VietNamNet Bridge – Running out of money, business plans get stuck because of lacking capital, businesses have to sell vacancies on billboards to “keep mouth and soul together.” Meanwhile, ad firms have been sitting idle.

Duc, a marketing officer of a construction company headquartered in My Dinh area, has been going here and there these days to look for the clients who want to lease his company’s billboards.

The company has posted ad pieces on some websites that it needs to transfer a billboard at “reasonable price.” Many months ago, the company signed a contract with an ad firm on leasing a billboard located on an advantageous position. The contract has the value of VND1 billion and expires in one year.

However, the company, which is facing big difficulties, decided to transfer the billboard in order to cut down expenses, though the manager knows it’s not easy to obtain a billboard on a crossroads nowadays.

Duc said since the company has been taking loss, it is no use to hang billboards now. Therefore, the manager of the company has decided to transfer the billboard for money, accepting the loss of 40 percent. Especially, the company has promised to assist the clients to hang billboards and bear all arising expenses.

A real estate firm in My Dinh area has also been reportedly looking for the clients to transfer the right to post ad pieces at the escalators in a building. The company last year signed an advertisement contract worth VND2 billion with the building’s owner. However, the firm has decided to stop advertisement activities because of the bad business performance.

Ad firms have also complained that the business has not been going smoothly. A firm headquartered in Dong Da district in Hanoi said it is considering liquidating a billboard in Thanh Hoa City in the central region. The billboard has been advertised as very large (100 square meters), located in the central area of Thanh Hoa City, well designed with lamp system.

An executive of the company said since the company needs to gather strength on some business projects, it has decided to bargain away the billboard at VND190 million, a surprisingly low price. The executive said the billboard installation and the lighting system alone would cost VND100 million.

In economic crisis, all businesses have been trying to cut down expenses. Therefore, ad firms have to lower the service fees and offer higher discounts to retain clients.

Hoang Minh Anh, an executive of a media firm, said a lot of his company’s clients have unilaterally given up the contract due to the lack of money. Some businesses, though still keeping following the contracts, show less interests in advertisements, just sometimes changing the images.

Anh said it’s very difficult to look for the clients who lease billboards nowadays. It seems that clients have changed their habits when choosing instruments for advertisement. Instead of posting ad pieces on traditional tools such as print newspapers, businesses have been trying to push up e-commerce.

Meanwhile, the billboards are always very choosy about clients, because this is a costly way of making advertisement. Very few businesses have big money enough to spend on large sized outdoors billboards.

Anh admitted that it is now the most difficult period in his business. His firm now has to offer bigger preferences to clients, while providing diversified services to have more customers to maintain his business.

Duy Anh