Follow us on Twitter @TheNeg
MANAGING STOCK Once the agent’s boards are designed and manufactured, the investment needs to be protected as much as possible, as well as managed to provide optimum use. We have all seen boards by the side of the road, lying in peoples’ gardens when they should have been collected, I have even seen them on the beach in Brighton, after a drunken revellers thought it would be a hoot to throw them off the prom! Many agents use local contractors to
handle their stock, but the process for instruction of changes can be tedious. Steve Watson at Agency Express says that their software, Signmaster3 takes away the fuss, “A major factor that is changing the use of
our clients’ boards is the use of our SignMaster3 board management software. When I set up the company 15 years ago, we were simply board contractors that erected and serviced boards. However, we have evolved into a board management company, looking after the board assets of our agency clients and the benefits our software systems bring are largely responsible for a 28 per cent increase in turnover over the last 12 months (May 2011 to May 2012).” “Boards are one of the most effective
advertising tools available to agents but they must be regarded as an asset. Many agents simply forget about a board, or attempt to leave a board ‘up’ too long and the board is lost. SignMaster3 provides the agent with the management information to reduce board loss. Larger and corporate clients also have ability for differing levels of access, so that area mangers, regional directors etc. can receive management reports of board usage and indeed board loss – something is normally indicative of how well a branch is being run.”
Feature
“The design shouldn’t be cluttered, it should contain ‘For Sale’, or ‘To Let’,
the logo, ’phone and web address.” Andy March Signboards SO WHAT’S NEXT?
Again, a veil of secrecy wafts across the board industry, but with competition fierce among estate agents, they are seeking greater differentiation, with new board designs. The manufacturers, equally competitive, are
keen to keep signboards on the streets and equally keen to produce ‘the next big thing’. “Although a lot more initial contacts for
“New contactless technology boards have a ‘chip’, so you wave a smartphone near it and the property details appear.”Steve Watson Agency Express
CURRENT LEGISLATION
The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 is the principal statutory instrument that controls the display of advertisements in England. The legislation includes certain groups of outdoor advertisements. The second of these groups are those advertisements which benefit from “Deemed Consent”. Such adverts do not require express consent, provided that the advert is displayed in
www.thenegotiator.co.uk
accordance with the criteria set out in the regulations. The majority of outdoor
advertisements undertaken by estate agents and auctioneers benefit from “Deemed Consent” within Class 3. Class 3 gives consent for a wide variety of notices and signs which are usually displayed to publicise a forthcoming event, or to advertise a short-term use of the advertisement site. Class 3(A) permits boards to be displayed by such firms as
estate agents, chartered surveyors, auctioneers and valuers, advertising that land or premises are for sale or to let. The advertisement board for each sale or letting must not exceed, if the sale or letting is for agricultural, industrial or commercial use or development for such use, 2 square metres; but, if two boards are joined together to form a single advertisement, a total surface area of 2.3 square metres is permitted.
If the sale or letting is for residential use or development, the advertisement board must not exceed 0.5 of a square metre, or a total area of 0.6 of a square metre for two joined boards. No advertisement board is
allowed to extend outwards from the wall of a building by more than 1 metre. In each case only one board may be displayed on premises and this must be removed not later than 14 days after completion of the sale or granting of the tenancy.
TheNegotiator l September 2012 l 25
agents are web based than when we first started supplying boards,” says Andy March, “95 per cent of agents still believe that boards are an essential part of their marketing strategy. They are also one of the cheapest sales tools available, they don’t just help sell or let property, they market the agency as well.” The latest design is the American style ‘hangman’ boards, says Gary Gosney at Kremer Signs, “It’s mainly down to the recent rebrand of Haart estate agents, who rebranded over 14,000 boards in January 2012. It brings a more upmarket feel to the boards and we have seen a lot more local independents following suit.” Matthew Lilley is also producing this new style, mainly, he says, “for high end sales, they are the really deluxe version.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53