By continuing to use this site, you agree to receive cookies/similar technologies to measure visits, view videos and use social sharing buttons. Find out more and change your cookies settings.
- China
- October 1, 2011
AOM: In 2010, JCDecaux became the leading OOH media company in the world. What is the significance of this event to JCDecaux's future development?
Jean-Charles Decaux( hereinafter called "Jean-Charles"): Becoming the leading worldwide reflects the strong commitment and hard work of our teams around the world, the trust from our customer base, the consistent quality of our operations and our continuous best in class innovation. We will continue to be entrepreneurial and take advantage of future consolidation and growth opportunities using our strong balance sheet while maintaining our financial discipline.
In the new socially connected world, we are foreseeing structural growth opportunities for our business as outdoor emerges as the last mass medium best positioned to work in collaboration with an increasingly urban, mobile and digitally enabled audience.
AOM: Would you please elaborate on JCDecaux's strategy of organic and external growth ?
Jean-Charles: Our strategy is to, firstly, continue our development through organic growth by winning new advertising contracts with the cities, local governments, transport companies, metros and airports, shopping malls, that we deem the most attractive; secondly, make strategic, targeted acquisitions that enable us to gain a leadership position, or strengthen our existing position in the industry, and to increase our share of the outdoor advertising segment by developing a national network, thereby building our capacity to achieve high returns on our investments; thirdly, maximise the commercial potential and offer to our advertisers in order to increase the profitability of our advertising networks in all the countries where we operate.
AOM: As we know, JCDecaux did a lot of research before starting business in China. For JCDecaux ,What were the challenges and opportunities in China OOH market at that time?
Jean-Charles: The China outdoor market environment was very cluttered, disorganised with quality that was below international standards. It was not easy for quality to stand out and the lack of exclusivity in duration or geography especially in street furniture and billboards make investments in these areas risky. It was and still is also very fragmented with over 60,000 vendors many from outside the industry all with varying levels of standards and practices. However, it also presented opportunities for consolidation and for organic growth through selecting projects which offer long-term contracts, some degree of exclusivity, captive audiences and where quality can make a difference. JCDecaux took the opportunity in the consolidation process by acquiring Media Nations and Media Partners International within 12 months thus creating the largest national transport advertising platform.
AOM: What factors would JCDecaux usually takes into account in order to make its business portfolio suitable for different markets?
Jean-Charles: There're 3 main factors: firstly, retain control of the key locations of our street furniture products and maximise visibility of faces so that we can offer networks to advertisers that ensure the success of their advertising campaigns; secondly, capitalise on the synergies among our Street Furniture, Billboard and Transport businesses to build international and/or multiformat business alliances for major international advertisers; thirdly, continue to develop outdoor market research and audience measurement techniques to reinforce the attractiveness of the outdoor medium for advertisers.
AOM: What development strategy will JCDecaux adopt in China accordingly?
Jean-Charles: In China, we will continue to be selectively aggressive executing our business model of quality in design and maintenance, exclusivity, transparency, security and reliability for our customers and business partners.
AOM: In your opinion, what's China OOH industry going to be in the next 5 years?
Jean-Charles: We can see the China OOH marketconsolidating in the next 5 years with more assets being operated by professional operators that can deliver economic benefits of growth and social effects of image, security and social well being, at the same time. There will continue to be smaller operators some of which may take a shorter term view, some with capital market plays in mind, taking more risks in aggressively bidding for market share.
AOM: While choosing partners or seeking for M&A opportunities, What would JCDecaux look for in a company?
Jean-Charles: Our acquisition strategy focuses on the following main objectives: firstly, acquiring or establishing alliances with companies holding strong positions in their markets; secondly, capitalising on our resources (products, operating expertise, commercial strength) to grow and maximise the potential of these new markets; thirdly, developing commercial synergies; centralising and optimising costs in order to be more competitive, to increase our performance and to better serve our clients.
AOM: How is digital impacting the OOH industry?
Jean-Charles: In recent years, there has been a major shift in the media landscape occasioned by the growing ubiquity of digital platforms and devices. This has led to people using the digital platforms to use media in entirely new ways. This structural change has for most major traditional display media caused a decline or a fragmenting of audiences. For press this has mostly caused a strong readership decline. In the case of television although audiences have not always declined overall as the new digital platforms have increased choice, the balance of audiences for the mass delivery options has swung towards target groups less desirable to advertisers.
Conversely the audiences to out of home are structurally increasing as the world's population becomes increasingly urban in nature and digital technology has contributed to outdoor advertising becoming a more relevant and flexible communications channel than before while retaining its broad reach of the population. The nature of outdoor advertising also means that it fits well into the changing patterns of consumer interaction with advertisers' messages. Unlike most major media, the growing audience means that this relevance and interaction comes at a low cost per contact. The outdoor industry also invested in meaningfultools of accountability with respect to audience and return on investment, and generated the interest in such tools from the advertisers and their advertising agencies allowing them to quantify the contribution of the medium.
AOM: Digital OOH media is growing fast, it currently accounts for about one third of the whole industry, what's the ideal traditional-digital ratio in your opinion? Where should OOH media formats remain traditional?
Jean-Charles: There is no ideal ratio at this point in time. The important thing is that our offering should correspond to the brands' expectations within the framework of a virtuous business model.Closed spaces where people move ? such as stations, airports, shopping malls, etc.? are, by definition, more suitable to the general adoption of digital outdoor advertising. In contrast, however, I think that traditional outdoor advertising remains perfectly relevant in cities owing, in particular, to the way the target publics are reached and the need to develop extremely powerful campaigns.
AOM: What kind of digital OOH media represents the future of the field, or in other words, better meets the personalized and interactive demands from customers? Is"digital OOH media + mobile device + internet"going to be the mainstream communication mode in the future?
Jean-Charles: There is bound to be further development of digital and interactive communications but this will be based on individual initiatives taken by consumers to establish a connection and, consequently, to initiate a commitment. Internet access from mobile devices will also give a considerable boost to enhanced outdoor advertising. A simple interactive system ? such as our image recognition application U Snap, for example ? makes it possible to use the mere photo of a poster to provide access to the brand's chosen digital universe. "From showcasing to engaging the world".
AOM: How has JCDecaux's "street furniture" concept evolved with time?
Jean-Charles: In 1964, Jean-Claude Decaux invented the concept of the Advertising Street Furniture market with a simple but innovative idea: to provide well-maintained and state of the art street Furniture free of charge to citiesand transport companies in exchange for the right to place advertising on these structures.
From the beginning, Street Furniture became a very attractive medium for advertisers, because it gave them access to advertising space in city centres in areas where advertising was generally very restricted.For over 47 years, we have been designing and developing street furniture products that offer cities good design and public service, and advertisers an effective medium for their campaigns.
We design products that are innovative and have high added-value, or offer services that enhance the quality of urban life.
We develop a coordinated range of street furniture by working closely with internationally renowned architects and designers (52),We determine, according to the advertising potential, the amount of advertising space needed to finance a city’s street furniture needs;We select advertising locations and position our products to maximise the impact of advertising.We are recognised by cities, towns and advertisers for the quality of the maintenance service provided under our Street Furniture contracts. We put all of our maintenance staff and bill posters through a rigorous training programme in our in-house facilities to ensure they keep alive the company know-how and preserve our excellent reputation for maintaining our street furniture, a key element in our international renown.
AOM: JCDecaux has been actively involved in many humanitarian and charitable activities. What does CSR mean to JCDecaux?
Jean-Charles: The JCDecaux Group has been committed to a policy of continuous improvement of its business since 1999. Created in 2007 under the authority of the Executive Board, the corporate Sustainable Development and Quality Control Department plays a role at key points in the value chain and is also involved in the company's day-to-day business. Its field of operations embraces all our activities and its task is to: define and implement the Group's strategic objectives in terms of sustainable development; unite the subsidiaries in the implementation of action plans; consolidate the Group's leading role.
The Group's commitments to sustainable development are in line with its continuous improvement strategy. The efforts undertaken are continued and intensified year on year. For example, sustainable development reporting,established in the Group a few years ago, is reviewed annually to confirm its relevance by referring to the best internationally recognised benchmarks (GRI, ISO 26000, etc.).
Let's see 3 significant examples :No.1, our commitment to reduce electricity consumption of street furniture. The JCDecaux Research Department is constantly seeking ways to reduce the power consumed by our street furniture. In recent years a number of improvements have been made, in part developing the use of natural light in public toilets (Jouin model) yielding a 30% reduction in electricity consumption in comparison with the previous model.
No.2, Ecoreflex or how raising environmental awareness and best practices amongst employees. The internal Ecoreflex programme aims at raising awareness amongst employees on best environmental practices. The programme has led to a 20% fall in paper consumption per employee between 2006 and 2008 and to a further 13% fall between 2008 and 2009.Another achievement is a 4% reduction in employee waste production in 2010 compared to 2009.
No.3,Cleaning of street furniture using rainwater. Rainwater recovery systems have been implemented in several countries. The Group has increased its rainwater recovery capacity over the last 2 years, recovering 730 000 litres in 2010. This rainwater, naturally demineralised, is then used to clean street furniture, leading to the reduction of detergent use.
Our commitment and performance are reviewed and recognised by extra-financial rating agencies - the ASPI Eurozoneindex, the FTSE4Good index, the DJSI and the Excellence Investment Register drawn up by Forum Ethibel-as well as by fund managers and analysts specialising in socially responsible investment. This recognition helps show that JCDecaux is a socially-responsible group, careful to develop its business in accordance with ethical, human, social and environmental values.
AOM: What's the biggest challenge when you started JCDecaux's business from scratch in Spain in 1991? Could you please share with us one successful and also one unsuccessful decisions in your career? What did you learn from them?
Jean-Charles: My biggest challenge was to win our first contract…The acquisition of Avenir in 1999 is a very successful decision at the opposite of investing in Latin America in 2000. My conclusion is :"Timing is everything !".
AOM: You and your brother both use the title of Co-Chief Executive Officer of JCDecaux, you take turns in the role of chairman of the management board, how do you complement each other through your character and working responsibilities?
Jean-Charles: First, we share the same values transmitted by our parents. In the day to day business, our collaboration is based on an alined strategic vision, geographical responsabilities, respect, transparency, commitment and performance for the JCdecaux stakeholders.
AOM: As the founder of JCDecaux , your father, Mr. Jean-Claude Decaux, is well known both in and out of the ad industry for his outstanding entrepreneurship, may I ask, how has he influenced you in your life and career?
Jean-Charles: Our father learn us to be entrepreneurs, hard workers, risk takers and first movers.
AOM: Since JCDecaux's become world's leading OOH media company through its dedication, professionalism, and successful strategy, what’s the driving force for JCDecaux's future development?
Jean-Charles: Our driving forces are passion, enthusiasm to develop our business, consistency in our business proposition, rationale, commitment and work as a team.
AOM: Facing such an ever-changing world, which aspects could be carried forward, others be adjusted and changed in terms of JCDecaux's corporate culture?
Jean-Charles: Our long-standing corporate culture has remained constant over the years despite changes in the technology we use. Our culture is characterized by the unceasing pursuit of innovation in phase with its times with a view, firstly, to simplifying the lives of our fellow citizens as they travel from place to place and, secondly, to providing outstanding quality of service and outcomes for each of the principals or advertisers partnering with us.
This strategy ? which is founded on rigorous standards and uncompromising reliability ? has been applied all over the world, and we are convinced that, for us, it represents a long-term, sustainable model.
AOM: Work aside, do you have any interests and hobbies?
Jean-Charles: My family, sailing and arts.
Jean-Charles Decaux( hereinafter called "Jean-Charles"): Becoming the leading worldwide reflects the strong commitment and hard work of our teams around the world, the trust from our customer base, the consistent quality of our operations and our continuous best in class innovation. We will continue to be entrepreneurial and take advantage of future consolidation and growth opportunities using our strong balance sheet while maintaining our financial discipline.
In the new socially connected world, we are foreseeing structural growth opportunities for our business as outdoor emerges as the last mass medium best positioned to work in collaboration with an increasingly urban, mobile and digitally enabled audience.
AOM: Would you please elaborate on JCDecaux's strategy of organic and external growth ?
Jean-Charles: Our strategy is to, firstly, continue our development through organic growth by winning new advertising contracts with the cities, local governments, transport companies, metros and airports, shopping malls, that we deem the most attractive; secondly, make strategic, targeted acquisitions that enable us to gain a leadership position, or strengthen our existing position in the industry, and to increase our share of the outdoor advertising segment by developing a national network, thereby building our capacity to achieve high returns on our investments; thirdly, maximise the commercial potential and offer to our advertisers in order to increase the profitability of our advertising networks in all the countries where we operate.
AOM: As we know, JCDecaux did a lot of research before starting business in China. For JCDecaux ,What were the challenges and opportunities in China OOH market at that time?
Jean-Charles: The China outdoor market environment was very cluttered, disorganised with quality that was below international standards. It was not easy for quality to stand out and the lack of exclusivity in duration or geography especially in street furniture and billboards make investments in these areas risky. It was and still is also very fragmented with over 60,000 vendors many from outside the industry all with varying levels of standards and practices. However, it also presented opportunities for consolidation and for organic growth through selecting projects which offer long-term contracts, some degree of exclusivity, captive audiences and where quality can make a difference. JCDecaux took the opportunity in the consolidation process by acquiring Media Nations and Media Partners International within 12 months thus creating the largest national transport advertising platform.
AOM: What factors would JCDecaux usually takes into account in order to make its business portfolio suitable for different markets?
Jean-Charles: There're 3 main factors: firstly, retain control of the key locations of our street furniture products and maximise visibility of faces so that we can offer networks to advertisers that ensure the success of their advertising campaigns; secondly, capitalise on the synergies among our Street Furniture, Billboard and Transport businesses to build international and/or multiformat business alliances for major international advertisers; thirdly, continue to develop outdoor market research and audience measurement techniques to reinforce the attractiveness of the outdoor medium for advertisers.
AOM: What development strategy will JCDecaux adopt in China accordingly?
Jean-Charles: In China, we will continue to be selectively aggressive executing our business model of quality in design and maintenance, exclusivity, transparency, security and reliability for our customers and business partners.
AOM: In your opinion, what's China OOH industry going to be in the next 5 years?
Jean-Charles: We can see the China OOH marketconsolidating in the next 5 years with more assets being operated by professional operators that can deliver economic benefits of growth and social effects of image, security and social well being, at the same time. There will continue to be smaller operators some of which may take a shorter term view, some with capital market plays in mind, taking more risks in aggressively bidding for market share.
AOM: While choosing partners or seeking for M&A opportunities, What would JCDecaux look for in a company?
Jean-Charles: Our acquisition strategy focuses on the following main objectives: firstly, acquiring or establishing alliances with companies holding strong positions in their markets; secondly, capitalising on our resources (products, operating expertise, commercial strength) to grow and maximise the potential of these new markets; thirdly, developing commercial synergies; centralising and optimising costs in order to be more competitive, to increase our performance and to better serve our clients.
AOM: How is digital impacting the OOH industry?
Jean-Charles: In recent years, there has been a major shift in the media landscape occasioned by the growing ubiquity of digital platforms and devices. This has led to people using the digital platforms to use media in entirely new ways. This structural change has for most major traditional display media caused a decline or a fragmenting of audiences. For press this has mostly caused a strong readership decline. In the case of television although audiences have not always declined overall as the new digital platforms have increased choice, the balance of audiences for the mass delivery options has swung towards target groups less desirable to advertisers.
Conversely the audiences to out of home are structurally increasing as the world's population becomes increasingly urban in nature and digital technology has contributed to outdoor advertising becoming a more relevant and flexible communications channel than before while retaining its broad reach of the population. The nature of outdoor advertising also means that it fits well into the changing patterns of consumer interaction with advertisers' messages. Unlike most major media, the growing audience means that this relevance and interaction comes at a low cost per contact. The outdoor industry also invested in meaningfultools of accountability with respect to audience and return on investment, and generated the interest in such tools from the advertisers and their advertising agencies allowing them to quantify the contribution of the medium.
AOM: Digital OOH media is growing fast, it currently accounts for about one third of the whole industry, what's the ideal traditional-digital ratio in your opinion? Where should OOH media formats remain traditional?
Jean-Charles: There is no ideal ratio at this point in time. The important thing is that our offering should correspond to the brands' expectations within the framework of a virtuous business model.Closed spaces where people move ? such as stations, airports, shopping malls, etc.? are, by definition, more suitable to the general adoption of digital outdoor advertising. In contrast, however, I think that traditional outdoor advertising remains perfectly relevant in cities owing, in particular, to the way the target publics are reached and the need to develop extremely powerful campaigns.
AOM: What kind of digital OOH media represents the future of the field, or in other words, better meets the personalized and interactive demands from customers? Is"digital OOH media + mobile device + internet"going to be the mainstream communication mode in the future?
Jean-Charles: There is bound to be further development of digital and interactive communications but this will be based on individual initiatives taken by consumers to establish a connection and, consequently, to initiate a commitment. Internet access from mobile devices will also give a considerable boost to enhanced outdoor advertising. A simple interactive system ? such as our image recognition application U Snap, for example ? makes it possible to use the mere photo of a poster to provide access to the brand's chosen digital universe. "From showcasing to engaging the world".
AOM: How has JCDecaux's "street furniture" concept evolved with time?
Jean-Charles: In 1964, Jean-Claude Decaux invented the concept of the Advertising Street Furniture market with a simple but innovative idea: to provide well-maintained and state of the art street Furniture free of charge to citiesand transport companies in exchange for the right to place advertising on these structures.
From the beginning, Street Furniture became a very attractive medium for advertisers, because it gave them access to advertising space in city centres in areas where advertising was generally very restricted.For over 47 years, we have been designing and developing street furniture products that offer cities good design and public service, and advertisers an effective medium for their campaigns.
We design products that are innovative and have high added-value, or offer services that enhance the quality of urban life.
We develop a coordinated range of street furniture by working closely with internationally renowned architects and designers (52),We determine, according to the advertising potential, the amount of advertising space needed to finance a city’s street furniture needs;We select advertising locations and position our products to maximise the impact of advertising.We are recognised by cities, towns and advertisers for the quality of the maintenance service provided under our Street Furniture contracts. We put all of our maintenance staff and bill posters through a rigorous training programme in our in-house facilities to ensure they keep alive the company know-how and preserve our excellent reputation for maintaining our street furniture, a key element in our international renown.
AOM: JCDecaux has been actively involved in many humanitarian and charitable activities. What does CSR mean to JCDecaux?
Jean-Charles: The JCDecaux Group has been committed to a policy of continuous improvement of its business since 1999. Created in 2007 under the authority of the Executive Board, the corporate Sustainable Development and Quality Control Department plays a role at key points in the value chain and is also involved in the company's day-to-day business. Its field of operations embraces all our activities and its task is to: define and implement the Group's strategic objectives in terms of sustainable development; unite the subsidiaries in the implementation of action plans; consolidate the Group's leading role.
The Group's commitments to sustainable development are in line with its continuous improvement strategy. The efforts undertaken are continued and intensified year on year. For example, sustainable development reporting,established in the Group a few years ago, is reviewed annually to confirm its relevance by referring to the best internationally recognised benchmarks (GRI, ISO 26000, etc.).
Let's see 3 significant examples :No.1, our commitment to reduce electricity consumption of street furniture. The JCDecaux Research Department is constantly seeking ways to reduce the power consumed by our street furniture. In recent years a number of improvements have been made, in part developing the use of natural light in public toilets (Jouin model) yielding a 30% reduction in electricity consumption in comparison with the previous model.
No.2, Ecoreflex or how raising environmental awareness and best practices amongst employees. The internal Ecoreflex programme aims at raising awareness amongst employees on best environmental practices. The programme has led to a 20% fall in paper consumption per employee between 2006 and 2008 and to a further 13% fall between 2008 and 2009.Another achievement is a 4% reduction in employee waste production in 2010 compared to 2009.
No.3,Cleaning of street furniture using rainwater. Rainwater recovery systems have been implemented in several countries. The Group has increased its rainwater recovery capacity over the last 2 years, recovering 730 000 litres in 2010. This rainwater, naturally demineralised, is then used to clean street furniture, leading to the reduction of detergent use.
Our commitment and performance are reviewed and recognised by extra-financial rating agencies - the ASPI Eurozoneindex, the FTSE4Good index, the DJSI and the Excellence Investment Register drawn up by Forum Ethibel-as well as by fund managers and analysts specialising in socially responsible investment. This recognition helps show that JCDecaux is a socially-responsible group, careful to develop its business in accordance with ethical, human, social and environmental values.
AOM: What's the biggest challenge when you started JCDecaux's business from scratch in Spain in 1991? Could you please share with us one successful and also one unsuccessful decisions in your career? What did you learn from them?
Jean-Charles: My biggest challenge was to win our first contract…The acquisition of Avenir in 1999 is a very successful decision at the opposite of investing in Latin America in 2000. My conclusion is :"Timing is everything !".
AOM: You and your brother both use the title of Co-Chief Executive Officer of JCDecaux, you take turns in the role of chairman of the management board, how do you complement each other through your character and working responsibilities?
Jean-Charles: First, we share the same values transmitted by our parents. In the day to day business, our collaboration is based on an alined strategic vision, geographical responsabilities, respect, transparency, commitment and performance for the JCdecaux stakeholders.
AOM: As the founder of JCDecaux , your father, Mr. Jean-Claude Decaux, is well known both in and out of the ad industry for his outstanding entrepreneurship, may I ask, how has he influenced you in your life and career?
Jean-Charles: Our father learn us to be entrepreneurs, hard workers, risk takers and first movers.
AOM: Since JCDecaux's become world's leading OOH media company through its dedication, professionalism, and successful strategy, what’s the driving force for JCDecaux's future development?
Jean-Charles: Our driving forces are passion, enthusiasm to develop our business, consistency in our business proposition, rationale, commitment and work as a team.
AOM: Facing such an ever-changing world, which aspects could be carried forward, others be adjusted and changed in terms of JCDecaux's corporate culture?
Jean-Charles: Our long-standing corporate culture has remained constant over the years despite changes in the technology we use. Our culture is characterized by the unceasing pursuit of innovation in phase with its times with a view, firstly, to simplifying the lives of our fellow citizens as they travel from place to place and, secondly, to providing outstanding quality of service and outcomes for each of the principals or advertisers partnering with us.
This strategy ? which is founded on rigorous standards and uncompromising reliability ? has been applied all over the world, and we are convinced that, for us, it represents a long-term, sustainable model.
AOM: Work aside, do you have any interests and hobbies?
Jean-Charles: My family, sailing and arts.