Advertisers are always looking for ways to reach a captive audience, and they don’t come much more captive than inside elevators, whether at work, the mall, or in an apartment complex.
Like many forms of out-of-home advertising, the most common way to advertise in elevators is by way of traditional static signage, but there are other options. Marketers can wrap an elevator’s outside doors, or even the entire inside of an elevator, or they can deliver their message via video screens.
To find out how to get your client’s message on elevators, 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 and on elevators.
Who
For this article, Media Life looked at Captivate Network in Chelmsford, Mass., Cranky Creative Group in Durham, N.C., and Hi-Rise Communications in Vancouver, Canada, but there are many companies that offer advertising on elevators, and media buyers are encouraged to do a thorough search of the options available in the markets they're looking to reach.
How it works
Two qualities distinguish elevators as advertising venues, and one is the captive audiences they offer, with passengers spending 30 seconds to a minute or longer per trip, and that's typically several times a day for office workers and apartment dwellers.
There's just not all that much to do on an elevator but stare at the walls.
The other key advantage of elevator advertising is the ability to target by the demographic makeup of a building's occupants; advertisers know who they're reaching.
The simplest and least-expensive form of elevator advertising is static ads on the interior walls of the elevator, and they're mostly found in apartment buildings.
Formats vary by vendor but two common poster sizes are 5 inches by 7 inches and 9 inches by 14 inches. There are also ad boards with smaller ads framed around a larger space that can be used by building management for service announcements or for community postings.
Typical advertisers are local businesses like shoe repair shops and restaurants and health clubs.
In office buildings, the big push is in digital screens that feature licensed content, such as news and stock prices, as well as weather and sports, along with ads. The ads may be static ads that appear next to the content as it cycles through or they can be TV-style spots of 15 seconds interspersed within the content. But unlike TV spots, there is no sound, so the creative has to get the import of the message across visually.
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Advertisers can buy an entire network, target regionally, cherry-pick locations within a market, or advertise in one specific building.
But elevators also lend themselves to colorful, truly alternative campaigns, and they can be and done anywhere, from apartment buildings to office towers to resort hotels--essential anywhere an advertiser wants to make a splash.
Exterior doors can be wrapped with eye-catching creative, and entire interiors can be taken for campaigns.
Some campaigns are highly imaginative. A recent alternative campaign for Volkswagen in Milan, Italy, incorporated the movement of the opening and closing of the elevators' doors. On the left exterior door was an image of car and on the right another car, so when the doors closed it appeared the car on the right door was about to rear-end the back of a car on the left one. A message on the doors read, "Keep a close distance. Volkswagen for safety."
Marketers can also wrap the entire inside of an elevator to put riders in a specific scene, for example a zoo ad that turns the elevator into an African safari scene.
In Los Angeles last year, an upscale women’s boutique, Kira Plastinina, wrapped the interiors of elevators in the Beverly Center shopping mall to resemble the interiors of its stores.
Markets
Elevator advertising is available in pretty much all markets, but digital networks in office building are most common in larger markets.
Numbers
The recall rate of elevator advertising is 96 percent, according to a study by Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto and Capilano College in Vancouver.
How it is measured
Impressions for elevator ads in apartment complexes are based on the number of tenants in a particular building and how often they use the elevator on average. Foot-traffic data is used in other locations such as malls and office buildings.
What product categories do well
Frequent elevator advertisers include cell phones, auto, retail, restaurants, financial, travel, technology, hotels and airlines.
Demographics
Elevator advertisers can target a wide range of demographics based on the profiles of the individual buildings in the campaign.
Making the buy
Captivate Network manages a network of digital screens in office buildings in 24 markets, including the top 20 DMAs. Rates vary but CPMs for a national buy run just over $9, while CPMs for specific market run about $12.
Cranky Creative Group wraps elevators, both inside and the outer doors. Pricing varies on volume, but the production cost is between $500 and $1,000 per door for one to 10 elevators. Interior wraps are more, and that also doesn’t include leasing the elevator space.
Hi-Rise Communications provides static advertising in 382 buildings in Vancouver, as well as a number of other Canadian markets. Pricing starts at $1 per day per building.
Who’s already using elevators
Recent or current elevator advertisers include Volkswagen, BlackBerry, Visa, Ford, USA Today, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Sony, FedEx, VH1, Best Western and Hyatt.
What they’re saying
"As long as the ad is relevant and kept tight, I think it can work very well. It’s a quick in and out -- you have maybe 30 seconds. But if it’s at work, you’re up and down half a dozen times a day, so there are opportunities there. Provided the advertisers render it in a classy way, it’s very effective. --
Diane Cimine, president of Cimine Enterprises, a marketing and strategy consultancy.
Web site info
Captivate Network
http://www.captivate.com
Cranky Creative Group
http://www.crankycreative.com
Hi-Rise Communications
http://www.elevatorads.com
Office Media Network
http://www.officemedia.com
Mehrban Group
http://www.mehrban.com/advertising.html
