The newest, up-to-date, hottest digital billboards for targeting business and vacation travelers passing through airports and hotel lobbies are, oddly, devices that were around before airports existed: telephones.
    On these updated phones, screens are built to display video ads the user simply can't miss.
    Over just the past few weeks the venue is moving out of the testing phase and into the media mix.
    To check out the upshot of the trial runs and find out how to make the buy, read on.
    This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts:

What: 
    Digital on-screen and direct-dial advertising on public telephones.

Who:
    Baltimore-based ATM Advertising is working with AT&T to place ads on their public phones. They’re calling it their Traveling Consumer Advertising Solutions Program.
    BrandATM out of Calabasas, Calif., is placing ads on public phones through a variety of telecommunications companies.

How it works:
    Screens are built into individual pay phones. In some instances they can be installed as toppers or over a bank of phones.
    Full-color static video images are delivered digitally over the AT&T/ATM Advertising network. Ads appear while the phones aren’t in use, over an average 21 hours per day.
    The ad on the screen changes to telephone instructions when the call begins. Along with the instructions, buttons to the right of the screen identify advertisers. The direct-dial buttons provide a direct connection to the advertiser and can be activated before or after the consumer makes his call.
    AT&T phones have a push-button for immediate connection to the advertiser. For instance, a caller can rent a car or order flowers in immediate response to an advertisement. Advertisers are connected by phone 24 hours a day.
    The AT&T screens are approximately 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high (6.5 inches by 4.75 inches).
    Toppers are in the 21-inch to 42-inch-wide range.
    Creative for static images is usually an application developed for print.
    ATM Advertising president Mike Szimanski believes that creative designed specifically for the medium would be the most effective.
    "My dream before I die is to get the ear of agencies to come up with exciting applications for these new venues," he says.
    Full-motion video is available on the toppers offered through brandATM. Ads appear when the caller lifts the receiver.
    Creative for full-motion video is mostly video that was originally produced for television. Ads are interspersed with local news, weather and public service announcements on brandATM’s video screens. Venue owners can also place their messages in the loops. The mix is 30 percent advertising, 30 percent information and the remaining 40 percent announcements.
    "Ideally, the creative is quick and to-the-point," says brandATM’s senior vice president Scott Cox. "Get them into your store to buy your product or onto your web page. We’ve seen people try to run 15 to 30 second spots and from the consumer’s point, why should they watch something that long that was created for TV? They’re going to wish they had a remote control to block it out."
    Both static and full-motion are part of a video loop.
    Loops are created off-site and can be installed, updated or changed within hours.
    One loop, or a variety of loops, can be used at each location.
    Content can be easily changed to support special promotions.
    Content can also be changed to reflect demographic shifts. Depending on the location, Cox says, "You may want to run orange juice ads in the morning and beer at night."
    Exclusivity is available.
    On-screen telephone ads can be used in stand-alone and multimedia campaigns.
    "I think it should be recognized for its value in having a direct-response option. For someone looking for a flurry of direct-dial activity this is a strong hit," Szimanski says. "But, like anything else, it can be part of a larger media mix."

Markets:
    The AT&T-ATM Advertising phones are available in major DMAs including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle-Tacoma, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, Denver, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, St. Louis, Orlando, Baltimore, Indianapolis, San Diego, Hartford and Charlotte.
    BrandATM can place ads in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
    Locations within markets that work particularly well are airports, hotels and convention centers, municipal facilities, malls, promenades and public areas, restaurants and sporting arenas.
    1-800-Flowers.com, one of AT&T’S first advertisers in this venue, is on public phones in airports, hospitals and convention centers.
     "Our focus here was to be in high traffic locations," says George Fang, vice president of business development for Long Island-based 1-800-Flowers.com.

Numbers:
    How measured? Exposure can be measured by phone use and more specifically by button-direct connections. Walk-by traffic in locations like hotels can be factored in, especially when the larger screens are displaying ads.
    Impressions per month used by the AT&T/ATM Advertising team based on average hotel visitor traffic are 151,200 (4,320 x 30). Average number of visitors per location per month is 12,000.
    The average number of transactions on public pay phones ranges from three to 15,000 per month and the average call length is two-and-a-half to four minutes, according to Cox.
    Test marketing has shown increases in call volumes to advertisers of up to 600 percent.
    Szimanski explains, "We put a national florist on 50 speed-dial button phones at JFK. There are a total of 800 phones at JFK in addition to these 50 speed-dials. The 800 phones without the ad directed 17 calls to the florist for the month of September. The 50 with the ad sent 960 calls."
    Other AT&T/ATM Advertising test marketing data:
    Calls to a national hotel chain increased 300 percent with the ad.
    A national car rental company received 600 percent more calls with the ad.

Research:
    What product categories do well? Both goods and services that appeal to business and vacation travelers are prime advertisers.
    Car rentals, hotel reservations, flowers, chocolates, limo services, restaurants, entertainment, technology, airlines, music, automobiles, cosmetics, retail and dot.coms.
    "It’s a natural fit for us," Fang says. "We have a strong brand that is known for convenience and we’re always interested in technology that makes it more convenient for our customers to access us."
    While national advertisers are the most prevalent, regional and local advertisers are also trying public phone messages.

Demographics:
    Demographic targeting can be geographic by zip code. Users can also be profiled by location if they’re traveling by air or staying at a hotel chain.
    Customers using phone cards to pay electronically for their calls can be measured and used to help define demographics at a locale.
    While there is no universal profile of public phone users, advertisers can use studies of fragments of this market in relation to the phones’ locations.
    A 1998 Mendelsohn Affluence Study reported that the average business air traveler is likely to be technically savvy, have a college education, earn $150,000 and up, work in an executive or managerial position, have financial investments and have participated in athletics in the past year.

Making the buy:
ATM Advertising: ATM Advertising’s Traveling Consumer Advertising Solutions Program.
    Currently over 1,000 phones are available in most of the major hotel chains including Sheraton, Renaissance, Doubletree, Hyatt, Westin, Hilton and Loews in all of the major DMAs.
    Lead time is a week to ten days from the receipt of creative, but can occur more quickly.
    Contracts are a minimum of 30 days, with 90 days considered ideal.
    Spots per day are 5,040 (based on a 21-hour day which subtracts average three-hour daily usage per phone).
    Up to four advertising spots can be featured per phone.
    Exclusivity can be purchased for each location.
    Factors that affect pricing are the number of phones, duration of campaign and exclusivity. Seasonal price differentials are yet to be determined.
    The rate per ad per phone per month is $55, which drops to $45 when over 100 phones are purchased and to $40 when over 400 phones are purchased. It costs $30 per phone per month to buy the total inventory. All rates are gross and are 15 percent agency commissionable.

brandATM: Currently they can offer 50 phones in each of their markets. Cox says that will soon jump to a critical mass of 500 to 600 units operating in each market.
    Their units are a 50/50 mix of toppers and in-phone screens. All feature full-motion video with a mixed loop of advertising and local information.
    Lead time is 30 days from creative to delivery.
    Minimum contract length is one month.
    Pricing is determined on a per phone or per transaction basis. The average CPM is $15 to $30. That works out to $20 to $50 per phone per month based on usage.
    One ad positioned above a bank of phones is approximately $70.

What’s unique:
    A local taxi company advertised on 50 JFK speed-dial phones. During the second week of their ad they called Szimanski at ATM Advertising to remove the ad because they said they were overwhelmed with calls and couldn’t handle them all.

Who’s already on pay phones?
    1-800-Flowers.com and Sands Convention Centers are two that advertised during market testing.

What they’re saying:
    "This effort is an initial rollout of advertising on enhanced function phones that is scheduled to include internet-capable and kiosk-based phones in other high-traffic venues." – Mike Szimanski, president of ATM Advertising

Web site info:
ATM Advertising at www.atmadvertisingonline.com
brandATM at www.brand-atm.com

-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising  for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.

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