Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

Outdoor Advertising Expected To Explode Due To Technology

Outdoor advertising includes roadside billboards, posters on buses, and signs on subways. What will drive growth in this once-prosaic ad medium? It will be a high tech makeover—namely, digital billboards which offer advertisers much greater opportunities.

Digital technology lets companies display different ads at different times of the day. So companies that frequently change their product offerings—such as television stations and food sellers—will benefit from such flexibility.

Paul Meyer, the president and chief executive of billboard powerhouse Clear Channel Communications, says outdoor advertising will grow at a rate higher than advertising in general because of the high-tech turn.

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Consumer Barter Network Launched

A new company out of Salt Lake City is excited about the possibility of providing consumers with barter opportunities via the Internet. The Barterfarm concept is looking to private-label its proprietary trading platform technology, which can create a locally focused site with a national and international capability.

The technology will match "haves" and "wants" on a direct basis. A small fee will be charged for a listing. No trade dollars are used, and no transaction fees will be charged (nor sign-up fees, or monthly fees of any kind).

The company recently announced the appointment of Wayne Stewart and Karen Varnado to its board of directors. Stewart is currently CEO of Promontory Management Group. Varnado most recently served as senior vice president of sales and business development for Zelerate Inc.

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

A Look Back...From BarterNews Archives...Issue #8

Famous Eiffel Tower Restaurant Traded

The mammoth task of putting its more than 11,000 pieces back together is enough to keep its owner awake nights. Disassembled and tucked away in a warehouse in New York City is the restaurant that once perched 562 feet above the streets of Paris on the first level of the Eiffel Tower.

"It's got to be the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle in the world's biggest box," says Moreton Binn, the restaurant's new owner. "If anybody wants to do puzzles, its' an 11,000-piece puzzle of steel and glass and chrome. I get up in the middle of the night with the shakes when I think it has to be put together again."

Binn's corporate barter company, Atwood Richards, moved the Eiffel Tower Restaurant across the Atlantic by ship under a cloak of secrecy rivaling some operations of the French underground during World War II. It hopes to reassemble the landmark somewhere in the United States and turn it into a prime tourist attraction.

The restaurant—whose patrons ranged from King Farouk of Egypt to actress Brigitte Bardot, and included hundreds of thousands of American tourists as well—was ordered taken down by the French officials after they found that the Eiffel Tower was sagging from too much weight. The tower was closed and renovations to strengthen it are under way.

How do you remove a restaurant from one of France's most famous landmarks? Gingerly. Each piece was numbered, photographed, even authenticated by a notary public. Sections were videotaped to ensure that they would be reassembled correctly.

"It was a very difficult job. You are not just backing a truck up to something. Every time you took a beam down, it had to be takendown 600 feet. You had to use the existing lift facilities and shafts, which made it more difficult."

The restaurant arrived in the United States as part of a two-step arrangement. In the first deal, Georges Lancelin, a Paris businessman, acquired the restaurant and had it disassembled over 3-1/2 weeks. Lancelin wanted to reopen the restaurant in Paris, but municipal officials ruled that it would compete with three new restaurants planned for the tower.

Lancelin then traded the restaurant's parts to Binn. In exchange, the Paris businessman received steel, construction equipment, material for nets to catch falling debris at building sites, and marketing expertise for his business, Lacapose France.

Binn planned to barter the restaurant to a hotel chain, perhaps for rooms, food and beverages for the next five years...or to a themepark.

The new home of the famous Le Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel is Louisiana, located across from the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans

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Advertising Survey Reveals Surprising Attitudes And Future Trends

The American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, DC, is the trade association that represents 50,000 professionals in the advertising industry. A new survey conducted by AAF reveals that a majority of top advertising leaders say the industry is in recovery mode, but most doubt the immediate prospect of strong growth.

The survey reveals surprising attitudes about the status of the advertising economy and future trends. Major concerns are the increasing audience fragmentation, media proliferation, increased importance of multi-culturalism and diversity, and demonstrating return on investment.

The study also revealed disparate views among clients and agencies, spotlighting a possible disconnect between these two groups. A copy of the AAF Survey of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends is available at: www.aaf.org.

IMF Sees Global Economy Growing

Worldwide, the economy will grow 4.1% in 2004 according to the International Monetary Fund. The overall picture is the best since 2001.

A faster pace of growth is expected for the developing countries, growing at 5.6% next year. The United States will likely play less of a role in the global economy than it has traditionally.

Asian economies will lead the way with 6.5% in 2004, with China galloping forward at 7.5%.

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Here And There. . .

• Real estate appraisers are routinely pressured to raise their value estimates on properties, in order to "hit the number" needed for the sale or refinance transaction to go through. Nearly three out of four randomly selected licensed appraisers interviewed as part of the ongoing National Appraisal Survey said they have been pressured.

  Forty-eight percent of the appraisers said the overvaluations demanded were 1% to 10% above the true market value, and forty-three percent said the overvaluation demands were 11% to 30% above market value.

  The pressure typically involved a direct or veiled threat to withhold future business from an uncooperative appraiser. "The reality is that pressure on appraisers is a serious problem," reported October Research founder Joe Casa.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

• A Stanford University researcher said the illegal "late trading" of mutual—fund shares-in which investors are allowed to buy and sell funds after their 4 p.m. closing price at preclosing values—could be far more prevalent than previously believed. (Through that practice, investors are able to profit by making trades based on after-market news when other shareholders aren't allowed to trade.)

  Eric Zitzewitz, assistant professor of economics at Stanford's business school, said he found statistically significant evidence of late trading in 30% of the funds he sampled. He called the prevalence of late trading "astonishing."

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