Half of Minsk billboards to host patriotic ads
Advertisers have been obliged to host ads aimed at uniting Belarusians before the presidential election for free. They may lose 1 million dollars due to it.
Minsk billboards will advertise patriotism. Ideological posters will be
hosted on half of them in November and December. 800 posters will be
printed with the budget money. There will be 13 displays of patriotism.
Some
of the posters have already appeared in Minsk. The others are being
printed now, said the head of the marketing.by portal Syarhei Skarahod
in an interview with ERB.
Syarhei Skarahod: “The meeting took
place in Minsk City Executive Committee last week. They just gathered
everyone and informed us verbally as they always do. Billboards are
being printed now and they will be sent to owners of the structures”.
Advertisers
have to use their billboards to host state posters for free. They will
lose a lot of money due to it. According to Syarhei Skarahod, it is
about 250 thousand dollars. However, the sum may be much bigger.
“Market
representatives say that it is at least 1 million dollars. Nobody will
host posters in the second half of December. So, 15 days will be wasted.
And January is the dead season when nobody hosts advertisements”.
The
only ease that billboard owners will get is the exemption from the city
territory tax. However, it will be applied only to the billboards
hosting social and patriotic ads.
Meanwhile, advertisers avoid
discussing “free” patriotic billboards. One of the companies has
informed ERB that it has allocated 40 billboards for social ads.
However, the information about the losses it will inflict is kept a
secret.
“We do not present this information to anyone. I think you understand why”.
Syarhei Skarahod is sure that advertisers cannot refuse to host patriotic posters.
Syarhei
Skarahod: “We have been working on the market for a long time and
nobody will refuse because it will turn out to be more expensive in the
future. A certain mechanism will be launched if they refuse. They may be
deprived of additional spots when they apply for them”.
However, Syarhei Skarahod thinks that the design of the posters is the main problem. They look very poor, thinks the expert.
Photo by: marketing.by