Your client in
parking lots of stores

In retail advertising the old rule still holds: Get your ad as close as you can to the point of purchase. The great appeal of ads in retail parking lots is that they put the message in front of the consumer as he or she is about to enter the store, money in hand and of a mind to spend it.

Glamorous they're not, but they are effective.

Ads can be placed just about anywhere outside the store where a patron is likely to see them, including on light poles, wheel stops in parking spaces, and the lines that mark out the parking space.

To find out how to get your client’s message in retail parking lots, read on.

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

Fast Facts

What
Advertising in parking lots to catch the attention of shoppers as they enter a store or mall.

Who
Multiple companies offer advertising in parking lots. For this article Media Life spoke with Parking Stripe Advertising in Golden, Colo., BumpAds in St. Petersburg, Fla., and AdverTickets in Dallas.

How it works
One of the most common forms of parking lot advertising is messages right on the stripes that make up parking spaces, which are typically yellow and painted on the asphalt.

In addition to the stripe ads, larger ads using the same material can be placed around a parking lot, visible to patrons as they enter the store. Parking Stripe Advertising in Golden, Colo., and Aap! Global in San Francisco are among the companies that offer parking stripe ads.

Ads can also be placed on the shopping cart corrals where patrons leave their carts after loading their purchases in their cars. Brite Media in Minneapolis operates an ad network serving Kmart stores that offers cart corral advertising. Other vendors include Avaira Signs in Hadley, Pa.

Further, some high-end shopping malls offer valet parking, and there advertisers can put messages on valet tickets. Two vendors that offer that service are AdverTickets in Dallas and ValetAds in Denver.

Markets
Ads on parking stripes are available in virtually every market, as are those in cart corrals. The wheel stop ads from BumpAds are available in a number of major markets.

Numbers
On average, a grocery store open from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. will see 46 cars per day per parking space, for a total of 1,380 impressions per day, according to the industry trade magazine Parking Today. A mall open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. sees seven cars per day per space, for a total of 6,300 impressions.

How it is measured
Store and mall traffic figures are used to gauge impressions for most parking lot ads. In the case of valet ads, advertisers can use the number of tickets handed out and coupon redemption tallies.

What product categories do well
Packaged goods, beverages, automotive, lottery, entertainment and insurance.

Demographics
Demographics vary by location and type of store. Kmart shoppers, for example, are 58 percent female with a mean household size of 2.9. Households with children under 18 make up 66 percent of the chain’s shoppers.

Making the buy
Parking Stripe Advertising: Lead time is 30 days, and campaigns run for 30 days. For campaigns running longer, the initial creative is replaced after the first 30 with fresh creative. A minimum buy is typically 100 parking spaces for between $3,100 and $3,500 per month.

BumpAds: Pricing varies, but a 60-day shopping center campaign for 1,500 parking spaces runs about $60 per month per space.

Brite Media: Lead time is 30 days and signage is sold in four-week flights. Pricing varies depending on the number of stores, number of cart corrals per lot and length of campaign.

Who’s already in parking lots
ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” Allstate, Cadillac, BBC America, DirecTV, GMC, Blue Cross, Verizon, Coke Zero, Ford, Dell, Home Depot and United Airlines.

What they’re saying
“Our customers comment on [the BumpAds], and they think they look nice and clean, and it’s something different. We have a specialized product we keep on the BumpAds, and we always get asked about that product.” – Carol Reid, senior vice president of 1st Community Bank of America in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Web site info

Parking Stripe Advertising
http://www.parkingstripe.com

Aap Global
http://www.aapglobal.com

BumperAds
http://www.bumpads.com

Brite Media
http://www.britemedia.com

AdverTickets
http://www.advertickets.com

ValetAds
http://www.valetads.com


Starlite Media
http://www.starlitemedia.com