The folks who create the spectaculars

By Kathy Prentice

     Out-of-home advertising, from billboards to bus shelters, is growing by 10 percent a year, thanks to commuters and cost. We’re spending more time than ever in our cars, and billboards reach car-bound audiences for less than half the price of radio.
     Outdoor sales accelerated a decade ago when printed vinyl replaced painted billboards, and computer technology has since transformed both the design and manufacture of outdoor ads. It has brought us to the age of‘spectaculars, displays that rock and roll, smoke, flash and glow, in the words of the folks at Atomic Props & Effects of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul.
     It’s not hard to figure out why: If advertisers can’t put up more billboards because of tougher local ordinances, they want to maximize the impact of the ones they have.
      ‘‘Buyers want a unique trademark,’‘ says Atomic vice-president and co-founder Pat Punch. ‘‘As a society we’re bombarded with messages, so any way your advertisement can stand out gives people reason to pause, to think, to smile.’‘
     The Atomic folks should know. They are the people marketers turn to when they need the truly unique display. When Jello wanted a 52-foot, three-dimensional spoon for a billboard in Times Square, they called Atomic. When American Express needed giant Mickey Mouse ears to advertise their link to Disney World, they too called Atomic. And when Busch Beer wanted an ad that would tickle the senses, Atomic designed and built a 3-D beer can that says ‘‘Busch’‘ as it pops its lid and sprays foam. Says Punch: ‘‘If you can dream it, we can build it.’‘
     How cost effective are spectaculars? ‘‘Studies show that special effects are more noticed by the average person and that they are remembered,’‘ says John Hunt, Director of Research for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America ‘‘They stick in people’s minds.’‘
     Punch’s proof is anecdotal. ‘‘In some cities our billboards are actually a destination for families. In downtown Minneapolis, Dayton’s changes their boards every 30 days, and people have come to anticipate it.’‘
      One of Atomic’s boards for Dayton’s was a giant plastic watercooler filled with moving bubbles and Styrofoam goldfish. When one of the fish fell to the bottom of the cooler a stream of alarmed onlookers called the store until the display was repaired.
     Punch and co-founder and spouse Mike Pearson began their 3-D career fashioning props for television. When computers took over special effects they started looking into other markets and soon took a job building a 20-foot baseball glove that opened and closed around a ball.
     They learned some lessons. ‘‘It was trial by fire,’‘ recalls Punch. Punch, Pearson and a freelancer completed the project on time and budget. ‘‘But when the outdoor company arrived with a flatbed truck to pick up their board we couldn’t get it out the door. We ended up cutting a hole in the wall.’‘
     Today Atomic’s team of sculptors, painters, welders and mechanical wizards build each job in sections. ‘‘We’ve moved from our 900-square-foot workshop to 25,000,’‘ says Punch. ‘‘We’re no longer spilling out onto the sidewalk.’‘ Punch has hung up her paintbrush and works full-time with clients.
     Atomic’s growth curve parallels the outdoor industry’s. ‘‘We had a quick growth once we started marketing,’’ she says. ‘’Now we’ve leveled off and are digging our heels down in the marketplace. Each job is a prototype, so we don’t have the luxury of knowing how it will come out. The excitement keeps us all young.’‘
      And like much of the rest of the industry, Atomic is moving beyond billboards to other out-of-home ventures.
       ‘‘We’ve done bus shelters that emit bakery aromas-- chocolate chip and cinnamon--And 3-D lips for Trident gum. People don’t expect that when they’re waiting for a bus.’‘
      They’ve moved beyond U.S. markets for new customers. ‘‘I think the global market is where we’ve going to experience our next growth spurt. We’re putting up two billboards in Santiago, Chile. They have 25-foot cell phones with moving antennas.’’
      ‘‘South America is where the U.S. was 20 years ago. They’re not as restrictive about outdoor, and money from the liquor and cigarette industries is funneling down there.’‘
       But the bulk of their moving, talking, 3-D business is with product reps, ad agencies and outdoor companies in U.S. metropolitan markets.
      ‘‘We haven’t maxed out,’‘ says Punch. ‘‘We haven’t explored everything. We can’t defy the laws of gravity or physics, but when it comes to exploring creative we come darn close.’‘

- Kathy Prentice, a writer in Traverse City, MI, covers outdoor advertising for Media Life.