Supermarket giant hands JCDecaux outdoor contract

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey Media Week 11-Dec-07, 10:00

LONDON - JCDecaux has been awarded the outdoor advertising business for supermarket chain Waitrose in a multimillion-pound deal.

The 10-year contract is Waitrose’s first foray into outdoor. It is the last of the big supermarket chains to adopt the medium.
From February next year, JCDecaux will manage and develop six-sheet panels at Waitrose branches and will install specially designed scrolling advertisements at branch entrances.

Waitrose, which has 187 branches in the UK, will offer attractive ad space to clients. Research shows that more than 40% of its shoppers are AB, which is double the national average, and 75% are ABC1.
Paul Hogan, manager of local marketing at Waitrose, said JCDecaux was awarded the contract on the merits of its reputation for innovation and design.
Waitrose has outdoor advertising at a handful of the sites it acquired after buying some Somerfield stores, but these will also come under JCDecaux management from February.
The retail medium is worth around £40m a year for the outdoor industry.
JCDecaux also holds a contract with Tesco, and in 2006 it invested £3m to expand the portfolio to 450 stores.
Earlier this year, the contractor carried out ethnographic research into the supermarket medium showing that shoppers recall campaigns up to two weeks after they have ended.