A tram crossing the city dressed in unusual colors and slogans promoting a Swedish department store, a telephone manufacturer or an animal park. The people of Nantes had ended up getting used to this occasional practice, launched more than ten years ago. But the advertising displayed on the tram trains is currently living its last days. On January 5, the last display contract on this medium will have ended. Semitan, which operates the public transport network on behalf of Nantes Métropole, has indeed decided to say stop after thehas sparked controversy by the circulation in September of a tram revamped with color from the delivery company Flink.
The latter has a warehouse of the “dark store” type on rue des Olivettes, which is pointed out by local residents and elected for the nuisance it generates on public space. In the past, advertising campaigns in favor of low-cost airlines had also come under criticism.
“The simplest thing is still to say that there will be no more advertising on the trams”, reacts Pascal Bolo, president of Semitan, aware of the “risk of contradiction with the orientations of our public policies. This decision comes, moreover, in perfect coherence with the reduction of the advertising surfaces in the whole of the city center. »
“We must be able to deprive ourselves of 400,000 euros”
According to Semitan, the adhesive campaigns on the tram brought in around 400,000 euros per year. On the Nantes Métropole side, an amount close to 700,000 euros is mentioned. In both cases, a significant shortfall in the delicate financial context experienced by all urban transport networks since the health crisis, in particular in Nantes where free weekends have been in effect since spring 2021. to these advertising revenues is also not unanimous within the political class, including within the majority of Nantes metropolis.
“From a financial point of view, it is obviously not completely neutral, but it is not decisive in the balance of our public transport, argues Pascal Bolo. When we have to spend 20 million euros more in energy costs as will be the case, we must be able to deprive ourselves of 400,000 euros in advertising revenue. » « Every euro earned is welcome to finance public transport. We will have to find this money elsewhere, or save it. We hope that it will not be at the expense of the company’s operating grant”, nuance Guillaume Sauvetre, CFDT delegate, on majority union at Semitan.
Note that campaigns on the bodywork of trams will remain authorized when it comes to communication in favor of the State, Nantes Métropole or TAN, specifies Semitan.