Bulletins
Sports Take On Out-of-Home Advertising
Sports teams, players, fans, and communities are stepping outside of the arena, stadium, field, and court into out-of-home advertising. Using outdoor ads, teams and fans are recruiting, persuading and attempting to maintain players and home-town teams.
Out-of-Home Advertising Goes Out of the Box
To get the most out of any advertising campaign, there has to be a high level of originality and creativity. This is especially true when utilizing Out-of-Home media. At first sight, Out-of-Home ads can appear to be safe, and even bland. However, the brands below demonstrate that when coupled with creativity and originality, OOH media can be a highly effective aspect of any advertising campaign.
Posters & Bulletins & Digitals, Oh My!
There’s no place like…out-of-home to advertise a brand or convey a message to the masses. Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is the oldest form of mass marketing. Of the many types of outdoor advertising, billboards are one of the most effective ways for companies to get their message to consumers. The term billboard itself, describes an array of outdoor advertising outlets including posters, bulletins and digitals.
Out-of-Home Billboards, Wallscapes and Murals Beckon LeBron, D. Wade, As NBA Free Agency Begins
The NBA free agency period began at 12:01 am today, but billboards in major markets like Chicago, Miami and New York City have been pleading for superstars Lebron James and Dwyane Wade to land on their respective home teams for several weeks. Taking a cue from the recent trend of billboards criticizing NFL coaches and management, and perhaps at the urging of local radio sports personalities, fans have been buying up expensive space to make their case. Back in early June, a billboard sponsored by the fan website www.sendlebrontochicago.com went up in downtown Chicago. Showcasing the six championships won during the Michael Jordan era certainly holds proof of the Bulls’ storied history, but the hardware might be a little intimidating. Does Lebron really want to play in the shadow of MJ for the next few years? What if he doesn’t win a ring in Chi-town? It would be considered a colossal disappointment and the only thing we would witness would be a tarnished LBJ legacy. I’m also not sure that young hometown phenom Derek Rose is willing to be Scottie Pippen next to Lebron’s version of number 23. Ok, maybe I’m being a little bit of a homer because everyone here in Columbus, Ohio and throughout the state want King James to stay put in Cleveland. Meanwhile down in Miami, the Heat bought themselves a billboard as part of its www.wewantwade.com PR effort to keep Dwyane Wade in Dade…err, Wade County.
IF DWade does re-sign with the Heat, the team plans on having him sign this billboard made out to look like a check. Wade is looking at his options though. He is a Chicago native and rumors have swirled that both James and Wade could end up as Bulls. If that happens, the aforementioned Chicago billboard can definitely add a few more trophies to the creative copy. Just recently, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov appeared on a mega-billboard a few steps away from Madison Square Garden in New York, home of the New York Knicks who have been aggressively pursuing James. Prokhorov is the main owner of the New Jersey Nets and Jay-Z is a minority owner. The Nets (who play in Newark, New Jersey) are also after Lebron and the NYC-based billboard was a stinging salvo served to Knicks owner James Dolan, who is reportedly not too pleased with the advertisement. Turf wars, creative public relations and sentiments from fans…..all unleashed through outdoor advertising.
Out-of-Home Advertising: Perceptions Versus Reality
Out of Home Media is divided into two segments, traditional and non-traditional media. Traditional OOH media includes the more standard advertising you see from day-to-day like billboard advertising, transit advertising, cinema advertising and mall advertising. Non-traditional outdoor advertising is the out-of-the-box advertising that is often tailored to reach each company’s target market in a unique way. These innovative OOH media techniques can include the use of segway ads, street teams, projection ads, mobile billboard ads, sidewalk decals, sidewalk chalking and yes even restroom stall advertisements. However, like every other industry, out-of-home advertising is subject to regulation. For example, in the United States- Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have banned the use of outdoor billboards statewide. Bulletins and posters are zoned out in select cities across the US as well. (Don’t worry, the media department staff here at Matrix Media Services are experts on zoning issues.)
Traditional Outdoor Advertising: The Basics
Here at Matrix Media Services, we specialize in the oldest media on earth, out-of-home advertising. There is a variety of outdoor media that make up the OOH industry. Traditionally, outdoor advertising encompassed anything outdoors. For the most part, this generalization remains true. The only real difference between today’s out-of-home market and the outdoor market that existed ten years ago is the addition of OOH guerrilla advertising (Chalk Art, Wild Postings, Street Decals, etc.). Traditional outdoor includes a variety of billboards; bulletins, 30-sheet posters/ eco posters, 8-sheet posters, wallscapes and spectaculars.
Eco Friendly Posters Clean Up Out-Of-Home Advertising
Reducing our collective carbon footprint is currently a top concern. Individual efficiency has now leaked into the work place and many companies are attempting to do their part to rid of excess waste. One place where this is clearly evident is in the out-of-home advertising industry. Traditionally billboards include bulletins and 30-sheet posters. Bulletins, affixed with vinyl in order to brave the elements during inclement weather and normal wear and tear during long-term contracts, are wrapped around the structure itself. The 30-sheet posters were literally paneled with multiple sheets of paper inside an existing frame. The paper used for posters was not intended to last for extended periods of time and involved time-consuming labor to post each sheet. In an effort to reduce this posting time as well as lessen the wastefulness of the paper poster, the out-of-home industry came up with a recyclable material for poster units.
