Pedestrians in big cities are exposed to dozens of advertisements every day when they walk down the street. From home to work, school or parties, they try to catch your attention from buses, streetlights and marquees, but few attract as much attention as those that cover entire facades of large avenues. Even in historic buildings, perhaps the oldest, the Barcelona Cathedral, as happened in 2023.
Advertising on scaffolding is a complex and exclusive activity with which big brands pay hundreds of thousands of euros that are used by the most stately properties to finance – partially or totally – their rehabilitation.
But how does this sector work, a symbol like few others of the showcase city? What are the most exclusive places? How much do you pay to advertise a mobile or clothing brand at an intersection of Passeig de Gràcia and Gran Via? And what limits do the municipalities set and how much do they earn from their taxes?
Barcelona City Council has authorized 297 advertising banners between 2021 and 2023, with which it has earned just over two million euros in taxes, which it has allocated to improving the landscape. The data on locations and brands, provided to elDiario.es, allow map the sector. Over the last three years, Apple and Samsung are undoubtedly the kings of scaffolding, with 31 canvases (with an average of 28 days of permanence) and 31 (and an average of 53 days) respectively.
If the Korean multinational telephone company has surpassed the North American multinational, it is in fact thanks to its advertisements in the Barcelona Cathedral, where it has concentrated almost all of its campaigns in the city. It kept several canvases at the same time on one of the most photographed facades of the Catalan capital, for which the city council paid almost 90,000 euros in fees alone, but it had to remove them before finalizing the contract due to a controversy over their use. .lights. When questioned, the archbishopric, owner of the property, did not want to reveal how much it was charging for them.
It is no secret that advertising agencies look for the facades of the busiest streets, corners with high traffic or emblematic buildings. Thus, 70% of this advertising in Barcelona is on the main arteries of the Eixample, with the most used streets Balmes, Gran Via, Rambla Catalunya, Pelai, Aragó or Muntaner. Outside of this district and the central Ciutat Vella, there are almost no advertising facades.
The luxury of outdoor advertising: more than 100,000 euros per month
Banners are not the outdoor advertising that generates the most income for agencies – street furniture, due to its omnipresence, brings in much more money – but it is the one that is perceived as the most luxurious for brands. It is the most coveted. “It can bring many benefits, but there is also a high risk, because agencies must guarantee an amount to the communities of owners even if they later fail to affix the banner to a brand,” explains agent Maria Ángeles Santos.
Prices vary greatly depending on supply and demand, but one of these listings easily exceeds 100,000 euros per month, according to several industry sources. This is what the brand can pay the agencies, who then call on the intermediary companies that are the ones that inspect and contact the farms. Often, these companies have a portfolio of properties that they monitor to see if they are candidates for rehabilitation through an advertisement.
The amount that local authorities earn to finance the improvement of their façades also varies greatly. The University of Barcelona (UB), for example, charged €55,000 for the Netflix and Samsung banners for two and a half months. The ETSAB School of Architecture, €50,000. The Catalan Finance Institute (ICF), located on a corner of the Gran Via facing the traffic, financed the entire work for more than €160,000. And the Gran Teatre del Liceu, on the Rambla, put out a call for tenders for three months of canvas for €98,000 (including VAT).
Francesc Mañas, owner and manager of TRAC, a leading rehabilitation company in Barcelona, knows this world well, as he always has advertisements on some of his 20 or 30 active scaffolds in the city. “Barcelona and Madrid are great showcases, along with London, Paris, Berlin… But it is a highly specialized profession that requires a powerful financial situation,” he emphasizes.
He says this because the deadlines of the agencies, always waiting for the winter or spring campaigns, do not usually match those of the works that often take almost a year to materialize from the moment the authorization is requested. “In the best places in Barcelona, I have seen absurd offers. I have done facades in which the intermediary paid the entirety of very expensive works, of more than 700,000 euros… And then he did not find any advertisers.
Madrid, easier and cheaper
According to data from the Barcelona City Council, which collected more than 700,000 euros in taxes in 2023, the tarpaulin sector is on track to return to pre-pandemic figures, record volumes not seen since before the real estate bubble. “Currently, the signs are experiencing a soft moment, especially in Madrid, where there are perhaps more than ever and with high occupancy rates,” says Mario González Gil, deputy director of Avenir – of the advertising giant JCDecaux.
All the sources consulted agree that in Madrid there are more administrative facilities for the installation of the tarpaulins, fewer fees paid and the communities of owners are also more willing. This actually means that you pay much less for one of these giant advertisements in the capital than in Barcelona, where greater regulation makes them more expensive.
To begin with, the Barcelona City Council prevents the installation of tarpaulins on facades renovated in the last ten years, to avoid unnecessary work. In Madrid, the council sets the limit at five years.
Miguel Marín, an agent at Supports y Medianeras, a company that operates in both cities, admits that in Madrid there may be unnecessary renovations that only respond to publicity. “In Barcelona, I don’t think so. Because there is much more surveillance and municipal technicians master the work,” he emphasizes. In addition, the Madrid City Council allows more experimentation and montages with “special effects, lighting, backlighting, LEDscreens, things that move…”, he lists.
All this is aimed not only at impacting passers-by, but also at having an effect on social networks, often through provocative messages. Thus, not only have advertising banners for films and series with increasingly striking designs proliferated, but also advertisements with political winks, very evident in the case of the government of Madrid, or paid for directly by the parties. Some even seek controversy to gain notoriety without the inhabitants of the block knowing in advance.
In Barcelona, the process that a property that wants an ad on its scaffolding must follow goes through the Municipal Institute of Urban Landscape (IMPU), whose technicians have a reputation for being restrictive compared to other cities. This body dependent on the City Council must sign a tripartite agreement with the property and the agent in which they validate the so-called creativity (the message and image of the ad, so that it complies with the law), the time it takes to do so. remain and the requirements of the work, among others.
The municipal tax paid is 4,400, 7,000 or 11,300 euros per month depending on whether the place has more or less impact. And at the bottom of all the banners, on the apron, the advertiser must indicate the urban rehabilitation project to which this tax will be allocated, and which the municipality will decide.
In recent years, for example, around thirty common walls in the city have been repaired and beautified thanks to this money. Among them, the Betevé vertical garden, municipal television.
The aesthetic assessment and the “commodification” of the city
Walking around a city among giant images of Hyundai cars, Nike clothing, Huawei phones, Vueling destinations or Netflix and HBO series – to name just the brands with the most presence after Apple and Samsung – may seem new, but it has been common for decades. Even if it is now a global phenomenon.
“The Olympic Games were the great boom of these advertisements in Barcelona,” Mañas explains. “Right now, for example, it’s a bit noticeable with the Copa América,” he says.
In the years leading up to the Olympics, Mayor Pasqual Maragall launched the campaign Barcelona is not prettystill remembered today, which opened the door to a facelift of the city financed in part by advertising. “In terms of urban planning, it was a good practice, because it implied an express rehabilitation of the city, but it also led to negative consequences, such as promoting the commercialization of Barcelona,” says Laia Forné, an urban sociologist and researcher at the Urban Research Institute (IDRA).
Forné warns that this model only allows for the refinement of certain façades, often in areas that are not needed, but at the same time he concedes that the open bar of yesteryear has been left behind. “The ordinance in Barcelona is strict, also regarding lighting, signage in stores, posters on façades…”, he lists. “We must bear in mind that advertising messages are usually never those of cooperation and equality, but rather those of sexist prejudice and consumerism,” he stresses.
The existing regulations, Mañas assures us, serve to avoid what he calls “visual intoxication.” At least in Barcelona. In some cities, there are even examples of neighborhood demands to end outdoor advertising. São Paulo was a pioneer in 2006 by practically eliminating advertising on public roads. A citizens’ movement in France has called for stricter restrictions in cities such as Lille, Grenoble and Lyon. And in Berlin, there have also been these neighborhood demands, although so far they have not had the same success.
