6 Steps to generating revenue

6 steps to generating revenue from your assets

A simple step-by-step guide

1. Agree the purpose of the scheme

Whilst revenue generation is often the primary purpose of a scheme, there can be other objectives, such as covering the costs of the upkeep of sites, enhancing a particular area and creating sites to use for council messages.

2. Engage with relevant stakeholders

This might mean creating a committee of senior management to agree on the way forward, with representatives from Highways, Planning, Parks & Gardens, Street Scene, Marketing & Communications and Procurement as appropriate.

3. Decide on the procurement route

A tender process might be the traditional route but note that in outdoor media there are relatively few suppliers so a formal tender process may not be cost-effective. Alternatively, a framework could be used such as ESPO which allows organisations to directly award to a supplier, with all procurement processes already carried out and a template contract provided. There is no cost to use this service and a contract can be agreed in a matter of weeks.

4. Initiate preparatory work

Once a supplier is appointed, the preparatory work can be started in order to get the scheme ready to sell - this can include sourcing or creating the inventory of sites on maps and in documents, deciding on the sign sizes and layouts, establishing the internal process for artwork approvals and gathering any useful information on the local business community, as well as traffic flow figures. Some of this work can be undertaken by suppliers to speed up the process.

5. Agree the process for sign installation

As some assets will be located on or near highways, it is important to confirm the process that the supplier should use to install signs. Our installation teams are Chapter 8 trained and certified to work on highways and will liaise with Highways Departments to agree the communication protocol prior to attending a particular site. We also provide full risk assessments and method statements for each site so that you can be sure that we are working safely when installing signs.

6. Scheme launch

We will create a PR strategy for each scheme launch and then roll out the scheme to the local and regional business community using traditional networks and social media. Ensuring there is a comprehensive communication strategy is key to creating interest and demand in any new or re-launched asset sponsorship scheme.