Looking beyond the ice and snow that revisited the Eastern seaboard over recent days, we'll soon see sun and warmer days. We'll also see branding campaigns at bathing beaches. 

Advertisers will be able to sponsor a number of programs at various beaches this summer, including free evening concerts at Jones Beach State Park on New York's Long Island.

To find out how to get your client’s message in front of folks soaking up the summer sun and hearing the music, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Branding public beaches by combining traditional beach media with sponsorship of summer concerts that are free to the public.

Who
Encompass Media Group, headquartered in New York.

How it works
Public beaches are branded through a combination of programs, and at Jones Beach they can be anchored by the sponsorship of summer concerts. There is one major sponsor for the 10-week summer program at Jones Beach.

In addition to branding the concert series, elements of lead sponsorship include:

-Branded umbrellas placed on food carts and in concession areas
-Branded cups and napkins distributed at concessions

This summer's Jones Beach concerts will take place several nights a week at the band shell at the central mall from mid-June through August.

The lead sponsor gets a banner above the concert venue, additional signage in the park advertising the concerts, and its corporate name on printed schedules that are distributed to all cars driving into the park.

There is also additional TV exposure. “The concerts are taped and then replayed on television with 70 million viewers seeing the sponsor’s banner,” says president Adam Pierce. There are radio promotions of the concerts as well.

Other advertisers can buy sampling and beach umbrellas for four-week flights. Sampling can take place during the day and target beach-goers or during the evening to target concert-goers. Creative can tie into the beach theme.

Markets
The lead sponsorship is available for Jones Beach State Park.

Other elements, including umbrellas and sampling, are available at a variety of beaches across the country. Past programs have included Manhattan Beach in California, the Hamptons on Long Island and Miami Beach, Fla.

Numbers
Each month of the summer, 400,000 cars enter Jones Beach, where they receive a printed schedule of events, including the sponsored concerts. An average of three people arrives in each car for a total of 1.2 million visitors each month, Pierce says.

How it is measured
Measurement is based on the number of vehicle parking passes purchased.

What product categories do well
Airlines, financial institutions, electronics, entertainment and consumer goods are top categories.

“You would normally think of suntan lotions or sunglasses, but that’s not the case,” Pierce says. “It’s more about reaching people, hundreds of thousands of people, within this area as a captive audience for long periods of time.”

Demographics
Jones Beach draws from a broad demographic, and specific groups tend to cluster at areas along the 6.5-mile beachfront, depending or their interests, whether families, kite flyers, surfers, gay men and even bird watchers.

Visitors are of all ages, as one would expect. "It runs the gamut, but it runs younger during the week. A lot of kids go to the beach during the day and work at night.”

Making the buy
Lead time is six weeks for the lead sponsorship but could run longer depending on elements of the program and creative.

Cost ranges from $150,000 to $250,000, depending on the elements of the program. Branded umbrellas and sampling can be bought in four-week flights.

Who’s already branding beaches
Last year’s lead Jones Beach sponsor was Verizon FiOS.

Web site info
Encompass Media Group at www.encompassmediagroup.com