Pretty much everyone who flies has spent time waiting at a baggage carousel at an airport, be it for a few minutes or a half hour or longer.
For the most part, it means staring at the carousel and untold numbers of bags and boxes passing by.
And that's long made the baggage carousel an ideal venue for advertising messages, offering a captive audience of typically affluent consumers, whether business people or vacationers.
While not an entirely new concept, baggage carousel advertising never quite caught on like some other forms of airport advertising, and one problem was that the ads took a terrible beating from the thousands of pieces of luggage that landed on them on any given day.
Then last November Clear Channel began using a new, tougher kind of ad that's able to withstand the wear far better, DoubleTake Marketing’s ADspressive. Clear Channel introduced the product at Kansas City International Airport after testing it at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.
Clear Channel has been adding more airports and just this month began offering the ads in airports in Boston, Seattle and Philadelphia.
To find out how to get your client’s message seen on airport carousels, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Ads on airport baggage carousels.
How it works
Baggage carousel ads are typically sold for a two-month period, which is about the amount of time the ads go without showing much wear and tear. But campaigns can be for a single month or a year or more.
Ads are sold for a flat rate for one of three sizes: a full carousel wrap, two 35-foot ads or four 20-foot ads.
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Some advertisers buy multiple carousels in an airport, with the effect being the advertiser’s message is spinning all around hundreds of people at any given moment. Advertisers and media buyers can make their buys directly through vendors or through agencies that specialize in airport advertising.
Markets
It takes quite a bit of effort for outdoor companies to sell airports on the idea of baggage carousel ads. Many airports are considering it, but so far only a few are offering it, including airports in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and soon Atlanta.
Numbers
Airline passengers will take 195 million air trips this summer, from June through August, according to a forecast from the Air Transport Association. Roughly 80 percent of airline passengers walk through baggage claim areas, estimates Clear Channel Airports.
How it is measured
Most syndicated research outfits, such as Scarborough, conduct surveys on airline passengers in major markets. But airports and outdoor companies also commission research companies to conduct airport-specific studies
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What product categories do well
Top advertisers tend to be those wanting to reach incoming travelers, including restaurants, hotels and rental car agencies. Also frequent advertisers are those targeting business travelers, typically with messages for computer-related products.
Demographics
Airline travelers typically fall into two groups, the business traveler and the tourist, and their demographics vary accordingly.
Business travelers often take two, three or four trips a month, and a study by Arbitron says airline passengers are well-educated professionals who are 80 percent more likely than the average person to have a household income of more than $100,000.
Making the buy
Clear Channel Airports
offers baggage carousel advertising in airports in a handful of metropolitan areas, with more airports expected to begin offering these ads soon. Pricing varies by airport but a 60-day campaign in Dallas would run about $8,000.
DoubleTake Marketing developed the ADspressive adhesive advertising that appears on baggage carousels. Pricing varies by airport but a 60-day campaign in Dallas would run about $8,000.
Who’s already advertising on baggage carousels
Current or recent advertisers include Toyota and Harrah’s casinos.
What they’re saying
"This is a great way to reach the consumer-based traveler because these are usually the people checking luggage. It’s a great time to reach them, when they arrive at their destination, just as they’re going out into the world to buy products."--
Drew Stoddard, CEO of InterAir Media, which specializes in buying airport and in-flight advertising.
Web site info
Clear Channel Airports
www.clearchannelairports.com
DoubleTake Marketing
http://www.doubletakemarketing.com/index.asp
InterAir Media
http://www.interairmedia.com
