Kyiv City Council approved the Concept of Outdoor Advertisement in the capital. This decision was passed by 96 MP votes out of 111 registered in the session hall. According to the Concept, there will be introduced the division into five format areas in the city. Constructions up to 2.16 square meters can be put in the first format area that takes up central streets and squares; in the second format area constructions of 2.16 to 8 square meters are allowed; in the third – from 2.16 to 36 square meters; and in the fourth – from 36.1 square meters.
In the, so-called, null zone (architectural monuments, parks), as was promised earlier in the KCSA, placing any advertising is prohibited. In particular, now there won’t be any billboards, city lights, or stands on Andriivsky Uzviz, near St. Michael and St. Volodymyr’s Cathedrals, St. Andrew and St. Cyril’s Churches, Mariinsky Palace, Golden Gates, Taras Shevchenko National Opera, and some other monuments and landscape parks. Besides, Kyiv City Council approved a ban on placing advertising media near buildings of state and local governments.
Yurii CHARUKHA, chairman of the Industrial Committee of the Outdoor Advertising (ICOA), director of BigBoard Company:
“This is a progressive step for the city and the market itself, which should provide necessary conditions for normalization of outdoor advertisement placement in the capital city and making the process of advertisement placement systematic and transparent. As an advertisement company operator, I hope that all the market players, without any exception, together with city government will consistently implement the instructions claimed in the Concept. Only then the approved Concept will become a working tool for the industry.
“The Conception introduced the zero area, according to which architectural monuments and park areas will be completely free of any advertisement. It is a demonstration of European approach. Today in the European capitals advertisement is minimized in the places of historical heritage.
“As a leading operator, we have long been speaking about the need for advertisement to harmoniously fit in city environment, especially downtown. Advertisement shouldn’t annoy people or be too obtrusive.
“This document will lead to reduction of formats. Advertisers will pay more attention to their small formats in the capital. At first there will possibly be a transfer of advertisement money from central parts of the city to sleeping areas, long highways, that is in the third and the fourth format area. However, with the time capitalization of the small format in the central part of the city will increase. This Concept will push advertisers for more careful development of their address programs and comprehensively assess media effectiveness of the made decisions.
“However, just like in many other documents, there are problematic aspects in the Concept. The first and the most important is the boundaries of the format areas. According to the new document, only city format is allowed in the first area. In our opinion, the first area in the new Concept could cover a much smaller territory. Besides, central boulevards and avenues of the capital would look European with medium scroll format – seven square meters. Presence of medium format constructions in the city center could minimize losses for the city budget due to reduction in the number of large advertisement.
“In the situation when the Concept will be implemented, the number of advertisement media in the central part of Kyiv will reduce by 40 to 50 percent, the reduction of advertisement constructions will be 15 to 20 percent, thus, respectively there will be a reduction of the amount of money that the city budget would have from the outdoor advertisement. However, what concerns the aesthetic look and architecture, the city will most certainly benefit from it.”
