According to the report of the All-Ukrainian Advertising Council, in 2022 the advertising market decreased by 63%, from 33 to 12.2 billion hryvnia.
The advertising business turned out to be one of the most affected by the full-scale war, because now advertising costs for many companies have become a luxury. No wonder? that according to the All-Ukrainian Advertising Council, in 2022 the advertising market fell by 63% from 33 to 12.2 billion UAH.
Outdoor advertising – 11% of the advertising market volume
At the same time, surprisingly, one of the least affected (only minus 56%) segments of the advertising market was external advertising, whose volume fell from UAH 3.1 billion. up to UAH 1.36 billion or approximately 11% of the total market volume. That is, all the familiar city lights and billboards on city streets turned out to be quite resistant to wartime. For example, advertising volumes on television and in the press fell by about 80%.
Nevertheless, outdoor advertising services are in demand and will not cost customers a penny. So, in the capital, for renting a standard 3 by 6 meter billboard for 1 month, you need to pay from 4-6 thousand hryvnia on the outskirts of the city and up to 30 thousand in the central regions. In the regions, of course, the amounts are smaller - 3-4 thousand in the Zhitomir or Poltava regions and about 6 thousand in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
You can simply buy used billboards and make money by renting them, fortunately there are enough advertisements for their sale at a price of about 50-60 thousand hryvnia in Kyiv, and in the regions on average 2 or even 3 times cheaper.
“Comments” decided to figure out who can be called the “kings” of Ukrainian billboards.
Bigboard Ukraine – French concern JCDecaux or Askold Shestunov
The advertising group “Bigboard Ukraine” is undoubtedly the largest and one of the oldest players in the outdoor (and not only) advertising market - founded in 1993, before the war, the company owned approximately 9,000 advertising boards in Ukraine. At the same time, in addition to outdoor advertising, the group is engaged in advertising, mediation in its placement in the media, manufacturing of metal structures, etc.
Back in 2006, Bigboard Ukraine joined the French advertising concern JCDecaux, the world leader in outdoor advertising. At the same time, according to the analytical service YouControl, the owner of the group is Ukrainian businessman Askold Shestunov. Although sometimes blogs or interviews with the entrepreneur appear in the Ukrainian media, little is known about him, and he prefers to talk about professional topics.
In the Bigboard Ukraine group, it is Bigboard LLC that is responsible for placing outdoor advertising on metal structures, and 2022 was not the best year for it - the company earned UAH 41.3 million with an income of UAH 87.7 million. a year earlier.
Prime Group – Sergey Berezenko
At one time, the owner of the Prime Group company was one of the most famous representatives of the advertising business in Ukraine, who was at the origins of a number of companies in the market, Vadim Frunze.
Having created Prime Group in 2009, Vadim Frunze quickly brought it into the top five, but it was subsequently sold, first to Tomas Fiala’s Dragon Capital investment group, and then to the Cyprus offshore company Tetaxe Limited.
The YouControl service currently classifies the company as a member of the financial group of the families of Sergei Berezenko and his now deceased uncle Anatoly Matvienko, founder of Prominvestbank.
Sergei Berezenko, ex-people's deputy from Eurosolidarity, and before that the head of the State Administration of Affairs, is a very influential person in Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party and is close to the ex-president. During the 2019 elections, he was deputy head of Petro Poroshenko’s election headquarters, and at the 2020 local elections he oversaw the party’s field work.
"Octagon-outdoor" - citizen of the Czech Republic or Russian Gallery
Another company, created by Vadim Frunze in 2006, was later sold to the Russian outdoor advertising operator Gallery. Legally, Octagon-Outdoor LLC belongs to the Cypriot company Meinod Trading Limited, whose owner is Czech citizen Josef Onderka. However, it is not known for sure whether he is the final beneficiary or represents the interests of the Russian Gallery.
In any case, law enforcement officers investigated criminal proceedings No. 22021000000000200 in which Octagon-Outdoor appears as the property of a Russian company that placed billboards in the territory of occupied Donbass in 2016-2021.
According to Octagon-Outdoor itself, the company has 4,600 advertising spaces in 37 cities, and income in 2022 amounted to UAH 40.7 million, which is 4 times less than in 2021 (UAH 163.4 million).
RTM-Ukraine - four times people's deputy Nikolay Bagraev
RTM-Ukraine LLC is another large company engaged in outdoor advertising. The owner is 59-year-old Nikolai Bagraev, a former Komsomol figure who was at the origins of the Tavria Games festival and has extensive experience in the media, show business and advertising.
Bagraev became interested in politics back in 1998, when he tried to become a people’s deputy of Ukraine in a majoritarian constituency, although unsuccessfully. Since then, his political career has been much more successful: he became a people's deputy four times in the 4th-7th convocations as a self-nominated candidate, twice as a member of the BYuT and the last time from the Party of Regions.
After 2014, Nikolai Bagraev moved away from politics and focused on business and social activities. His business community includes 54 companies, including about 10 radio stations, advertising agencies, media and a share in the M1 music channel.
Like other outdoor operators, 2022 for RTM-Ukraine marked a 4-fold drop in income – from UAH 190 to 41 million.
“Dovira Outdorf” - Privat group of Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov
Dovira Outdorf LLC is a representative of the Privat group of Dnieper businessmen Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, the former of whom has been in jail since September 2023. The company itself can hardly be called a market leader, although according to its representatives it operates 2,000 advertising spaces, mostly billboards.
However, at the end of 2021, the company’s income was UAH 27.8 million, and in 2022 it fell to 4.3 million.
"Megapolis" - Olga Vasilyeva
A group of advertising agencies working under the same Megapolis brand belongs to Olga Vasilyeva, who started her business in 2015 and managed to get into a scandal related to advertising on Intercity trains. The director of the branch of Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian Railway High-Speed Company, Sergey Leybuk, without a competition, entered into an agreement on the transfer of rights to place advertising on trains with one of Olga Vasilyeva’s companies, Media Direct.
Megapolis itself today is RA Megapolis LLC and Megapolis Plus Invest LLC, which between them earned about 8.5 million UAH in 2022, while a year earlier it was 26.6 million UAH.
"Perechid Outdoor" - Atlantic Group David Stewart and Andrew Bain
The subsidiary, Transition Outdoor, was established in 1996 and is part of the Atlantic Group communications holding, which invests in media and advertising agencies located in the CIS.
The formal owner of the company is the Cyprus offshore company UMEDIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, in which David Stewart and Andrew Bain own 84.92%. The third co-owner of the company, as Tsezor.Net once claimed, is Sergei Staritsky, as the former head of the Tonis and Inter TV channels.
The company's income in 2022 amounted to almost 22 million hryvnia, which is 3 times less than in 2021 - 60.7 million hryvnia.
Ours on the right are Viktor Veremchuk and Bogdan Smal
A large, more than 1000 advertising sites, but regional (mainly in Western Ukraine) player in the outdoor advertising market was created in 1996, and belongs to two Lviv businessmen Viktor Veremchuk (65%) and Bogdan Smal (35%), non-public people.
Businessmen separately and jointly with each other own about two dozen companies, mainly specializing in the advertising business. For two, Nasha Prava LLC brought them UAH 9.4 million in 2022. after UAH 24.1 million in 2021.
News Outdoor Ukraine - the son of the ex-mayor of Kiev Alexander Omelchenko State registries at the moment the company is part of the family business of Alexander Omelchenko, the son of the former mayor of Kiev also Alexander, who died in 2021. The company belongs to him through the Cyprus offshore company Toplikon Enterprises Limited.
The income of SV Outdoor LLC in 2022 amounted to 8.2 million, which is more than four times lower than pre-war indicators - 34.3 million UAH.
As is easy to see, all players in the outdoor advertising market have suffered significant losses in income, but they have a chance to compensate for these losses due to market growth in 2023. Thus, the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition predicts that this year the market will grow by almost 50% to UAH 1.9 billion.
