Signposter.com revolutionises outdoor advertising

19th March 2009, London, England

Now small businesses can easily plan, create and manage outdoor advertising in just a few clicks

Today Signposter.com, a new online service helping businesses in the UK buy and manage outdoor advertising, marks its official launch at the Grow Your Own Business event in London. Signposter.com is the first online service that makes cost-effective outdoor advertising accessible to small businesses in just a few clicks.

Simon Read, chief executive officer, Signposter.com said: “We are extending small businesses the same benefits big brands have enjoyed with poster advertising for decades – and making it easier. With Signposter.com, SMEs can easily enhance their marketing activities, be more creative and compete with big brands without breaking the budget.”

The national launch follows successful pilots conducted in Birmingham, Newcastle and Portsmouth. To date, more than 1,200 businesses from different sectors have registered on Signposter.com and booked over 500 sites – illustrating an already huge demand for this service.

Backed by WPP Group, Signposter.com has a complete range of poster sites from phone boxes to giant roadside billboards supplied by the UK’s major outdoor media owners: JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Titan Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Primesight. Signposter.com provides businesses with 98 percent of all poster sites in the UK,* meaning businesses can easily choose from virtually every poster site in their locality.

The service also includes one of the most advanced free ad creation tools available on the internet. Based on users’ particular needs, they can easily create agency quality ads by:
• starting from a blank canvas and choosing from a variety of fonts, colours and more than three million images to create agency quality ads;
• selecting from existing ad templates categorised by different business types; or
• uploading an existing ad.

Rob Atkinson, UK CEO, Clear Channel said: "Signposter.com is having a really positive impact as small businesses start to actively engage with its services. The system makes it easy for potential advertisers to target specific poster locations and the ad creation tool provides users with complete control over their own creative. Signposter.com allows us, at Clear Channel, to extend small businesses all the benefits of poster advertising."

Poster advertising accounts for approximately 10 percent of the UK advertising market (NMR) which is largely dominated by big businesses.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association, people spend 50 percent more time out of their homes than they did ten years ago. As a result, 86 percent of the UK population (Kinetic Worldwide Research) regularly sees poster advertising. Poster advertising is regarded as one of the most cost-effective and relevant mediums that help brands deliver their messages locally.

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, said: "Signposter.com has an innovative business approach that will help small businesses use outdoor advertising more effectively and enable media owners to attract and retain new advertisers. We believe it has the potential to transform local advertising for many UK businesses."

Sample pilot results:

Astral Security Windows Ltd is one of south London and Surrey's leading suppliers of windows, doors and conservatories.

• Challenge: generate local awareness with poster advertising using high traffic sites. The main difficulty for Astral was that they were unable to find one service that provided easy access to all poster sites in the UK, regardless of who owned them.

• Result: Astral worked with Signposter.com to identify and book the right poster sites, regardless of the media owner. Signposter’s service made it easy to find the right campaign for the business. Sales figures have increased since the implementation of the campaign.

• “I would absolutely recommend Signposter.com to other small businesses. From my first visit to the website to developing my creative, the service has proved to be outstanding,” said Symon Wright, Astral Security Window Ltd.

Element Marketing is an agency that provides marketing, advertising, design and interactive solutions.

• Challenge: Element Marketing was briefed by Challinors Solicitors’ to raise their profile within the Birmingham and West Midlands business community.

• Result: Element Marketing worked with Signposter.com to find a high visibility poster site within close proximity to the Challinors Birmingham office. The team produced a 96 sheet format to display Challinors message. As a result, Challinors saw an increase in enquiries (both corporate and private). The poster campaign also raised Challinors’ profile among the business community, helping to establish them as a serious ‘player’ within the West Midlands market.

• “Before Signposter.com, you would have to research sites, book space and then create a poster and find a printer, liaising between all parties. Signposter.com offers a ‘one stop shop’ and does everything for you – saving you time, effort and money,” said Nicki Gibberson, Element Marketing.

Shelter is a charity that works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing.

• Challenge: Shelter needed to identify poster sites with high traffic, but on a budget, to raise awareness of its text message services within the Newcastle area.

• Result: There was a significant increase in text messages coming from the Newcastle area.

• “Our first experience using outdoor advertising was a positive one. Signposter.com assisted us through the process of sourcing the best site possible for our budget, with a streamlined professional service from start to finish,” said Tracy Guy, Shelter.

Note that customers are available for comment on request.