The practical result of investigating the poster potentialities of a town or group of towns is that the outdoor agent can and does establish the recommended display. This will vary according to the town and its pattern of movement-neither wasting site rental and paper by overposting nor attempting too large a market with too small a weapon. There are, however, times when an advertiser's purpose is best achieved by departing entirely from the normal recommended display-successful campaigns have ranged from one first class position in each of a dozen large towns to an extra heavy display over a short period in all the towns in a particular area. These are problems which the outdoor advertising agents live to solve. We shall show later that the audience for a display of posters resembles in its composition the population as a whole : this factor of the representative audience, plus virtually complete cover, and the vital factor of repetition forms the whole basis of the poster campaign. Planning the Poster Display First, the outdoor agent needs answers to the following questions: Where are the major and suburban shopping centres? What are the transport systems and by what routes do they cover the town? Where are the residential areas and what income groups live there? Where are the chief centres of business and industry? What and where are the places where crowds gather for sport and recreation?

What is the relation of this town to the surrounding country and adjacent towns - county town, market centre, urban group or what? What is its influence over the surrounding country? Only when these questions have been answered can he determine an effective poster coverage. In the drawing on the facing page can be seen the residential, shopping and entertainment areas of a typical town. Main traffic routes (bus and tram) are indicated. The agent can now begin to mark on a map of this town some of the points that all the inhabitants will be expected to pass at least once a week. Most will find it necessary from time to time to go into the central shopping area for requirements that cannot be satisfied by local retailers. He can also select points on the main approaches to the town centre and to the outer shopping centres in order that people moving into these areas from surrounding residential districts would be likely to pass them. In the same way, all who go

32

Chapter II:

CHOOSING THE SITES

to and from work must be expected to use the main traffic arteries as these close in on the predominantly industrial districts. Finally, the agent will look for theatres, cinemas, cricket and football grounds, dog-racing tracks and other places of sport and entertainment, trying to select points on their approaches. This planned selection of positions would result in an almost complete cover, at least within the normal posting term of 13 weeks, of the whole town; but naturally the fact that the poster plan requires a poster opposite the football ground does not mean that there is necessarily a site there or that space will then be available. The next stage, therefore, is to plot the positions of all the hoardings in the town (opposite) and see whether all or most of the ideal points can be used. It is in this that the billposting contractor and the agent's representative, who both know the town, can mate the ideal with the practical, producing a sound choice of hoardings. The Final Selection The agent cannot always expect to get from the contractor just the positions he wants. There are comparatively few hoardings and many advertisers. The agent may be obliged, for instance, to accept two positions, one at each fork of the road instead of one at the junction which could have done the work of both. There could well be more than one satisfactory arrangement of a recommended sheetage. Confronted with this kind of practical problem the representative might well make such a selection as that shown on the opposite page. This brings us to the realisation that selecting ideal positions is not by any means the whole story. It is not much use choosing a hoarding in the best place if it happens to be facing the wrong way, against the flow of traffic; or again, the use of a position in relation to traffic flow may be great but if the hoarding is in a narrow street too high above people's heads much of its use will be lost. The agent's representative must be able to decide betweenthe relative merits of two hoardings. He must also be able to recognise the best position on a hoarding, for although the billposting contractor does not guarantee any particular position on a selected hoarding an agent may be able to arrange for his positions to be improved as other posters on that hoarding come out of charge.

Visibility Values A site or a particular position on that site is to be assessed in the light of three factors over and above that of the audience. One is positive and two are negative: first and foremost, uninterrupted visibility; second, the extent of distraction; third, the height above eye level.

The choice of poster-sites

The sites selected for display

34

Chapter II:

EVALUATION OF

The longer the range of uninterrupted vision the better the opportunity for the message to register. As for distraction, the poster on the solus hoarding has to compete only with its environment, but an increase in the number of posters displayed on a single hoarding (and that means within the range of vision at one time) increases the possibility of distraction by competing rivals. In the matter of height, the representative is not likely to be enthusiastic about a display far above the line of vision, having due regard for the distance from which the site can be seen. The three 'eye to poster' factors may be thought to meet the need felt in the past for a system which the inspector can use or for comparing site with site (other than by straightforward checking) . It is possible to select a town's best sites purely on a points basis, but this method is almost certain to provide a cover bearing little relation to the main population movement in the town . Sites scoring the highest points might, for instance, be all concentrated in a single district. If points are also given on the basis of traffic counts, i.e. the physical checking of the total passages past a given site, the problem is still not solved. Naturally it is of the highest importance that the buyer and the seller of outdoor advertising should know that figure; but selecting sites 011 traffic-count figures may easily lead to a unbalanced concentration of outdoor advertising at one above may easily lead to a unbalanced concentration of outdoor advertising at one or two focal points. Furthermore, it is the essential difference between traffic counts and audience figures that whereas the latter show how many different people pass the site, the former may count the same persons over and over again as often as they pass and repass during the relevant period. Let us demonstrate this. The diagrams reproduced below show the five best sites in the town , booked according to mathematical valuation. The

DIFFERENT SITES

35

numbers represent the total points scored by each site on the basis of the table given (figures used are for demonstration only). Sites with the highest scores are selected, but the map shows that only two roads are covered and large gaps are left in the display. Obviously a situation factor must be added if valuation is to have practical significance, and the next diagram shows the same sites chosen for a household product with this factor included, revealing that the best five by mathematical valuation and suitable location are concentrated on one shopping centre, leaving two others untouched.

Transportation Advertising Sites Because the placing of advertising material on the vehicles and premises of public transport organisations is restricted in location and the lines of passenger movement are clearly defined, some of the problems which relate to hoardings and their location in a town do not arise. Nevertheless the efficient employment of transportation advertising must depend on a judicious use of the various facilities transport authorities can provide. The borderline cases which have some of the character of normal outdoor advertising although still under the control of transport authorities, are two. First there are positions on the outside of vehicles: these are, to all intents and purposes, moving hoardings; the choice offered is limited to the type of vehicle, the position on it and the route the vehicle will follow. Vehicles bearing outside advertising are of two types: those that carry passengers - buses, trolleybuses, trams - and those used for freight, such as parcels and goods lorries. As far as advertising is concerned, the difference between passenger-carrying and goods-carrying vehicles lies in the journeys made. Passenger-carrying vehicles operate on fixed routes at theoretically fixed intervals and in consequence it is possible in some cases to control the kind of audience obtainable. In London, for instance, space can be booked on central buses, trolleybuses or country buses. It would seem, however, to be a very difficult task to arrive at any figure representing the number of people who can be expected to see this advertising, more particularly that on goods and parcels vehicles, and for the moment one would expect the only likely measurement of relative efficiencythat could be provided in this case to be a figure of mileage and area covered. The audience for advertising inside passenger vehicles is strictly dependent upon the number of people who use them and the London Travel Survey together with 'Bristol on the Move'- a report on a similar investigation provide data from which estimates can be made of the number of different people regularly using all forms of public transport in these areas. It is also possible to arrive at some indication of the frequency with which they do so.

In t he Stu dio : The P riva t e View

CHAPTER III

Poster Design WEWI LL later establish in more detail the fact that of all the advertising media the poster possesses to an exceptional degree the advertising virtu e of repetitio n. It is a quick-firing weapon, aimed largely at a moving tar get, so that it behoves us in using it to establ ish a simple line of fire, well within our range, a nd keep at it. It is not a suitable weapon for fancy shooti ng. All ad vertising is the better for ha ving simple objectives : posters can hardl y do without them. There is so little time. Our market is walking, running, bicycling, dr iving, pushing, jostling - or , very pro bably, sitting readin g a competitive medium - and we have to attract atte ntion by our own unaided efforts. A newspaper advertisement can sometimes effectively merge itself in its editorial surro undings and be ab sorbed as part of them ; a poster must always stand out. A poster has to do more : it must attract atte ntion and convey its message almo st in one breath. In other media the audi ence can be expected to follow at leisure such byeways as the romantic prog ress of Flossie Footlights from failure to success by courtesy of our produ ct ; in other media devices can be used that a re a far cry from each other and from the ultimat e selling theme of the advertisement : but a poster must create atte ntion, interest and conviction at one blow, related as directly as possible to the product, then, and in the memory. If the advertiser cannot be cont ent with what ca n be conveyed in a n eyeful, if he cannot allo w anyone or get an yone to design him a poster that will be likely to be remembered as his and his alone , he ought seriously to consider whether his advertising should be on the hoard ings at all. Fo r to the many posters that fail becau se they are not seen, must be added just as many that fail because they convey nothing. 'Do you remember that extraord inary clever one with a thingummy standing on its head for - something or other - I forget what it was ad vertising , but it was frightfully good .... .' In the Poor Man's Picture Gall ery what are remembered are usually the simple thin gs (not, alas, simply achieved) that tell the whole story at a glance.

Some famou s designs from poster history

Bridging a gap of nearly ninety years, the 'Woman in White ' and the 'Black Widow ' are sisters under the skin; they achieved their purpose almost instantaneously and with great economy of means , practically without words and with great visual memorability. Other types of poster achieve their purpose rather by illustrating and emphasising a phrase that is the whole message of the poster and which is in itself simple, human and easy to remember - 'Have you used Pear's Soap?' 'Guinness is good for you' and so on. Others concentrate upon the article to be sold. This chapter will not attempt to formulate rules for poster designers, nor will it rush into the highly technical subject of what makes a work of art memorable. The greatest need - and this we shall try to supply - is for a re-examination of the medium in relation to its use. Planning the Poster Let us start at the very beginning and consider who is concerned in making a poster. They make a formidable array: the client, the account director, the account executive, the group manager, the copywriter, the visualiser and not least the artist, all probably have their own ideas of what is what and it will be as a result of their labours that the poster will be born. There is a danger that overcrowding may produce a compromise. Too often posters appear on the hoardings in which the only thing that shows clearly is that too many people have had too many ideas of what they could cram in for their money, or that at the last moment something was inserted which completely ruined any chances the poster might have had of getting in its quick knock-out punch.

Chapter III:

POSTER DESIGN

39

Equally at this early stage there is another difficulty, that of size. The artist's drawing-board can accommodate any size of press advertisement up to a full-page without the need to scale it down, but cannot accommodate a fullsize l6-sheet poster rough. What in effect the designer has to do is produce a double-crown poster (20 inches by 30 inches) which is one-sixteenth of full size. In theory the balance should be kept, and mathematically this is so, but it often turns out that what looked well in a double crown seems very different when it measures 80 inches by 120 inches. There is one sensible answer to this and to the earlier problem : have your 16-sheet poster hand-drawn to full size and posted on a hoarding among competitors. This is the only way of ensuring that posters are not printed which will eventually prove a disappointment. Another difficulty confronting the artist is that of the poster's surroundings. He can study his design for a press advertisement by pasting a proof or a sketch in the appropriate place in a copy of the paper in which it is due to appear. He 1871 -

-1947

40

Chapter III:

T HE ROUT E TO

knows that the neighbouring editorial matter will always be similar , and he can if he wishes study his work in retrospect by obtaining a copy of the periodical in which his advertisement actually appears. A poster campaign, however, consists of a variety of sites in a variety of locations, cheek by jowl with all sorts of unpredictable competitors or standing on their own again st all manner of backgrounds. The poster has to cope with the smoke of Manchester and the sun of Exeter, to attract attention in Glasgow as readily as in London, for it is unlikely that special posters will be printed for special a reas. All of this may sound rather discouraging, but since the poster plays, a nd always will playa vital part in any adverti sing camp aign and the best chosen sites may be completely thrown away upon a poster whose design and message are illegible, it is clear that these points need a great deal of most careful attention. A great deal more than they have been given in the past. Just as the artist sees the voucher copy containing his press advertisement , so he should be encouraged to leave his studio and examine the effect of his poster in some of the towns in which it is displayed . Advertisers, too , would do well to make a habit of counting the number of words on the successful posters they admire and to ask themselves why those with the fewest word s seem to say more and stay longer in the memory. So far we have dealt merely with the design of a poster in the sense of the difficulties that might arise before pencil was put to pape r ; but we must now go a stage further. The decision to use posters will obviously ari se out of the marketing and media discussions, during which it will have been found that the product has certain qualities worthy of special accent , and this defines the type of advertising approach to the consumer that must be interpreted by the artist and the copywriter. Here again is to be found divergence of opinion. The effect of an advertising campaign in its full sense starts in the home and progresses via streets and railways and the centre s of entertainment, to the retail stores or other points of sale. It is a continuous chain , since advertising is designed to attract the consumers' attention as often and during as much of the 24-hour day as possible. This continuity does not, however, mean that the identical message should appear in all media ; yet it is not abn ormal for the poster to appear as a blown-up press advertisement which cannot be read from more than a few feet even by him who stands still to study it. Clearly, at the start of the chain, the press adver tisement educates (in the ad vertising sense of the word), demonstrates, describes. At the far end is the window or counter display, with the actual goods. Between these stands the poster. It has colour? catch-phrase, picture of the pack and so on - aU very

41

ULTIMATE PUR CHAS E

simple and immedi ate in appeal: it is natu ral therefore that it should be more closely linked with the retail outlet than with the home . The word home spells leisure , time to take in a line of reasoning: the stre ets and railway stations where posters sta nd mean hurry, movement, scant attention for anything but the headl ines; and they also mean the way to retail purchase. As a result of this rou gh analysis it can be seen that the press ad vertisement and the poster are likely to have in common only a slogan, a pack and the product's name, and sometimes less than that. It would be possible to persuade a newspaper reade r to study the number of words that could be got into a half-page advertisement, measuring 11 inches by 15 inches : a 16-sheet poster, although 50 times more extensive, can reasonably expect its audience to read only about half a dozen word s.

BUY NA TIONAL

SAVINGS (EKTlf/CATEJ 8 £F ORf A rtVl

The poster on Government service

I!!

42

Chapter III:

TESTING THE DESIGN

What then can the poster say? It can say: Anon will do all your household wash Anon will give you more miles per gallon Anon will shave you as lightly as a feather Anon will double the life of your shoes Anon makes all the difference to your cooking Anon contains a glass-and-a-half of thick rich cream Anon means a germ-free home Anon is good for you Anon is worth trying Anon is the biggest Anon is best By its very brevity, the poster calls for action. 'One to be ready. . .' says the press advertisement: 'Two to be steady . . .' then: 'G O !' cries the poster. Yet despite this appeal to action, this evident urgency, the poster need not use the technique of the showground barker; in fact, a sense of urgency is often better conveyed through subtlety and suggestion. Look at the Road Safety, National Savings, and Diphtheria Immunisation posters reproduced on pages 39 and 41 : their sense of urgency is produced through the strong mental and emotional impression they make , without resort to shouting. The problems attendant upon the selection of the ' best' poster design for some particular purpose can not be solved by statistical processes . Perhaps the most practical contribution that can be made to this subject is the provision inside the advertising agency of surroundings for the poster approximating as closely as possible to real life. As we have said, poster roughs are usually produced to double crown size and exhibited either on the client's desk or held up against an office wall. By using scale model roughs and arranging for these to be displayed against a normal kind of background, including other posters, the designer and the client can, at any rate to a limited extent, begin to see how the new design would stand up to the competition and distractions of real life. The 'windmill' shown opposite can be rotated so that the effect of viewing at an angle or of passing the poster at various speeds is simulated. Experiments are also in progress using a form of peep-show in which a realistic impression of movement down a street is given. This provides the opportunity of displaying posters for fixed periods of time at varying angles just as they would be seen when passing down a street.

Four poster designs advertising imaginary products, used in recognition tests, and a simple rotating display for studying poster viewing angles on which designs can be mounted in typical positions.

With these and other devices it is possible also to begin some scientific investigation of various factors in design. The relative efficiency of different type faces when viewed at an angle, the amount of detail in a design, the effect of different colour combinations under different lighting conditions can all be examined and some, at any rate, of the host of unanswered questions about poster design can be studied in conditions which permit some form of analysis. It is possible also, by using bogus posters, to arrive at certain standards of recognition and memorability against which new designs can be tested .

Producing the poster in a lithographic printing establishment

CHAPTER IV

Poster Printing

PaSTERS, LIKE all art forms, have limitations, and these must be recognised by advertiser, copywriter, designer and printer. The human factors were discussed in the last chapter: we propose now to describe briefly the various methods used in reproducing the poster design, dealing briefly with the technical limitations imposed on the printer. The poster is printed on the smooth side of a one-sided m.g. (machineglazed) paper , its rough side being capable of carrying more paste on its fibres and of securing better adhesion when it is posted . Occasionally a printing will be made on the rough side of the paper, when special softened colour effects are desired . Poster sizes are standardised on the double crown (20" X 30") sheet though the railway companies use double royal (25" X 40") and quad royal (40" X 50") because their sites are planned to these standards. The divisions and sub-divisions are shown on page 17. There are machines in existence which can print a sheet 44" X 64", but the very large sizes - 16-, 32-, 48-sheet and greater are never produced entire. They are cut in various ways according to the design, or so that the printer can suit his production methods. In practice a sixteensheet poster rarely contains precisely sixteen sheets. Where possible, it is wise to avoid cutting across an intricate piece of design or a line of small lettering, for apart from demands on the specialised skill of the billposter, awkward joins increase the cost of printing. Printers prefer for this reason to keep the little-used colours in a design, say the red that appears in a woman's lips or the green in a eat's eyes, to as few of the sheets as possible. Every colour means at least one printing, and if a special printing can be confined to one or two sheets the poster as a whole will cost less to produce. A good designer will not allow his design to be spoilt by such consideration, but he will know instinctively what suits the job in hand and if need be, will consult with the printer. The McDougall

46

Chapter IV:

POSTER PRINTING

poster on page 47 is a good example of the way in which the various printings are apportioned between sheets of different sizes. This example should be compared with the colour reproduction of the same poster on page 52.

Printing Processes The size and number of copies are the main considerations when choosing the process to be used. For small runs ofless than 1,500 - the typical doublecrown bills, and announcements of sales and concerts which are common in every town -letterpress (printing by type and blocks) is the usual process. For longer runs and particularly for the larger sizes,lithography is the universal choice. There is a technical reason for this. An artist's 20" X 30" drawing which is to become, say, a 16-sheet poster, requires very large plates, and these cannot be handled by the letterpress method. If the work is to be reproduced by the photolitho process, large cameras and the associated equipment will be needed as well. The litho printer will also have printing machines capable of handling a sheet as large as 44" X 64". Poster production requires a great deal of expensive plant only available to the litho process, and where long runs are concerned lithography is not seriously challenged, either on speed or cost. Mention should be made here of the development of printing inks, capable of resisting the action of sunlight and weather, and to the skill of lithographic printers and their staff artists, who combine and tone these inks in order to approach as faithfully as possible the original design. Modern inks, using synthetic resins, are abrasionresistant in high degree, and possess high colour-density, which is very necessary because the lithographic process transfers a thinner film to the paper . These newer inks are also made with a 'gloss' whose higher reflectivity further compensates for the thinness of the film. The word lithography means literally 'writing on stone' and artists still use the medium for printing illustrations which they have drawn direct on the stone . Excepting under special circumstances this process would be uneconomical, and in any case its limited size precludes its use on poster work. The stone has given way to a sensitized zinc plate. The printer's first task is to decide how many printings the original design will require ; that is, how many litho-plates will be needed to produce a facsimile of the original. A double-crown poster in flat primary colours for example, would need only three plates; but if any of the colours varied in tone more colours would be introduced. The thinness of the film of ink deposited by the lithographic process, mentioned earlier, frequently necessitates an additional grey or black printing. Often, when the eye cannot discern these tints in an original, they are nevertheless necessary in order to achieve depth . Note that the abo ve example refers to a 'double-crown poster' :

PR ACTI CAL CO NS IDE RA T IO NS

This illustration has been selected to demonstrate some of the problems of poster production. A poster costs less to produ ce when the number of printings is confined to as few sheets as possible. Practical consideration s would suggest that lettering or fine detail be distri buted in such a way that the bill-poster will

not find it difficult to secure accurate register on the hoard ing, since changes in humidit y will affect the 'stretch' of different sheets in varying degrees, so that ho rizont al lines or small letterin g cann ot be accurately placed. This poster was printed by the lithograph ic process in nine colours using nineteen plates in all (see colou r reprod uction on page 52). Seven colour s are concentrated on the central sheet which measures 60 X 40. The remaining sheets employed two and three print ings only. It will be seen that a slight increase in the size of the centr al figure on the design would necessitate four additional printings on three adjacent sheets. When the plates are prepared 1" overlay is a llowed on all colours, with I" of white paper to pro vide 'co ver' when posting.

47

48

Chapter TV:

M ETHODS A ND PRO C ES S ES

it must be remembered that every section of a l6-sheet or larger reproduction will require its own set of plates, so that one poster, designed in these colours, might employ as many as 48 plates.

Silk Screen While lithography is economical for large quantities, where only a short run of a poster is required the silk-screen process has in recent years been brought to a high stage of perfection. This is essentially a stencilling process, although the stencils are now frequently prepared photographically instead of being cut laboriously by hand, and the colour is applied through these stencils to the paper or other surface through a taut screen which is usually of silk or bolting cloth. Silk-screen has the ability to stand up well and is an increasingly popular method of advertising production. In the last few years it has enlarged its possibilities so that the blending of colours is practically the only limitation, although even this, in experienced hands, can often be turned into an advantage. Fluorescent Inks Fluorescent inks came into this country from America in 1950 and are now manufactured here. Many adverti sers have used them with distinction particularly on London buses. Their high intensity tends to dazzle the eye, and they are best used against a neutral or soft complementary colour. They can be printed (by a protected process) and may be effectivelycombined with ordinary lithographic work. Some start has in fact been made towards printing fluorescent colours by the lithographic process. Another process now very popular in the United States, but really started in this country, is that of 'black light'. The usual method is to paint by normal methods a message on a posted panel and to superimpose another, in special fluorescent colours, which are invisible in ordinary incandescent- or day-light . When the 'black light' is switched on the ultra-violet rays cause these colours to fluoresce. Where the panel can be screened from daylight, a slow alternation of incandescent and ' black' light will produce novel effects. Hand Painting Most towns of any size now have at least one display so big and often so unusual in shape that it is only economic to paint on the design by hand. These are called 'bulletin boards' and come rather under the heading of special displays; but since the design is often an adaptation of a 16-sheet poster or at any rate is virtually a poster with a simple message, despite the ornate floral gardens and other framework s with which some of these bulletin boards are presented , it may be permissible to mention them here. The renting of these boards is the

III 1951 Jttc('// dcsiglls Il'cn'

alll,ndcd

FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN POSTER PRIZES

Tlu: visua! il/lagillatioll alld l'aricty of approach to d!fii'1'('//t problcl/ls Sl1OIII 11

by

British poster artists arc wel] demonstrated here

b

The Recruiting Officer on the hoardings

e

a-A persuasive Georgian appeal to patriotism

e

b-1914-The irresistible Kitchener finger c-1945-Modemity made he-man d-e-1952-the appeal to adventure and to ambition

e e

54

Chapter IV;

POSTER DESIGN

subject of special contracts and the work is done by studios specialising in such work . It was out of these that the idea of special constructions and three-dimensional displays first came. Originally, only the pack or the trade mark was cut out. Sometimes the lettering was accentuated. Either wood/metal cut-outs or moulded plastic were used and in some cases the plastic was floodlit from behind. The three-dimensional site developed from this. It is obvious that these sites will be few and far between, because there is likely to be only one locality in any town where they will be of real value; nearly always at the town centre, since there must be a big audience day and night. The best-known is to be seen at Piccadilly, and a series of famous advertisers have had displays there. We have touched briefly on the established production techniques, and on some which have a more limited application. The technical skills of the printer must always be matched by a body of designers who can make the fullest use of them. Since the second World War, British posters have been breaking away from that Continental eclipse which has existed too long. The fifteen Festival of Britain prizewinners reproduced on the foregoing pages by no means include all the leading designers, but they are representative of the spirited trend which is characteristic of post-war design.

PART 2

CHAPTER V

Outdoor Advertising -

CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII

The M edium

Using Outdoor Advertising The Outdoor Agency in Action

• The most important factor in outdoor advertising . .. '

CHAPTER V

Outdoor Advertising - The Medium

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING is only one of several media which the advertiser can use to convey his selling message to the consumer. Although there are occasions when a single medium may carry the whole burden - and the poster has been called upon to do this before now - it is more realistic to regard an advertising campaign as a combined operation. Each medium has its own contribution to make and the skilful integration of all the available advertising resources into a coherent whole is perhaps the most important task of the advertising agent. Every advertising campaign is based on some theme, some characteristic of the product to be sold, or some particular use to which it can be put. Furthermore, the nature of the message to be conveyed is dependent upon the state of the market vis-a-vis the product itself. A new product may well require a theme which is in the main informative, while a well-established product may need a less educational theme and one which tends more to remind and to stimulate the potential consumer. With these facts in mind, the agent will determine what he wants to say and should then proceed to select those media which are best suited to the task of saying it. What has the Agent got to work with? First of all there is the press consisting of daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and magazines; then outdoor advertising and all its variations ; the cinema, both slide-on and 2-minute films, and radio; printed sales letters and sales promotion literature. To these may be added window and counter displays, and exhibitions. It is more than likely that in any comprehensive campaign all or most of these media will be used.

The Scope of Outdoor Advertising The most important single factor in the outdoor adverti sing industry is the poster on a hoarding in the street, but within the term 'outdoor advertising , must also be included , as we have seen, all form s of advertising on stations'

58

Chapter V:

TH E COMPREHENSIVE

A special animated and floodlit display

lifts and escalators, in the trains themselves, on and in buses, vans, trams and trolleybuses, and in and around the termini of road passenger transport vehicles. There are in addition, moving outdoor displays, signs, electric signs and more unusual forms of advertising such as skywriting, towed banner s, etc. In fact, anything that has as its object the persuadin g of those who are out of doors is a form of outdoor advertising .

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

59

All these types of outdoor advertising have in common the need to catch the eye of the passer-by and then impress on him a concise but powerful sales message in a few seconds. Posters are used extensively to familiarise the potential consumer with the pack . Poster advertising is not always reminder advertising, that is, advertising which simply reiterates a name or a slogan. Some posters certainly concentrate on this aspect but at the same time build up a visual association of product and occasion of use, and there is every reason why posters should be used to help in putting over an initial sales message. A comprehensive advertising campaign goes like this. Press advertising engenders an awareness of the product and its uses. In many cases this impact is not made in circumstances which wil1 lead to immediate action. One of the important advantages of the press is that the messages it carries can be read and studied at leisure. But the product must normally be bought in the shop, and few press advertisements for everyday products are so compelling that they will drive the reader out of his chair and along to the retailer to act immediately on the sales message. Between the reading of the paper, the noting of the advertisement and the shopping expedition there is every chance that the first awareness inspired by the press advertisement will sink into the subconscious mind of the potential purchaser. It is a very good thing to have the message in his subconscious mind, but it must be stirred out of it before he gets to the shop. It is the first task of outdoor advertising, when used in association with other media, to jog the memory and to reinforce the process which has already begun in the press by the constant repetition of a message. It is for this reason that the poster, which can be seen by the housewife on her way to the shops, is of such value. After the poster, the last opportunity of converting a vague awareness into a positive demand for a particular product or brand is, of course, in the shop and here the advertiser must take steps to see that display material and the pack itself are doing their share of the work in creating a sale. An Example

When the soap manufacturers introduced their new detergents some time after the war, this procedure was adopted and operated with great success. The full sales message appeared in the press; simultaneously sites were posted with supporting posters; transportation advertising was extensively used and films were also employed. There were few women who went into their grocers and found themselves confronted by the elaborate displays of the product, who did not already feel familiar with its name, with what it was and what it did. Thus, half the battle of the introduction of a new product was over.

It would be wrong, however, to consider that outdoor advertising must always be an ancillary medium; in the field of entertainment it carries the main part of the burden. Again in propaganda campaigns, the short 'punchy' message, the dramatic illustration or both, can be brought home to the public very dramatically by the use of posters. For example, the Diphtheria Immunisation and Civil Defence campaigns which have operated with such marked success since 1940, made use of striking illustrations and short slogans. Such an attack was probably more effective than the most reasoned argument could have made it. There are many fields of advertising in which the short exhortation, together with a sufficiently vivid picture can do the lion's share in conveying a message to the public.

Here is a demonstration of a continuing theme throughout an advertising campaign, in which the nightcap motif is used with varying emphasis, from a recognition reminder in press advertising to a poster symbol that is reduced to bare essentials .

HOW

1

THE

POSTER

By words - the Slogan

CONVEYS

ITS

MESSAGE

2

By illustration - the Product

3

By showino the Product ill usc

't\DHlfT< aR\SSIIR£ S

j

LJ

By humour-sverbal or visual

FOR HO ME SANITATI ON

65

Chapter V

. purchase The route to ultimate

Closing the unsightly gash of war

CHAPTER VI

Using Outdoor Advertising

Now

THAT we know in general terms what outdoor advertising can do, let us see what questions the adverti sing executive must ask before he makes up his mind about posters. The first question is 'Can posters help to sell a particular product?' This immediately gives rise to the further question 'How is the product sold?' and it is here that we can begin to be more definite. If the product is sold in retail establishments then there is a first-class case for bringing it to the notice of the intended shopper on his or her way to the shops. Next, if the product is bought at reasonably frequent intervals, whether regularly or on impulse, that is a strong reason for jogging the buyer 's memory at a time and in a place where interest can be rapidly turned into action. Again, if the product is branded and is one of a number of competitors, the poster may well beable to switch the attention of the intending buyer to the desired brand. To sum up, if the answers are 'yes' to the following questions, then there is every reason why outdoor ad vertising should appear on the schedule : (a) Is the product sold in retail shops? (b) Is it bought regularly or at any rate frequently? (c) Is it branded? One more point should be mentioned at this stage. The successful marketing of a product through retail outlet s depends to a great extent on the co-operation of the retailer and there is no better way of convincing him of the manufacturer's co-operation than to let him see close to his shop a poster advertising the product. It acts as a permanent reminder of the existence of the product and of the advertising back ing that it is getting. The above questions form only the first part of the interrogation to which the media planne r should submit himself. There are other vital ones to be asked before a decision can be reached.

68

Chapter VI:

USING OUTDOOR ADVERTISIN G

The Poster as a Message Carrier Passing from the consideration of the product to the campaign itself, the advertising executive must ask 'Can I say what I want to say on a poster?' In general there are very few advertising themes which cannot be adapted for transmission by means of outdoor advertising. It is nevertheless desirable to ask the question, for its helps to emphasise the fact that the creative treatment of an advertising message is dependent upon the medium that is to be used. The Audience for Outdoor Advertising The value of a medium for a particular purpose is judged, to a great extent by the audience that it can command and the advertising executive must ask at a very early stage in the proceedings, two further questions: (a) to whom do I want to talk? (b) Does the audience for the medium under consideration include a sufficiently large proportion of the kind of people to whom I want to talk? Mass media, such as national newspapers and some magazines, have audiences which closely resemble in their composition the population as a whole. Outdoor, too , is a mass medium, in that by and large an extensive poster schedule will command an audience consisting of most of those who go out of the house. Despite the skilful placing of posters in special positions-outside certain factories to reach young women, adjacent to sports grounds for men, or in shopping centres for housewives-the bigger a poster schedule is, the more closely will the audience it provides resemble the whole population in its makeup. If the people to whom the advertising is addressed form only a small proportion of the whole population, then no mass medium can be economically used. This general rule applies whether the total market is limited geographically or not, but in a campaign where the appeal is to a large section of a local population, there is a strong case to be made out for posters . In fact, the poster may be the only means by which the advertising message can be confined to the inhabitants of a certain area . Town and area campaigns are particularly appropriate for billposting when manufacturers launch a campaign to test the public response to a new product or a new appeal for an existing product, where a special effort is called for to raise the demand for a product in a particular area, or where a local effort is to be made by a local firm.

The Poster Audience I.

Recreation

The Audience for Transportation Advertising Transportation advertising is perhaps rather different, in that it is possible in some cases to select the audience to a slightly greater degree. For example, it has been found that , surprising as it may seem advertising on the interior of London transport buses will provide an audience which is biased towards women, and London tube card audiences contain a disproportionately large number of men; but the flexibility of this form of transportation advertising is not to be compared with that of a specialised publication which appeal s, for instance, only to women. Cost Comparisons It will have been noted that so far no reference has been made to cost, but the reason should be fairly obvious . The choice of media ought in the first place to depend upon the individual characteristics of each medium on the lines we have described above. It is only when it has been decided that certain media are suitable for the particular campaign and its theme that the question of cost should be considered .

The Poster Audience 2. Indu stry

3. Commerce

4.

Relaxat ion

Chapter VI: D ECIDI NG F A C T O RS

71

It is often said that the costs of different media cannot be compared becau se eac h medium has its own unique method of conveying a n advertising message to the publi c. For example, the poster is brief a nd hardhitting, the press advertisement persuasive, a nd the cinema, using sight and sound to show the produ ct in use, can often demonstrate its advantages in a real-life situation. F urther more, each medium is bought in different units of time or space which a re themselves not co mpara ble. Who , for instanc e, is to say what size of pre ss adver tisement is to be compared with a I2-second slide or a I6-sheet poster? Fo r that matter, who is to say if a whole-p age advertisement in a theatre progra mme ca n co mpare with a whole page in the News of the World? Of co urse there is a good deal of truth in this. The more a n advertising executive becomes a ware of the special cha racteristics and adva ntages of d ifferent media, the mor e he employs each medium with skill a nd understanding, the less read y is he to make what can so often be merely superficial cost compa risons. But the a nswer to the media planner' s question 'Shall I use Outdoor (either a lone or in conjunction with other media) for my campaign?' is not to be found in term s of compa rative cost. The core of the problem lies deep er than thi s, in a n a nalysis of the specific rol e that outdoor may be called upon to play in the selling of the produ ct or service concerned . Conclusion In decidin g whether to use outdoor as a medium, the following final points sho uld be born e in mind : (I ) Is the product (or service) d istr ibuted a nd bought in such a way that posters ca n help to sell?

(2) Ca n th e required message be effectively presented on a poster? (3) Is the ca mpaign to be limited geographically'!

(4) Withi n the limits of '3', doe s the a udience for the advertising message form a fairly lar ge proportion of the popul ati on in the territory? (5) If the press is to be the first choice, can a poster campaign pull its weight in support? (6) Do es time permit the preparation of a poster cam paign? (7) Do es the size of the appropriation permi t the use of post ers, either alone or in combination with other media?

A •cumula t ive ' audi ence

CHAPTER VII

The Outdoor Agency in Action

plan ner now vanishes from the scene, while we move to the Outdoor Ad vertising Agency which is going to plan the poster schedule. Here, mainly for the benefit of students, we propose to go in some detail into the work a nd thought that is required to pu t the poster on the site and to maintain it there. At their first meeting the outdoor agenc y will want an swers to certain question s, and in one form or another their client will furn ish them with a statement of the problem on some such lines as these:

TH E M EDI A

1. Statement of the Problem The manufacturers of Anon have for some time been aware that sales in the South Eastern Counties do not compare well with the rest of the country, and that sales returns from this area show a downward trend. Following a Market Research Investigation, this falling off has been attributed to va rious factors, the most significant of which is increased activity on the part of competitors. The Salesmen ha ve confirmed co mpetition in this area.

2. Information about the Product (a) At what price does Anon sell? (b) Is it sold in more than one size? (c) Who buys it? (d) Number and location of retail stockists for own product and co mpetitors.

The geographical extent or a typical poster campaign

Chapter VII:

THE AGENCY IN ACTION

75

3. The Advertising of the Product (a) Has Anon been advertised on a large scale, and what media have been used? (b) Has the product any particular quality which distinguishes it from its competitors, or any special attribute which should be used in advertising? (c) (If previously advertised) what has been the theme of the advertisements? (d) Have posters ever been used before, either as a separate campaign or in conjunction with a press schedule? (e) What competitive advertising has been carried out? 4. The Proposed Campaign (a) Is there a fixed appropriation? (b) Is there a set period for the display? (c) What is the period and extent of any special stocking up or selling effort? Points arising from this review of the situation are discussed and the Managing Director then gives a picture of the service the client may expect to receive. The planning department now sets to work on the preparation of a schedule and an accompanying memorandum. The production department is briefed about the product and its salient characteristics, and asked to prepare roughs expressing the general advertising themes. When the schedule is completed it is despatched to the client to study before the next meeting. This is a summarised version of the memorandum which would be submitted to the client by the outdoor service agent. MESSRS. BLANK LTD.

ANON Memorandum At our meeting you informed us that your product, selling at sixpence is bought mainly by Band C class women. This is confirmed by recent market research investigations. You approached us because your sales were falling in the south-eastern counties, and you wished to gain maximum impact with posters in this area for a period of 6 months (though you may subsequently require a continuing

76

Chapter VII:

COVERAGE AND

campaign on a smaller scale if the results of the initial display prove satisfactory). Rough layouts, on the lines of the theme agreed at our first meeting, are in the course of preparation, but in the meantime you might like to consider the schedule as we now visualise it. Coverage and Expenditure

You said at the meeting that you would much prefer us to consider the problem and put forward a suggested schedule, rather than that we should have to think in terms of a set appropriation. There are two alternative methods which you should consider. First, a heavy cover for a period of six months; second, a less heavy cover for six months followed by a lighter cover for the whole year. We recommend that the display should be maintained for a year because the continuity will work for you with increasing effect as the months pass, and because the psychological effect on your sales staff and your retailer of a display of some permanence will be considerable. Furthermore our own inspection staff will be able to improve the placing of individual posters during the year so that the value of the whole display will tend to increase. We recommend a fairly heavy cover for the first six months in order to achieve a maximum impact straight away and thus give the campaign an initial momentum. Media

South-Eastern Counties Yours is a product of general appeal and therefore we would advise that you base your display upon 16-sheet posters in ordinary positions, but with a proportion of solus sites. Within the towns suggested in the schedule we would advise that the posters should be sited as follows: (1) Shopping Centres (2) Main bus or tram routes (3) Approach roads to shopping areas (4) Areas near factories with predominantly female labour and lying within the town rather than on the outskirts London Although London is not included under the heading of South-Eastern Counties its geographical position renders complete segregation impossible, and although your immediate target is the area already defined, you have asked

77

EXPENDITUR E EXPLAIN ED

that some idea be given of the cost of extending the cover to Greater London. London is unique. With a population of 8,346,137 (1951 Census) the Greater London area must, from the advertising point of view, be dealt with as a separate entity. It must be remembered that in London a large proportion of the working population travel to and from their work and that therefore the dormitory areas are of great importance. Summary of approximate costs for a campaign covering the south-eastern counties for periods of 26 and 52 weeks. SCHEDULE

16-sheet Display Cost Num ber of 16-sheets

26 weeks

52 weeks

H

H

£

£

Berkshire

61

515

990

Buckinghamshire

45

380

730

Essex

130

1,100

2,1 10

Kent

145

1,225

2,355

75

634

1,219

Surrey Sussex

106

895

1,722

Southampton

164

1,386

2,665

726

£6,133

1£11 ,796

Total

Total number of posters required to post the above display and mainta in in good condition for a period of : 26 weeks-2,500 16-sheets 52 weeks-4,500 16-sheets

78

Chapter VII: THE SCHEDULE

LONDON Cost'

Full Weight Campaign

26 weeks

1,400/16-sheet sitesare suggested in the Greater London area

52 weeks

£18,200

£36,400

£13,000

£26,000

Medium Weight Campaign

1,000/16-sheet sitesare suggested in the Greater London area

, The standard rate for London is 716per week for 13 weeks or more, but this schedule has been costed at to allow for a reasonable proportion of solus sites.

JOI-

Total number of posters required to post the above display and maintain it in good condition for a period of: Heavy

Medium

26 weeks-5,OOO 3,500 52 weeks-8,500 6,000 At the second meeting the schedule is discussed, and a map produced by the agents is compared with the Anon Sales Areas. The first poster roughs are agreed in principle, but it is suggested that certain changes should be made in the details. The next stage of the schedule would be to provide a detailed breakdown of each county giving individual town sheetage. For the purpose of this example it is sufficient to deal with one county only. Servicing the Schedule The client accepts the schedule as suggested, except that after all it is decided to omit the Greater London Area entirely for the time being. The revised poster rough is agreed and an artist is commissioned to produce the finished artwork. Quotations are obtained from several printers, and finally the order is given for posters. An account executive from the contracting department has already been nominated to take over the new account and, having been put in the picture previously by the planner, he starts booking the campaign. The time in fact is ripe for this change of responsibility but the planner has one final task . He writes the briefing for the inspectors who will select the sites, which is given here.

Inspection SOUT HAMPT ON, COUNTY (HAMPSHIRE)

Recommended number of 16-sheet sites Town

Portsm outh C B 40 So utha mpto n C B 40 30 Bournemouth C B G ospo rt MB 5 Fa re ha rn UD 4 A lde rsho t MB 7 Havant & Wat erloo U D 5 Eas tleigh M B 4 Winchester MB 5

TOlI'n

Farn bor ou gh UD Lym ington MB C hristchurch MB Basingstok e MB And over MB Fleet UD Alton U D Peter sfield U D Rom sey MB Tot al

3

3 3 5 3 2 2 I 2 164

The recommended individual sheetage given above represents the average number of sites that are normally recommended. The final totals will depend upon the qualit y of sites booked. NOT E : CB = County Borough MB = Muni cipal Borough UD ~ Urban District

80

Chapter VlI:

TH E SCHEDULE

'Me mo to M essrs. X & Y. From: PLANNING DEPARTMENT 'A schedule has been agreed for a 16-sheet poster campaign in the South-East ern Counties. The commencing date is January 1st and the display will run for 52 weeks. 'Anon is a medium-priced article (6d.) which sells largely to housewives ofthe Band C classes. E very effort is being made to expand the range of purchases and this campaign should therefore be aimed at all housewives. 'S ites are required in the following areas: (1) Shopping Centres.

(2) Main bus or tram routes. (3) Approach roads to shopping areas. (4) Areas near fa ctories with predominantly f emale labour which lie within the town rather than 0 11 the outskirts. ' The towns in your area which are to be posted, together with the number of sites required in each, are given on the attached sheet.'

It has been the job of the contracting department to break down the schedule into inspectors' areas, so that each inspector's brief co ncerns that part of the schedul e which falls within his territory and which in the main will be booked by him, inspected by him at frequ ent inter vals, and where the vario us displays will grow in size and character under his careful guidance. Lists are obtained from the various billposters concerned, and as the inspector moves about his area in the weeks preceding the commencement of the display, he will make careful selection s from those sites which he has been told will be ava ilable. at the date required. The inspector will also not e the various campa igns on display at that time, so that when a display term inates he will be able to select from it further sites, either to make up the complete coverage or, if his numb ers are complete, a sensible transfer.

Demonstration by model

82

Chapter VII:

THE AGENCY

Inspection At this stage, then, the inspector is the all-important man. He knows the type of site he is looking for, and from his intimate knowledge of the towns in his area he can tell how the display should look when his bookings are complete. He has, in fact, blocked out his canvas and is now filling it in. Stocks of posters will have been delivered by the printers to the agent's warehouse, where the parcels are made up and despatched at an early date in order to give all the billposting contractors sufficient time to get the whole display posted by the commencing date of the campaign. As soon as the sites have been posted, the contractors will forward to the agency a list of all sites for the campaign. These are checked with the inspection reports which have already been typed from the original bookings and then sent to the inspectors. Up to this stage the various departments within the agency-Contracting, Inspection Control, Inspection, etc.-have been so closely linked that it would be difficult to separate them. But by the time the campaign starts, a coherent pattern will have emerged and the departments assume their individual roles in the running of the campaign. Inspection reports arrive every day at the Head Office and are forwarded to the client. These inspection reports are, in fact, the equivalent of the voucher copies which are sent to the client by an agency running an advertising campaign in the press. The next task of the contracting department is to produce the schedule of completed bookings-one copy going to the client, one to Inspection Control and one to the Accounts Department. Presentation

At any stage in the planning and execution of the campaign (but mainly during the early stages) the agency will be presenting its material to the client in the most graphic and easily comprehensible manner. Because of the geographical distribution of the posters about the country and the association of the campaign with the client's sales areas, maps will be extensively used. The principles of town coverage can be demonstrated with maps, or drawings such as we reproduce in Chapter II, and as we said the final decision on the poster design can be made easier by the production of full-sized hand-drawn roughs, for display on a hoarding to the client. Finally, the client should be encouraged to visit the towns in the campaign area to see the sites which have been selected, and later to inspect the campaign in action.

IN ACTION

83

Notes It is well here to make one or two comments particularly for the benefit of students. (a) We have limited the area of posting for ease of explanation but in the Appendix II will be found some indications of the size and cost of national campaigns. (b) Equally we have limited the display to 16-sheet posters and here again alternative schemes for various media are given in Appendix II and IV. (c) The methods described in this chapter may seem to be somewhat longwinded but it must be realised that though a fully national campaign could in fact be launched in 14 days without any loss of efficiency, we are only concerned here with giving the full details of operation.

This page intentionally left blank

PA R T 3

CHAPTER VIII

Meas uring the Poster Audience

C HAPTER IX

Further Developments

The Po ster audien ce - 'Poten tial rernemberers'

CHAPTER VIII

Measuring the Poster Audience

b -IERE HAVE been, as we said previously, certain attempts to measure poster audiences but so far without much success. There are really two sides to the probl em. One wants, first, to measure and prove the poster audience, and second , to produc e a method of measurement which will enable posters to be compared with other media.

Comparisons What is needed to make a true comparison possible? Clearly one must seek for some shared characteristic. What do press advertisements and posters have in comm on? Word s and pictures, duplication through printing : but these are not the char acteristics we want, these will not gauge the value for money, except in the crude st terms of paper and ink and labour. What the adverti ser must know is how these media compare as media, and the characteristic which all media share, and which can be accepted as a fair basis for comparison, is the

audience. Th e very word 'medium', in this connection, means an intervening agent thr ough which impressions are conveyed; for us it is a transmitter of messages from the ad vertiser to the public. Every advertising medium can claim an audi ence of some size. What effect the medium has upon that audience, whether it reaches it momentarily or over a long period, what type of message it is best equipped to bear - these are additional to the fundamental fact that a medium in action (in this case a poster) offers a certain number of people a certain numb er of opportunities to see the advertising. There are therefore, two possible methods of cost comparison ; the number of people reached per pound spent and the cost per 1,000 opportunities to see the advertising. Such figures are available for other media and provided that the non-comparable factors are borne well in mind - chief of which is the different value of an opportunity to see - the cost comparisons Can safely be made.

88

Chapter VIII:

MEASURING THE

Audience, Frequency and Cover Let us repeat our definitions because they will clearly express the scope of this proposal; (I) the 'audience' is the number of different people who have an opportunity of seeing the advertising; (2) the 'cover' is the audience expressed as a percentage of all the people we want to reach; (3) the 'frequency' is the average number of times per week that a member of the audience has the opportunity of seeing the advertising. Your first question is likely to be: How do we know who is a member of the audience for a medium? The answer is simple: Anyone is a member of the audience who has an opportunity of seeing the advertising which is carried by the medium. In other words, the man in the street, the reader of the newspaper, the seat-holder in the cinema, the customer in the shop. .

The Audience This is not to claim that everyone who is able to see the advertising actually does so. The number of those who do see it varies considerably, according to the nature of the advertisement itself and the surrounding circumstances, and, of course, according to the state of mind of the individuals at the time. Our comparison is not concerned with the number of people who see the advertising, for we can never accurately measure how many people do see any one advertisement: we can only ask them whether they remember seeing it. What we will then be really measuring is the number of people who say they remember having seen it some time in the past. In attention-value studies for press advertising it is customary to show the particular issue of the paper and ask the subject which advertisements he saw: we may do this, or merely show a copy of the advertisement and ask whether he saw it and if so where. In both cases it is only by asking many people about many advertisements and striking an average, that any measure of remembrance or attention-value can be obtained in relation to the medium. Remembrance Value 'The Size and Nature of the Poster Audience', a survey carried out in 1949 for Mills & Rockleys Limited by Market Information Services Limited, is interesting in this connection. This survey measures the audience for a typical poster campaign by the remembrance method and states 'A poster campaign with a full showing in an average urban area is remembered by 38·4% of the

POST ER AUDIE N C E

89

urban population'. The definition of the poster audience as people who remember the display affects the whole conduct of the survey and its results: if we are going to take as the criterion of an audience only their ability to remember what they have been in a position to see, then it is as much as to say that a class of school children is composed only of those scholars who pass the examination at the end of the term. But of course the class is all the children , the failures plus the successful, and everyone is a member of a poster's audience who passes the place where the poster is displayed. Similarly a man in a cinema is one of the audience even though he may have slept through one of the films. Potential Rememberers What our media planner wants is an audience-figure composed of all who pass where his poster will be shown. Neither the type of poster contemplated nor its position on the hoarding will affect the number of people who pass by, although it is obviously true that one poster may be better placed than another or be more arresting in colour or design, and so more readily attract attention. The whole point at issue is that in separating the advertising medium from the message it carries we are able to define its audience as 'potential rememberers'; whether we go on to find out how effectivelythe poster is remembered is another matter that has no bearing on our use of the audience as a basis for comparison. In our definition of the audience we used the phrase 'different people'. This is most important. A traffic count would tell us how often the poster site was passed in a given period, but would be invalid for our purpose because it does not take into account the people who pass and re-pass. A traffic count is a rough-and-ready test of the relative values of two poster sites ; useful, but no more than that, because our audience measurement must be based on the series of sites which make up the display, rather than on individual sites. This means that we must take care not to count twice a person who passes two sites; i.e., we must look out for what is called in the press 'duplication '. Ju st as the audience for an average issue of a journal is expressed as readership and is discovered by asking a representative sample of people whether they read the publication, so in outdoor advertising the audience for a poster display should be calculated by asking a representative sample of local inhabitants whether any of their journeys take them past any of the sites. Allowance can be made for the direction in which the hoarding faces and for any obstructions. The Cover Once the media planner has a figure for the different people in his audience who have the opportunity to see his poster, he can express this figure as a

90

Chapter VIII:

MEASURING THE

percentage of all the people he wants to reach . This 'cover' is a familiar and important measurement of efficiency, and until we are able to measure the audience for any given display of posters we cannot begin to compare the efficiency of one medium with that of another. The duplication we have mentioned is not to be confused with the frequency with which a member of an audience passes a poster. The one is an initially unknown factor hidden in an 'umbrella' traffic count and the other is a detailed assessment of the number of times each member has the opportunity of seeing the poster as he passes by the different sites on which it is displayed.

Frequency If you mark upon a map all the poster sites in a town and ask a sample of the inhabitants where they went each day of a given week, their answers could be arranged something like this: SIT ES

I_A_; ~ John Smith

Mrs. Brown Miss Robinson Mr. Jones

i~ i _D ~ ~ I ~ J HI/ I ~ : K : ~ ~ MINi 10 i 110\10 2 !IO I 1 !1O 2:

II 2 I

I

I I

1101 1101

I 818 2 2 1 2 : 12 12 I I

101

I

:

4 4 I

Smith goes to work five days a week, his journey taking him twice a day past sites A, C, D, Hand L. He goes regularly each Saturday to his bowling club and so twice passes F and M . Mrs . Brown, a housewife, goes most days to her local shops, where she passes G and H . She also goes into town once a week, passing B, I, J and K. Miss Robinson works locally (5t-day week) and has to pass G and H. Her boy-friend takes her to the pictures on Wednesdays and Saturdays, pa st M and N . She also made a journey to a friend's house in the week we are considering, which took her past site A, but she came home a different way. Jones also is a worker and regularly passes C, E and K. So far as we know he only went to his 'local' during the evenings and the weekend, which did not take him past any of the sites. Suppose we had taken seven of the sites - B, D, F, H, J, L, and N - for Anon posters. Three out of four of our informants had the opportunity of seeing them , a cover of 75%. But Mr. Smith passed four of the Anon sites (D, F , Hand L), three of them ten times and the other twice. He had thirty-two opportunities of seeing Anon advertised. Mrs . Brown pas sed three posters

91

POSTER AUDIENCE

twelve times (B, Hand J). Miss Robinson passed two of them (H and N) sixteen times. Mr . Jones, although he does not get around much, also passed three posters thirty times, but they were not Anon posters. So between them three of our informants logged up sixty opportunities of seeing Anon advertised during one week, an average of twenty. That is how frequency can be measured . Survey work on these lines is being carried out. In a pilot survey, for instance, handled by Research Services Limited in Reading,* a random sample of adults was taken and the informants were asked, amongst other things, to 'describe their standard weekly movements in the town on weekdays'. Investigators carried maps showing the location of hoardings, with a code number against each. They followed on the map the route of every journey and tabled each trip, showing its nature, the number of times it was made per week and the codes of the hoardings passed. Six distinct poster campaigns were thus investigated and these are referred to alphabetically in the table which follows:

I

PRODUCT PRODUCT : PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT i PRODUCT

A

Number of informants

Number of panels showing the poster Number ofopportunities to see per week - - -- - -- - % of informants with opportunities to see the poster

B

!

CD

.

E

'

F

250

250

250

250

250

250

48

42

27

22

22

19

8,520

6,570

5,320

4,230

4,230

4,070

91

83

80

85

85

80 -

Number ofopportunities to see per informant per week

37

32

26

19

19

20

• This survey was produced for Messrs . Cadbury Bros. to whom we are indebted for permission to use the figures.

92

Chapter VI!!:

M EA S URI N G TH E

Fro m this table it will be seen, accepting the sampling process as a valid one , that during the week somewhere between 80% and 91% of the adults in the town had an opportunity of seeing the posters. Thi s seems to give clear evide nce that the recommended poster cover of Readin g, which incident ally is a bo ut 40 sites, can comma nd an audience of at least 80% of the adult population of the town. Pro vided that the recomm ended d isplay of posters for each town is based on a deliberate selection of sites to mat ch the known movements of the population , there is no reason to suppose that the cover would fall much below 80%. It is interesting to not e that a similar type of survey ca rried out in Cedar Rap ids, Iowa, by the Traffic Audit Bureau Inc. of New York, showed an a ud ience for a 'full' poster display of 74·4% of the ad ult population after the first week, rising to 91·1% after thirty days. A ' half showi ng' of 7 sites ob ta ined an audience of 56·5%, rising to 79·3%.

Transportation Advertising Altho ugh it is difficult to make even the broadest estimate of the a udience for pos ters on the o utside of ' buses, the calculation of audiences for car cards advertis ing mat erial inside ' buses and rail way car riages - and for station posters, has been simp lified by the publication of data derived fro m London Travel Survey ( 1949). The problem there was to discover how man y different peop le habi tually use each type of public tran sport and each gro up of stations, and how ofte n they do so. Adver tising spaces can be rented on centra l and co untry ' buses, t rolleybu ses a nd tub e trains, while, for the p urposes of adve rtising, sta tions are divided into gro ups according to their traffic. For each of the 8,453 perso ns in the samp le, the Survey recorded all the details of regular jo urneys made on p ublic tra nsport, in a form which permitted of their detailed ana lysis. Of co urse any jo urney may involve cha nges to var ious forms of transport, fro m one und erground line to an other, from train to bus and so on, and sta tions used at the beginnin g and the end as well as for these cha nges. In other wor ds, when studying the tabl es based on th is Survey, o ne must remember tha t neither the nu mb er of tickets sold, the number of journeys made nor the number of passe ngers carried, really represent s the audience we are looking for. The material from this survey was therefore re-a nalysed to tell us what we need to kn ow abo ut London Tran spor t as a n adver tising medi um. T he following specimen Tabl e* shows how we can a nalyse car-card and statio nposter sched ules to show the size and nature of the audience and the average number of oppo rt unities-to-see ; the two essentials for the media planner. "Quarterly Bulletin of Stati stics. L.T.E.

93

POST ER AUDIE N CE Proportion of the population who use London Transport stations named in the Appendix for Regular Journe ys and the Average Number of Times per Week that each of these Persons uses them.

(Analysed by Sex, Status, Income and Age Group)

Income and Age Group ~

~

Housewives

Men

Other Women

Women

~/u

No.

%

Total

%

No .

19 14

21 21

7 I 9 5 I II

19 8

21 19

13 5

18 116 13 9

19 19

16

21

-Sril

14

20 I 8

16 11

19

17

11

20 20

17 8

21 19

18 15

14 7

19 18

13

20

-41

II 13

12

14

29 1 7

17 110

19

Aged 16-34 yea rs Aged over 34 year s

25 19

22 23

5 7

4 9

23 11

13 22 1 8 21

-:-1-:-

21 19

All persons in Group

21

22

7 1 8

17

21 i 10

Total-All Income Groups Aged 16-34 years Aged over 34 year s Ail person s Under £8 per week Aged 16-34 years Aged over 34 years Ail persons in Group

%

6 3

INO.

II 4

£8-£13 per week

Over £650 per annum Aged 16-34 years Aged over 34 years All persons in Group

26 19 21 i 21

[ 22 i 21

No . 1 % No .

12

15

13

I

15 . 20

20 i 10 1 33 1 20 1 26 . 16 126 117 8 I 12 2 16 6 12 12 19

1°:11114[19111114/16/18

Using the 6,705,000 adults in Greater London as a basis we can derive an actual audience figure which, multiplied by the average number of weekly opportunities-to-see, gives us the weekly figure of all such opportunities. Then th e cost can easily be calculated.

Pre ser vin g the Am eni tie s - the wa ste ' lot '

CHAPTER IX

Further Developments

IT

WAS clearly essential to carry out further research to see if the Reading figures could safely be used for other towns, so there were made in mid-1951 comprehensive surveys of Wigan and Luton. Between sixty and seventy localities where posters were on display were used in each town and a record compiled of the journeys during one week of adults in Wigan and in Luton. Before this survey was carried out two campaigns were planned in each town by resident outdoor advertising inspectors, one a 'full showing' of 30 posters and the other a 'half showing' of 15. Positions for these posters were selected in the normal way in an attempt to obtain the maximum cover. The first analysis of the survey results is given here in the same form as the Reading figures.

WIGAN No. of informants weighted*

1,252

No. of panels showing the poster 15 No. of opportunities to see 20,515 per week Cover (% of informants with opportunities to see the poster) 73·1 No. of opportunities to see per informant per week 22-4

LUTON

I 1,252

938

938

30

15

30

37,026

9,713

19,718

75·6

66·9

79-6

39·1

15·5

26·4

* In the case of Wigan , a larger number of actual interviews was allotted to the town itself, than was proportionately due, and the figure for the surrounding a rea in which interviews were also taken was subsequently multiplied by two, in orde r to arrive at a correct figure for the area as a whole.

96

Chapter IX:

THE SURVEYS I N

Comparative Studies

The first thing to note about the audience figures is that in general they are slightly lower than the Reading ones. This is due to the fact that the sample in the Reading survey was drawn from the population of the County Borough of Reading] only, whereas the samples for Wigan and Luton were drawn from the two towns and also their surrounding areas. It will be remembered that a similar procedure was adopted in 'The Size and Nature ofthe Poster Audience' where an area of radius 10 miles around Leicester was surveyed. That survey revealed that the percentage of adults remembering the selected posters was about 19 in the surrounding rural areas as compared with 38 in the town itself. Similarly, we found that the cover in the 'hinterlands' of Wigan and Luton was con siderably lower than in the towns themselves. In consequence, the overall cover of town plus hinterland is lower than that obtained for the town only . Th e Table below illustrates the situation. LUTON

WIGAN Centre

No. of informants weighted No. of panels showing the poster

Hinterland

Centre

Hinterland

640 I

640

612

612

740

740

198

198

15

30

15

30

15

30

15

30

No. of opportunities to 114,057 25,604 6,458 11,422 8,891 118,329 :~ see per week

t

~ 38 9

Cover (% of informants with opportunities to see the poster)

83·0

86·4

62·7

64·4

74·3

88·5

39·4

46·5

No. of opportunities to see per informant per week

26·5

46·3

16·8

29·0

16·2

28·0

10·5

15·1

It must be made clear that in the cases ofReading, Luton and Wigan the sites used were all located in those Boroughs. There was no display in the surrounding areas.

WIGAN AND LUTON

97

One further vanauon between the surveys is worth mentioning. The Reading survey based its figures on regular journeys only, while in the Wigan and Luton survey all journeys during the week prior to the interview were included. Our investigations into the poster audience have thus taken us to the stage where we can assume that a properly sited campaign will provide an audience of somewhere between 80% and 90% of the adult population of a town and about 75% of the adult population of the town and its hinterland combined. The average number of opportunities-to-see will vary according to the density of the campaign, but a full showing should provide somewhere about 35 per week.

More is Needed Audience measurement has made valuable advances in development and technique, but it clearly must go further before it will give us the complete picture. In the Cedar Rapids Survey, which we mentioned on page 92, audience measurement was taken a stage further by showing how many different people had an opportunity to see the displays during the first, second, third and fourth weeks (American poster diplays generally run for a 30-day period), and so, by this diary method, the accumulation of the poster audience was demonstrated . Most of the audience was obtained in the first week, but infrequent and irregular journeys helped to bring up the total audience to the 90% mark . Employing a different technique, but reaching the same conclusions, the Life Accumulative Audience Survey showed how the audience for Life magazine grew from 20·3% for the first issue to 53·] % for 13 issues. Something like this can also be done with cinema audiences, because we know how often people go to the pictures. As far as outdoor advertising is concerned, research like this still remains to be done in Britain. It is not enough to deal only with regular journeys-once a week or more often-or with all the journeys made during one week: audiences undoubtedly grow considerably as the weeks go by, and all figures based only on regular or weekly journeys are too conservative. The Poster Schedule The poster schedule consists, as we saw, of a list of towns against each of which appears the number of sites which are considered from the experience of the outdoor advertising agent to provide maximum cover. When the schedule is intended to be national the usual practice is to extend outwards geographically and deal first with large towns (over 100,000 population) and then with those towns whose populations exceed 50,000 and so on down to the smallest. At

98

Chapter IX:

THE SURVEY IN

each stage the cover will be somewhere in the region of 80% in the towns listed, but the national cover (England and Wales) only builds up gradually, thus :

National Campaign Cover

Towns Total adult population of England & Wales County of London plus Towns of 100,000 & over 100,000-50,000 50,000-10,000 10,000- 5,000

Cumulative Possible Audience 33,246,000 12,777,000 17,502,000 25,364,000 26,389,000

Town Cover

Cumulative Cumulative Actual National Audience Cover

%

% 80 80 80 80

100 10,222,000 14,002,000

I 20,291,000 21,112,000

31 42 61 64

Because each town or group of towns in the schedule is a geographically separate entity duplication of audience is negligible and a simple addition sum gives the net audience for the whole campaign. When this is applied to the adult population of the whole country a percentage cover is obtained. The same procedure is adopted for the construction of a schedule intended to cover a region or a particular sales area. It should be noted that the figures in the above Table show the audiences for the towns only, exclusive of the surrounding area . Cost Comparison One of the objects of audience measurement is, of course, to compare the results obtained from the use of different media . The figures of audience, and of frequency of opportunity to see that we have discussed above, certainly enable a broad comparison to be made between different media, for it is to some extent, possible to provide similar information about the audience of a press, radio, cinema or mail order campaign. It must not be forgotten that an audience as we have defined it, is simply a collection of 'potential rememberers' and we cannot assume that the intensity of the impact provided by advertising in such different media as the poster and the press, is the same. We have seen that the poster is particularly well equipped to deliver certain types of advertising messages, and clearly the special peculiarities of each medium must receive attention. Using the Reading survey figures we can arrive at a figure of 'cost per 1,000 oppor-

99

READING COUNTY BOROUGH

tunities-to-see' based on six different poster campaigns. It will be observed that the cost figures for the individual campaigns are very close to the average , which is 1·19d. per) ,000.

Reading County Borough I

II

Poster Display

No. of Posters in Display

--

A B C D E

48 42 27 22 22 19

F

JII

Cover ~,{,

91 83 80 85 85 80

IV

V

No . of *O.T.S. per Audience Member of Audience per week 79,000 , 72,000 69400 73:800 73,800 69,400

37 32 26 19 19 20

I

VI

VII

VIII

Total *O.T. S.

Total Cost of Display in pence

Cost per 1,000 *O.T.S. in pence

2,923,000 l 2,304,000 . 1,804,400 , 1,402,200 1,402,200 1,388,000

3,600 3,150 2,025 1,650 1,650 1,425

1·23 1·37 1·12 1'18 1'18 1·03

Average 1·19

NOTES: • O.T.S. = Opportunities to see. Column

I Six separate displays were investigated. The number of posters in each display varied from 48 to 19. III This percentage represents the proportion of the sample whose regular weeklyjourneys took them past anyone or more of the hoardings on which the posters were displayed. IV The audience figure is obtained by app lying the percentage in Column III to the adult population of Reading in 1951. V The figures in this column represent the number of times during the week that each informant in the sample had the opportunity-to-see a poster in the display. VI The figures in this column represent the impact of each display and are obtained by multiplying column IV by column V. VII The cost of each display is obtained by multiplying the figures in column II by 6j3d. (the average cost of one 16-sheet poster for a week). II

The data from the Wigan /Lu ton survey can be treated in the same way and in the tab le below the cost per thousand opportunities-to-see is shown for the two campaigns in these two towns (including hinterlands).

100

Chapter IX: SUMMARISING

Area

No. of Posters in Display

Cover

Wigan Wigan Luton Luton

15 30 15 30

73'1 75·6 66'9 7%

%

No. of O.T.S. per Audience Member of Audience per week 98,900 102,300 69,800 83,000

22·4 39·1 15'5 26·4

Total O.T.S.

Total Cost of Display in pence

Cost per 1,000 O.T.S. in pence

2,215,450 3,999,422 1,081,543 2,191,807

1,125 2,250 1,125 2,250

0·51 0·56 1·04 1·03

Average 0'79 Estimate for the adult (16 years and over) population are as follows: Wigan Centre (C.B.) 64,7oo} 135 300 Wigan hinterlan d 70,600 '

Luton Centre (M.B.) 84,2oo } 104300 Luton hinterland 20,100 '

The average here for all campaigns is about 0·79d. per 1,000, a figure which is considerably lower than the -average for the six Reading campaigns. This is only to be expected in view of the fact that the people living in the areas surrounding Wigan and Luton have been included. Even when the costis calculated for the towns alone, it still averages about 0·96 per 1,000, which is slightly less than the Reading average of 1·19d .

Area

Wigan Centre Centre Luton Centre Centre

No. of Posters in Display

Cover

%

No. of O.T.S. per Audience Member of Audience per week

Total O.T.S.

Total Cost of Display in pence

Cost per 1,000 O.T.S. in pence

15 30

83·0 86·4

53,700 55,900

26·5 46·3

1,423,077 2,588,170

1,125 2,250

0·79 0·87

IS 30

74'3 88·5

62,600 74,500

16·2 28·0

1,013,472 2,086,476

1,125 2,250

1·11 1·08

Average 0·96

T HE LAT ES T FINDINGS

101

The recording of regular journeys only in Reading may well account for this (see page 91). However, we have yet to account for the marked difference between Wigan and Luton and referring again to the table it will be seen that the Luton campaigns are nearly twice as expensive as the Wigan ones. More research is being done on this subject and it is expected that further light will be shed on these differences.

G*

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PART4

CHAPTER X

The Social Aspects of Outdoor Advertising

CHAPTER XI

The Town & Country Planning Act 1947

Appeal to imagination

CHAPTER X

The Social Aspects of Outdoor Advertising

THIS BOOK began with a reference to the

ubiquity of th e poster and the part th at it plays in our social and commercial life. Th e greater part of it has been devoted to a description of outdoor ad vertising from the point of view of the ad vertising agent and the billposting contractor. It is fittin g that it should conclud e with an examination of the social aspects of this medium. Because this is almost the only form of advertising that is not presented to the public in association with news, information or entertainment , a nd because, as we have shown , it is virtually impossible for anyone to avoid seeing it, the poster has a greater responsibility towards society than any other medium. In thi s chapter we shall try to adopt an objective att itude and con sider outdoor advertising as a manifestation of comm ercial activity which has a considerable effect on the community in gener al. It is a mistake to see the situation in term s of a court oflaw trying a case of Th e People versus The Poster. No person and no acti vity is on trial , and it would be a gra ve distortion of the truth to imply that the forces of social progress, of law and ord er, are all on the one side, with the outworn relics of 19th century laissez-faire capitalism on the other. We hope to show beyond any reasonable doubt that the billposting co ntracto r a nd the ad vertising agent are conscious of their social oblig ations a nd that ther e is no reason why the interpretation of current legislation should involve an y real co nflict of opinion or action . Definition of Amenities The passing of the Town & Country Planning Act has focused attention on outdoor advertising as a commercial activity, but before going any further one must emphasise by quotation a most important point which was specifically

106

Chapter X:

THE SOCIAL ASPECTS

stated in the explanatory memorandum issued with the Regulations. 'It is well perhaps at this stage to make clear that the advertisement control is not intended to impose any censorship on advertisements, it is concerned only with their positions, size, number, etc. . . . It is the hoarding and not the poster on it (unless it infringes a condition) which is controlled'. It is important that this should be fully understood, because too often poster advertising and even press advertising is condemned because of a particular design. A second point to be borne in mind is that though the Act is mainly concerned with the preservation of amenities there is no concrete definition of 'amenity'. The definition according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary is: Pleasantness (of places, persons, etc.) plural : pleasant ways: and since it is the responsibility of local planning officers to apply the Act, there is bound to be a great deal of uneveness in such application throughout the country. The actual decision on sites rests with a local committee 'briefed' or 'swayed' by the local planning officer though Ministry of Housing and Local Government issues guidance. This intrusion of the human element is worth some further thought. It is quite possible for the man who himself uses outdoor advertising extensively to resent the erection of a hoarding near his own home, though he may, by virtue of circumstances, live in an industrial or shopping area. It is essential therefore, that a fair balance should be struck between the necessity of outdoor advertising BEFORE-hoarding in 1950

OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

107

as a means of implementing commercial activity and the right of the individual to live among 'pleasant ways'. Clearly there are certain places where poster sites are out of place - the countryside, the areas round cathedrals and historic monuments, and so on, though the indiscriminate building of past centuries have caused architectural, historical and ecclesiastical features to become frequently so intermingled that they are impossible of separate distinction; on the other hand, factory areas, shopping centres and similar places are a sensible choice for poster sites and may indeed derive benefit from them, for the poster site need not be ugly. The gradual growth of the site with a garden before it must not blind one to the fact that the ordinary hoarding or solus panel, too, can be artistic and decorative, as our illustrations prove. This leads to one more general point. It is quite often stated that the Act has forced poster contractors to revise their ideas, to amend their ways. Each industry has its good and bad side, and the outdoor industry is no exception, but it must be remembered that six years of war with consequent shortages of building material, paper, paint and labour, plus damage by bombing, presented a very big problem to the contractors. The larger contractors, however, wasted no time and, realising that here was an opportunity to modernise their plant, they started to design new hoardings and to reduce existing hoardings from, say, 20/16s in two rows to a simple well-panelled single row hoarding of 1O/16s. Certain contractors have even

AFTER-the same hoarding, 1952

108

Chapter X:

THE SOCIAL ASPECTS

gone to the extent of having panels specially designed for them and the various illustrations to this chapter and elsewhere will show how effective such designs can be. Equally flyposting or the undisciplined posting of 'dated' bills (advertising concerts, demonstrations, etc., has been replaced by the Public Information panel of which illustrations will be seen elsewhere in the book. All this has meant capital expenditure, but touring the country one can already see considerable changes. Legal Recognition and Social Obligations

Society's attitude towards outdoor advertising has been crystalised in several legal instruments, the latest of which is the Town & Country Planning Act 1947; but British law is formed by judgments arising from each successive interpretation of the Act, not by the imagined intentions of those who framed the wording of the Act itself. We are in the midst of a period of trans ition, in which the social and legal aspects of outdoor advertising are continually under review. All we can do here is describe the current legislation relating to the display of advertisements and offer a number of examples of this application. It is proper to observe at the outset that there is nothing either new or unusual in the control of certain forms of commercial activity by the community as a whole. Many of the most efficient manifestations of commercial activity have not only been tolerated by the law, but actually owe their existence to it. An example of wall posting, 1950

OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISI NG

109

The Limited Company, for instance , is a legal entity and , because it owes its existence to the law, has certain responsibilities to the society that promulgated the law. We should never be surprised to find that legal recognition carries with it obligations to society, and outdoor advertising is no exception. The billposting industry depends to-day almost entirely upon the law as it relates to the use of property for the purpose of displaying advertisements. As long ago as 1861 , for example, the Malicious Damage Act provided posters with their first protection against damage by competitors. Twenty-eight years later the Advertising Stations (Rating) Act of 1889 clarified the responsibilities of the owner of property in relation to assessment for rates. In 1907 other acts were passed permitting local authorities to make bye-laws for the control of advertisements , and with the Town & Country Planning Act of 1947 the social responsibilities of outdoor advertising were clearly defined. Parallel with this development was the increasing control exercised by the contracting organisations themselves. Although the poster is subject to the law relating to the publication of obscene and libellous materia l, a Censorship Committee was set up in 1890 by the United Billposters' Association. Its decisions, which are now binding on all members of the B.P.A.A. and L.P .A.A., are based on the principle that 'nothing should be exhibited upon the hoardings which depicts murder, acts of violence or the gruesome or obscenity or nudity or which, in the opinion of the committee, is calculated to demoralise or can The same wall with public inf ormation panels, 1952

A derelict lot

1951

be held up to excuse or extenuate crime, or incite to its commission, or foment social unrest; or which constitutes a person attack on a member of any government; or contains any matter which can be regarded as holding out for the prevention, cure or relief of serious diseases which should rightly be under the care of a medical practitioner'. In this imperfect world it cannot be expected that the principles outlined above would be rigidly observed. The poster sometimes suffers, like other forms of advertising, from an emphasis on sex and violence, which presumably is designed to attract the attention at least of a proportion of the community. However, although it calls for added discretion,

The site cleared and waste land hidden by a neatly-constructed hoarding

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

III

outdoor advertising in general does not transgress the bounds of propriety to any greater extent than other media. It will be appreciated that in this censoring the industry was concerned not with the hoarding, but the content of the poster itself. Al1legislation, past or present, has concerned the hoarding - the physical structure of wood or metal - and takes no account of the message or the content of the poster. It could not be expected, particularly in the closing years of the 19th century and the early part of this one, that excessive care for the amenities of an area should be uppermost in the minds of bil1posting contractors. They might, and usually did, like most other business-men of that time, think more of their own affairs than of the town or countryside from which their business came. One thing, however, tended to mitigate the effect of unrestricted posting of this nature. Many of the best poster positions are situated at the points of greatest traffic density and, for thi s reason, large parts of the countryside and of some towns, were automatically left free from poster advertising. The situation on the eve of the passage of the 1947 Act was , in essence, that poster hoardings were to be found in large numbers in most centres of population with a sprinkling along the main traffic routes. Local authorities had the power, if they wished to exercise it (Advertising Regulations Acts 1907 and 1925), to control the display of advertisements in the light oflocal amenities, and they could ' pro tect' certain areas under the Town & Country Planning Act of 1932. Fly-posting was already subject to the civil law against trespass, but in general no power existed to prohibit the publication of advertisements prior to their actual display.

A remarka ble f eat of early nineteenth century posting

A good main road sit e

CHAPTER XI

The Town & Country Planning Act THIS ACT, which came into force on 1st July 1948, has already had an effect on the outdoor advertising industry* . It has brought about not only a change in the day-to-day working of the contractors' business but also a difference in the industry's attitude to its own act ivities. Of course, certain contractors had already started to improve their sites and the passing of this Act only made obligatory what was in many cases already being done. The benefits that accrue in theory from a policy of decentralization have, it seems, had a somewhat unfortunate effect in the application of the Act. Each contracting firm and each of its branches is obliged to deal with local planning authorities, and therefore administration and paper work have been multiplied. Because, too, each local planning authority is bound only by its own interpretation of the regulations, there is as yet no general understanding of the meaning of the vital word 'amenity'. The outdoor advertising industry has clearly seen the dangers and difficulties that may arise from this diversity of opinion and the consequent variations in the application of the Act in different parts of the country. The industry has set up a committee known as The Outdoor Advertising Industry Advisory Committee which is doing extremely valuable work in putting the industry 's views before Local Planning Officers. There have been held about the country a number of meetings to which Planning officers have been invited, and where very full and frank discussions have taken place. It is hoped that by these means Planning officers, who are permanent officialscharged with the execution of the Act, will gradually evolve general principles and practices, so that as a result the application of the Act in different parts of the country will have more uniformity .

Challenges It does not fall within the scope of this book to provide a detailed explanation of the operation of the Town & Country Planning Act; this has been very well and clearly done in the publication entitled 'Advertisement Control', • There is also a Scottish Act on similar term s : No rthern Ireland and Eire have the ir own legislation .

114

Chapter XI:

THE TOWN AND COUNTRY

details of which are given in the Bibliography. It is sufficienthere to say that any advertisements (that is to say, hoardings on which posters can be displayed) which were already in use on 7th January, 1947, could continue without interference until 31st July, 1951, unless they infringed one of the Standard Conditions under the Regulations. These Standard Conditions stated '1. All advertisements displayed, and any land used for the display of advertisements, shall be maintained in a clean and tidy condition to the reasonable satisfaction of the local planning authority. '2. Any hoarding or similar structure, or any sign, placard board or device erected or used principally for the purpose of displaying advertisements shall be maintained in a safe condition to the reasonahle satisfaction of the local planning authority. '3. Where any advertisement is required under these Regulations to be removed the removal thereof shall be carried out to the reasonable satisfaction of the local planning authority.' At the same time advertisements first displayed between the 7th of January, 1947, and the 31st of July, 1948, were liable to challenge from the 1st August, 1949. After the expiration of these 'periods of grace', the local planning authority is empowered to consider all these advertisements and decide whether they shall be permitted to continue subject to appeal. Areas of Special Control

The Regulations make provision for areas of special control in which all normal commercial poster advertising is prohibited entirely. Up to date twenty such orders have been approved by the Minister and Secretary of State for Scotland, and of these 18have been as a result of agreement between the planning authorities and G.A.LA.C. By their reasoned approach to this problem, G.A.LA.C. have convinced many of the authorities and also the Ministry of the industry's sincere desire to co-operate in the operation of the Regulations. It is perhaps of interest to consider in some detail two of those areas of special control which have been the subject of orders. In Winchester the local planning authority decided that practically the whole of the centre of the city ought to be free from advertisements; not merely the precincts of the Cathedral, but the main shopping centre and some outlying recreational areas were included. The Ministry, however, while agreeing to the designation of the Cathedral precincts, opposed the inclusion of the main shopping area and, as the order now stands, it is only those parts of the town which are strictly of historical or eestbetic value that have been included in the order.

PLANNING A CT

lIS

In the second case the County Council of Pembrokeshire submitted a plan for the designation of almost the whole of the county as an area of special control. Certain towns such as Haverfordwest, Milford Haven and Pembroke, were deliberately excluded from the provision of this order, but control was requested over the whole of the Borough of Tenby . This town was the subject of an interesting modification by the Ministry, who agreed that the cliffs and sea front should be included , but required that the shopping area at the back of the town should be freed. There are in Tenby several buildings and structures of historical interest and the boundary of the area of special control was carefully drawn down the middle of one of the main street s in order that the castle walls should be protected. This seems to be a good example of the way in which the Ministry is endea vouring to satisfy at one and the same time the requirements of the local planning authority and the commercial interests involved. The Town & Country Planning Act, 1947, is restrictive in its nature. It demands that the billposting contractor shall make a formal application to the local planning authority for permission to erect new hoardings and it gives this authority the power to veto them on the grounds of amenity or public safety. The procedure for application and for appealing against the decisions of the local planning authority is described in full detail in the publication to which we have referred above.

Contributions to Amenities The position still is, and we hope will always be, that the advertiser and the billposting contractor must take all the steps that their consciences dictate to better the situation. What then are the positive contributions to neighbourhood amenities that are being made and can be made by the advertiser and the billposting contractor? Given that an ad vertisement is to be displayed in a situation where it is not positively harmful to the amenities of the area, the billposting contractor can first ensure that the sites for which he is responsible are maintained in a pleasing condition. The Standard Conditions call only for tidiness and structural safety, but there are many ways in which the poster station can be turned into a positive asset. The bulletin boards, to which many references have already been made, are extreme examples, but all hoardings can be provided with a neat border and the posters suitably spaced out. Skilful placing of hoardings can also do much to obscure ugly buildings, bomb -damaged property and waste ground, and most billposting contractors are just as alive to their social respon sibilities as any other business-man. They work, by choice, in the limelight and their mistakes carry with them the penalty of public disapproval. The public's memory is short and there are few who can remember the

116

Chapter XI:

SAFEGUARDING AMENITIES

hoardings as they were at the turn of the century. The illustrations show, without the need of any explanation, what progress has been made in the last few years, and if the whole of our towns and cities had been improved to the same extent as the hoardings we should be living in very much better surroundings. Persons and organisations who are interested in where we live and work, might find it profitable to read section 33 of the Town & Country Planning Act, one that seems to have been overlooked in comparison with the two sections before it. Section 33 gives to local planning authori ties power to require the proper maintenance of waste land and states that if the authority considers that the amenity of any part of this area is seriously injured by the conditions of any garden, vacant site or other open land in their area, then they can require steps to be taken for abating the injury. It would be interesting to know just how many notices have been served on the owners of waste land in industrial areas under this section. It would almost seem advisable for local planning authorities to call for the assistance of biIIposting contractors in the huge task of cleaning up the results of haphazard industrial development which stilI disfigure so many of our towns. If the authorities, whose duty it is to interpret the relevant legislation, realise that the poster is a natural way of drawing attention to the goods and services available to the public, and if the biIIposting contractors continue to grow more aware of their responsibilities to the community, there is no reason why the present period of transition should not give way in time to a situation of benefit to us all.

REFERENCES

Size and Nature of the Poster Audience. Prepared by Market Information Services Ltd. for Mills & Rockleys Ltd. 1949. Advertising Expenditure and Revenue of the Press. Silverman, Cambridge University Press 1948. London Travel Survey 1949.

Kaldor and

London Transport Executive, 195(}.

Methods for the Evaluation of Outdoor Advertising: based on a Pilot Study in Fort Wayne. Traffic Audit Bureau Inc. 1946. Coverage Repetition and Impact provided by Poster Showings: based on a Studv in Cedar Rapids by the Traffic Audit Bureau Inc. 1950. Town & Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1948. H.M.S.a . Advertisement Control. Lyons and Magews; published by The Thames Bank Publishing Co. Ltd. 1949. Hulton Readership Survey. Hulton Press, 1952. Hulton Tables of Advertisement Attention Value. Hulton Press, 1949. Poster Advertising. Sheldon's Ltd. 1927. , Life' Accumulative Audience Survey: Alfred Politz Research Inc . 1950.

conducted for

LIFE

by

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APPENDiCES

I

The Population of Great Britain & Northern Ireland II III

Costs of Poster Campaign

Transportation Advertising-Traffic and Poster Sizes IV

Transportation Advertising Schedules and Costs V VI

Standard Conditions of Trading

The Town and Country Planning Act: Sections 3i and 32 VII

Glossary of Terms

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A P PEN D IX I

The Population of Great Britain & Northern Ireland The true pictur e of the dispositio n of the popu lat ion of G reat Britain a nd No rthern Ireland ca n be gathered from the frequent report s of the Registrar Ge neral publi shed by Her Majesty 's Stationery Offi ce bu t mo st important from the report s fro m the sa me autho rity on the 1951 Census of Popu lat ion . Th is inform a tion is gathered under the ad ministrative headings :- County Borou ghs, Mu nicipal Borou ghs, Urba n Districts a nd R ural Districts. Th e following two tables show a breakdown of popu lati on based upon the Census. Th e Tabl e below gives the brea kdow n of populat ion in Engla nd, Wales, Sco tlan d and Northe rn Irel and . G rea te r Lond on is normally rega rded for pos ting pu rpo ses as one un it and is th at terr ito ry which falls with in the Met ropolitan Po lice Bou ndar y.

Table I By To wns

G REATER LON DON

1,000,000 500,000- 1,000,000 250,000- 500,000 150,000- 250,000 100,000- 150,000 75,000- 100,000 50,000- 75,000 40,000- 50,000 30,000- 40,000 20,000- 30,000 15,000- 20,000 10,000- 15,000 5,00010,000 4,0005,000 3,0004,000 2,0003,000 UNDER 2,000

OVER

RUR AL AREAS

Population

Cumulated Population

8,346,137 2,20 1,895 2,5 10,495 3,360,28 1 2,22 1,92 1 3,034,872 1,861,447 2,769,077 2,319,887 2,335,039 2,657,609 1,787,612 1,667,173 1,643,459 342,462 249,73 1 195,684 108,897 10,597,924

8,346,13 7 10,548,032 13,058,527 16,418,808 18,640,729 21,675,60 1 23,537,048 26,306, 125 28,626,0 12 30,96 1,05 1 33,6 18,660 35,406,272 37,073,445 38,716,904 39,059,366 39,309,097 39,504,781 39,6 13,678 50,2 11,602

of Total Population

.~

16·6 4·4 5·0 6·7 4·4 6·0 3·7 5·5 4·6 4·7 5·3

3-6 3'3 3·3 ·7 ·5 ·4 ·2 21, (

Cumulated of Total Population

o~

16·6 21·0 26·0 32·7 37· 1 43·2 46·9 52-4 57·0 6 1'7 66·9 70·5 73-8 77-1 77-8 78·3 78·7 78·9 100·0

Number of Towns

2 4 10 12 25 22 45 52 68 109 102 137 229 77 72 79 84

Cumulated Number of Towns

2 6 16 28 53 75 120 172 240 349 451 588 817 894 966 1,045 1,129

APPENDIX I

cOl/uf.]

T he pop ulat ion o f G reat Britain is not sp read evenly over the surface of the co unt ry a nd there are cer tain maj or gro ups of populati on o r co nur bat ions which con tain some 37% of the total popu lation. T hese a re sho wn geogra p hica lly on the ma ps a nd mathematically in t he tab le bel ow

Table II Major Conurbation GREATER LON DON S.E. LANCASHIRE W . MIDL ANDS CLYDESID E W . YORKS HIRE MERSEYSID E TYNESID E

Populati on

8,346, 137 2,42 1,0 11 2,236,723 1,764,829 1,692,190 1,382,244 835,332

Cumulated

Cumula ted Populat ion

% of Tolal

Popu lati on

% of Total

8,346, 137 10,767,148 13,003,871 14,768,700 16,460,890 17,843, 134 18,678,466

16·6 4·8 4·5 3·5 H 2-8 1·7

16·6 21'4 25·9 29·4 32-8 35-6 37·2

P opulati on

Number of Towns

95 51 24 13 33 12 13

Cumulated Number of Towns

95 146 170 183 2 16 228 24 1

AP PENDIX II

Costs of Poster Campaigns Appendix I gave the breakdown of population. Here we show how much it would cost to carry out a 16-sheet poster campaign on the basis of tho se groups (costs are based upon the average rate obtaining at the 31st December, 1952). Totals of cost are to the nearest £50 and of posters to the nearest 10.

Table I POPULATION GROUPS

CUMULATED CUMULATED COST FOR NUMBER O F 13 WEEKS 26 WEEKS 52 WEEKS 16-SHEETS £ £ £

Towns of over

1,000,000

450

1,950

3,800

7,300

1,020 1,750 2,280 3,050 3,470 4,130 4,550 5,010 5,510 5,870 6,240

4,450· 7,700 10,000 13,400 15,250 18,100 19,950 21,950 24,200 25,750 27,350

8,600 14,800 19,250 25...8,00 29,350 34,900 38,450 42,300 46,550 49,600 52,700

16,550 28,450 37,050 49,050 56,400 67,100 73,950 8 \,400 89,550 95,400 101,400

1,400

'9,100

18,200

36,400

Number of 16-sheets

13 Weeks

Cost for 26 Weeks

£

£

£

1,400 600 420 340 390 290 190

9,100 2,650 1,850 1,500 1,700 1,300 850

18,200 5,100 3,550 2,850 3,300 2,450 1,600

36,400 9,750 6,850 5,550 6,350 4,700 3, 100

ex cluding Greater London

500,000 250,000 150,000 100,000 75,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 GR EA TER LONDO N

Table II By M ajor Conurbations GREATER LONDON S.E. LANCASHIR E W . MIDLAN DS CL YDESIDE W . YORKSHIR E MERSEYSIDE TYNESID E

52 Weeks

A P PEN D IX III

Transportation Advertising - Traffic and Poster Sizes The following facts about the London Transport Systemwerecurrent on 31.12.52. T RAFFIC CENT RAL BUS ES

TROLLEY BUSES

Pop ulation served Passengers journeys originating Route miles operated Service car miles operated

CO UNT RY BUSES

S. 1,700,000 2,412 Ill.

857 m.

N.1 24 S.158

Ill . Ill .

RAILWAYS

Not separately estimated 631 Ill . Separately

1,412

253

N.768 S.610

248

245 m.

78 m.

N.21 m, S.25 m.

227 m.

ROLLING STOCK Th ere were

6,002 Central Buses 1,618 Trolleybuses 498 (North) Co unt ry Buses 578 (South) Co untry Buses

The a pproximate number of carriages in service on each of the London Tran sports lines was : Bakerloo Central District Metropolitan Nort hern (City) Northern Piccadilly

365

670 695

470 (excluding compa rtment stock) 65 8 10

700 3,775

T he number o f sta tions, lifts and escalators ava ilable for commercial advertising was : Stations Lifts Esca lato rs

255 98 149

APPENDIX III

cOn/d.]

TRANSPORTATION SIZES It is naturally impossible here to give the variety of sizes that are obtainable on trains and stations throughout the British Railway system . We give here the sizes of those spaces which are most used. LONDON TRANSPORT BUSES

Sides (Central, Trolleybuses, Country)

17 feet 6 inches

21t inches

X

Double Front and Double Back Panels (all) 20 inches X 30 inches (i.e. Double crown) 4 feet 10 inches X 21t inches Top Rear Panels ) (Central and Country) 4 feet X 20 inches {3 feet 5 inches X 13t inches Lower Rear Panels f (Trolleybuses) Target Discs (all)

19 inches diameter Front End Panels (all)

Interior Spaces

Panel over luggage rack

(II inches J 26 inches 126 inches (20 inches lIt inches

X 11 inches X 8inches X 5 inches X 30 inches X 14 inches

LONDON UNDERGROUND

Poster Spaces on Stations

( 1. D j C ; QjC: 4-, 6-, 8- and. 16-sheets . 2. Escalator j Llft Panels 16t Inches X 22t Inches 3. Special Sites- various sizes

Poster Spaces in Carriages

1. Roof Cards 24 inches X 1116 inches 2. Side and End Panels lOi inches X 23k inches 24 inches X 11-1.6 inches

BRITISH RAILWAYS

Poster Spaces on Stations

1. D j C ; QjC; 4-, 16-, 32- and 48-sheets 2. Special Sites - various sizes

VANS

Poster Spaces on Van Sides

90 inches 60 inches

X X

40 inches 40 inches

PROVINCIAL BUSES Sizes vary from bus system to bus system to such an extent that it is impossible here to give detailed figures. Application for sizes, etc., should be made to the B. T. C. or those various agents who handle this advertising.

APPE NDIX IV

Transportation Advertising - Schedules and Costs

A full tube card display is

3,650 spaces at

£8,212. lOs. for 52 weeks £4,562. lOs. for 26 weeks £2,463. 15s. for 13 weeks

1

A full 16-sheet display is

255/ 16-sheets at

£6,375. Os. for 52 weeks £3,506. 5s. for 26 weeks £ 1,912. lOs. for 13 weeks

1

A full escalato r and lift panel display is

£2,250. Os. for 52 weeks 250 panels at : £ 1,250. Os. for 26 weeks ( £687. lOs. for 13 weeks

A normal Double crown display is

( £2, 145. Os. for 52 weeks 750 Doubl e crow ns at " £ 1,121. 5s. for 26 weeks £585. Os. for 13 weeks

APP ENDI X IV

cont d.]

It is difficult to give any definite figures for bus and van ca mpa igns becau se d ifferent products need different weights of coverage. We have therefore given what we con sider to be average displays in all cases, the general basis of display being I bus in every 20.

A London Bus Side display is

250 Central Buses 50 Trolleybuses 15 (N orth) Country Buses 20 (South) Country Buses

52 £9,750 0 1,400 0 262 10 350 0 - - £11,762 10

0

Weeks 26 £5,500 0 800 0 144 7 192 10 - - - -£6,636 17

0 0 6 0 6

£3,633 15 0

0 0 0 0

Weeks 26 £3,750 0 562 10 132 0 165 0

0 0 0 0

13 £2,000 300 72 90

0 0 0 0 -

13 £3,000 0 450 0 78 15 105 0

0 0 0 0

A London double front or rear display is

500 Central Buses 75 Trolleybuses 20 (North) Country Buses 25 (South) Country Buses

52 £6,750 0 1,012 10 240 0 300 0

£8,302 10 0

£4,609 10 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

£2,462 0 0

[APPENDI X IV

contd.

A Na tional Bus S ide displa y is

500 Cross Co untry Service Buses 800 Co rpo ratio n Buses

52 weeks 9,500 15,000 £24,500

A National Lower/Upper Rear display is

1,200 Cross Co untry Service Buses 700 Co rpo ratio n Buses

52 weeks 15,500 9,000 £24,000

A National Van Side displa y is

PROVINC ES LONDON

3,000 (60 1,000 (60

X X

40) 40)

52 weeks 7,800 2,600 £10,400

(Note that such a display of van sides wo uld provide rep resenta tion ill most of the la rger towns but not necessa rily in ratio to the population d ue to lack of facilities.)

APPENDIX V

Standard Conditions of Trading 1 Contracts for display made for a fixed period will be charged at the weekly rate quoted for such period . If extended for a consecutive period and so far as the display is unaltered, the rate applying to such extended period shall be that applying to the total period including the extension , but any lower rate thereby pertaining to such extended period shall not be retrospective. If the display for the extended period include s any increase in the numb ers of posters to be displayed , then the rate applicable to such additional posters shall be that appropriate to an original display thereof. 2 Advertisers desirous of extend ing the period of their display will usually be able to do so if notice is given not later than one clear month prior to the date of expiry of the original fixed period. 3 Six weeks' notice in writing end ing on the last day of a compl ete week from in charge date, must be given for determination of until-countermanded displays. 4 When no commencing date is specilied charge s for display will commence on the middle date between commencement and completion of the posting. 5 The contractors will provide marked list of sites for each Contract except where the display is of posters smaller than a four-sheet D.C. in size and for a period less than four weeks. 6 All posters should be delivered carriage paid at the office and /01' sub-offices for the areas in which the display is to be made at least fourte en days before the display is due to commence. 7 If from any cause there should be non-exhibition of any poste r or posters the liability of the contractors shall be limited to granting a proportionate reduction to the period of such non -exhibition. Any complaint should be notified at the time of inspection. 8 The contractors shall on the recommendation of the Trade Poste r Censorship Committee refuse to display or continue to disp lay po ster s which in the opinion of the Censorship Committee are objectionable, unsuitable for display or likely to give offence. The contract for the display of such posters shall, without responsibility on the pa rt of the contractors be cancelled on such notice , if any, as the Censorship Committee shall decide.

9 The co ntractors reserve the right to move a poster or tran sfer it from o ne site to another of equivalent value. Transfers will norm ally not be made except in the event of the loss of a site or reducti on of space and will be subject to the advertiser's approval, failing which the poster will be taken out of char ge, 10 Ad vertisers will be entitled to a change of posters free of charge once every four weeks provided no time limit is stipulated for such change, which would pre vent it being carried out in the normal course of posting, Changes more frequent than once every four weeks a nd all changes on which the adver tiser places cond ition s which prevent the ir being carried out in the ordinary course of postin g will be subject to a special charge . , Slippin g' will be treated as a change of poster s. 11 All accounts for displays a re payable within twent y-eight days follow-

ing the month of rend ering. 12 Th e co ntr acto rs accept no respon sibility for loss of or damag e to client' s printed matter supplied to them except in the case of fire, when their liabilit y shall be limited to payment of an amount not exceedin g the original cost to the client of the destro yed o r dam aged printed matter in their hand s for display. 13 Th e due perform ance of a ny contracts made by the contractor s a nd advertisers or their agents are subject to variation or cancell ation by the contractor s or advertisers or their agent s owing to an Act of God , strikes, lock-out s, fire, flood , drought or any other cau ses beyond their control. 14 Posters will o nly be displayed on sites for which the requi site con sent exists in accor da nce with the Town & Country Planning (Contro l of Ad vertisement Regulations), 1948. The contractors accept full respon sibility for compliance with the se advertisement regulations, so far as concerns a ny ord er placed with them for the display of poster s, If, however, throu gh no fault of their own they are without a sufficient supply of posters to ma intain the displa y in a clean and tid y condition as demand ed by the regulation s, the contractors reserve the right to take what action they think fit without being liable to give any credit for con sequent loss of display. 15 The co ntractors will endeavour to comply with advertisers' requ irement s whenever possible a nd maintain all displays in good repair, but the above condition s shall be deemed to be incorporated in all co ntracts mad e with them.

APPENDIX VI

The Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 Sections 31 and 32 Section 31. (1) Subject to the p rov ision s of this sectio n, provrsion shall be made by regulations under this Act for restricting or regulating the display of advertisements so far as appears to the Minister to be expedient in th e interests of a menity or publ ic safety, and without prejudice to the generalit y of the foregoing provision , . any such regulations may provide(a) for regulating the dimen sions, appearance and position of advertisement s which may be displayed, the sites on which such adve rtisement s may be displayed , and the manner in which they are to be affixed to land; (b) for requiring the con sent of the local planning a uthor ity to be obtained for the display of advert isements, or of advertisements of a ny class specified in the regulations; (c) fo r ap plying, in relation to any such con sent a nd to appli cat ions t herefor, an y of the provision s of the Part of thi s Act relating to permission to develop land and to applications for such permi ssion, subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be spec ified in the regulations; (d) for enabling the local planning authority to req uire the remov al of any advertisement which is being d isplayed in contravention of the regulations, or the d iscontinuance of the use for the displ ay of advertisements of any site which is being used for that pu rpose in co ntravention of the regul at ions , and for that purpose for appl ying any of the provisions of this Part of this Act with respect to enforcement not ices, subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be specified in the regul ations; (e) for the constitution , fo r the purposes of thc regulatio ns, of such advisory committees as may be pre scribed by the regulations, and for determining the manner in which the expen ses of an y such committee are to be defra yed. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by paragraph (c) of the foregoing subs ection, regulations madc for the purposes of thi s section may provide that any appeal from the decision of the local planning a uthority on a n application for their consent under the regulati on s shaillic to a n independent tribunal con stituted in accordance with the regulation s instead of to thc Mini ster.

(J) Regulation s made for the purpo ses of this sectio n may make different provision with respect to different areas , and in particular may make special provision with

respect to area s defined for the purposes of the regulations as areas of special control (being either rural areas or areas other than rural areas which appear to the Minister to require special protection on grounds of amenity) ; and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision may prohibit the display in any such area of all advertisements except advertisements of such classes (if any) as may be specified in the regulations. (4) Areas of special control for the purposes of regulations under this section may be defined either by reference to provisions included in that behalf in development plans or by means of orders made or approved by the Minister in accordance with the provisions of the regulations : Provided that where the Minister is authorised by the regulations to make or approve any such order as aforesaid, the regulations shall provde for the publication of notice of the proposed order in such manner as may be prescribed by the regulations, for the consideration of objections duly made thereto, and for the holding of such inquiries or other hearings as may be so prescribed , before the order is made or approved. (5) Subject as hereinafter provided, regulations made under this section may be made so as to apply to advertisements which arc being displayed on the date on which the regulations come into force, or to the use for the display of advertisements of any site which was being used for that purpose on that date: Provided that any such regulations shall provide for exempting therefrom(a) the continued display of any such advertisement as aforesaid: and (b) the continued use for the display of advertisements of any such site as aforesaid, during such period as may be prescribed in that behalf by the regulations, and different periods may be so prescribed for the purposes of different provisions of the regulations.

Section 32. (I) Where the display of advertisements in accordance with regulations made under the last foregoing section involves the development of land within the meaning of this Act, planning permission for that development shall be deemed to be granted by virtue of this section, and no application shall be necessary in that behalf under the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act. (2) Where for the purpose of complying with any such regulations as aforesaid works are carried out by any person for the removal of advertisements being displayed on the date on which the regulations come into force or the discontinuance of the use for

the display of advertisements of any site used for that purpose on that date , that person shall be entitled, on a claim made to the local planning authority within the time and in the manner prescribed by regulations under this Act, to recover from that authority compensation in respect of any expenses reasonably incurred by him in that behalf: Provided that no compensation shall be payable under this subsection in respect of the removal of any advertisement which was not being displayed on the seventh day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-seven. (3) Without prejudice to any provisions included in regulations made under the last foregoing section by virtue of paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of that section if any person displays an advertisement in contravention of the provisions of the regulations, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of such amount as may be prescribed by the regulations, not exceeding fifty pounds and in the case of a continuing offence, forty shillings for each day during which the offence continues after conviction. (4) For the purposes of the last foregoing subsection and without prejudice to the generality thereof, a person shall be deemed to display an advertisement if(a) the advertisement is displayed on a land of which he is the owner or occupier; or (b) the advertisement gives publicity to his goods, trade, business or other concerns: Provided that a person shall not be guilty of an offence under the said subsection by reason only that an advertisement is displayed on land of which he is the owner or occupier, or that his goods, trade, business or other concerns are given publicity by the advertisements, if he proves that it was displayed without his knowledge or consent.

APPENDIX VII

Glossary Billposters' Lists Printed lists of all the contractors' sites in a town or area. Bulletin Board A specially constructed large solus site, standard or nonstandard size, frequently illuminated and often fronted with a garden or other ornamental device. Faded A term used denoting a poster that has faded due to the weather. Fixed period booking Display booked for a certain term of weeks, normally 13, 26 or 52. Contracts placed for a fixed period cannot be cancelled during that period . Fluorescent Ink An ink used in printing which causes certain features of a poster to be brought into prominence by its luminous brilliance. Usually employed in conjunction with litho or silk screen. Gable End The end of a building used for displaying posters . Hoarding A panel designed to display multiples of standard sized posters (usually ground or near ground level). In Charge Date The date on which a poster is placed on display or from which charges commence. Inspection Reports A list prepared by an inspector recording the condition of posters on display . Marked Lists Lists provided by the contractor of addresses of agreed sites posted at the commencement of a display. Middle in charge date The average date between the commencement and completion of posting a display from which charges commence. Minimum sheetage A minimum number of postings stated by some contractors below which higher rates operate. Rates There are three main rates : I. Standard rate - a fixed charge for all sites in the town with the following exceptions:

2. Salu s rat e-standard charge in the town for solus boards .

3. Special rat e-increases on either the above rates for sites special situations.

111

Renewals Some rate s of renewal of poster s are :Normal postin gaverage 6-7 times per Bus /Tram out side spaces-average 8-10 times per Station spacesaverage 6-7 times per Tube card s (L.T.E.)average It times per Van sidesaverage 7-8 times per

year. year. year. year. year.

Solus panel A position designed to display one poster only. Standard Poster Sizes 16 double crown 80 x 120 inches (64-, 80-, and 96-sheet in 32 double crown 160x 120 simila r proportions) 48 doubl e crow n 240 x 120 Other standard sizes (mostly railway sites) Quad crown 40 X 30 inches or upri ght or upright 4-sheet 60 X 40

6-sheet 60 X 60 inches 8-sheet 80 X 60

In all cases the measure of width of poster is given fir st.

Stripped A term used in inspection denoting a poster that is so badly torn or mutilated by weathe r or human interference that the adverti sing message no longer exists. Torn A term used in inspection denoting a poster that has been torn by weathe r or human interference. Transportation advertising Adverti sements on or in buses and trams, unde rground trains and stations, railway train s and stations, and on sides and fronts of commercial vehicles. Until countermanded (often written T IC.) A display which, having completed its init ial period of booking, continues subject to a certain period of not ice of cancellation (6 weeks in the Prov inces, 4 weeks in London).