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at the main event
Put your client on seats at games and concerts
By Kathy Prentice
Advertisers who want to target fans at events like bowl games and big name concerts without paying big sponsorship fees can now put their logos on plastic bags—the type often used for giveaways or trash—that are stuck with adhesive to the backs of seats in stadiums and arenas.
The bag ads can also be distributed at colleges, major and minor sports events, concerts, tennis tournaments and business seminars.
To find out how to get your clients on bags before a captive audience seated at sports and entertainment events, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Ads placed on standard, 15 inch by 13 inch plastic bags that are attached to seat backs at sports and entertainment events.
Who
NuBoard Media, headquartered in Atlanta.
How it works
Color ads are printed on both sides of standard plastic adhesive bags and attached to the backs of seats in arenas and stadiums.
Samples, coupons and flyers can be stuffed in the bags.
BellSouth used logo-laden pompoms and magnets as well as two direct-mail pieces as inserts in NuBoard bags at the Dec. 31 College Chik-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
The inserts tied into the bag’s theme, comparing the players’ pace to BellSouth’s DSL download speed with the slogan, “If only the running back could move as fast.”
A minor league hockey team recently used the bag as a vehicle to distribute raffle tickets.
“An announcement was made at half time to look inside the bag and come down onto the ice and get a prize if your number was drawn,” says Frank Allegro, vice president and co-founder of NuBoard Media.
Typically one advertiser uses both sides of the bag, but the space could be shared by two or more, Allegro says.
Advertisers can choose not to include inserts or samples in the bags.
Creative should be bright with simple, uncluttered text, Allegro says.
“If there’s not going to be an insert, we advise advertisers to put some means of communicating back to the company on the outside of the bag…a toll free number or web site to drive traffic back to the store or service.”
Branding is the primary goal of the advertising message.
“We wanted brand awareness, to get our name out there,” says Thomas McMahan, president of Atlanta-based Stonewood, a construction company specializing in outdoor entertainment areas.
“So we used our company name and logo and contact information and that was it.”
Creative is typically two- to three-color line art.
Ads are approximately one square foot, printed on both sides of the bag.
NuBoard’s Allegro likes to say that its promotional bags are the largest ad in the stadium. “The average billboard on a baseball field is 500 to 700 square feet,” Allegro says. “Compare that to coverage of the whole stadium at one square foot per bag for a 40,000 square-foot ad.”
Art is typically provided by the advertiser.
NuBoard handles production, installation and coordination with the sports teams.
Advertisers are a 50/50 mix of national and local or regional.
NuBoard bags currently are used most frequently for stand-alone campaigns, Allegro says.
Exclusivity is an issue when a team operating a stadium already has a sponsorship contract with a brand. For instance, a competing soft drink couldn’t advertise on bags in a Coke-only arena.
Markets
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Specific locations include stadiums for major and minor professional sports leagues including Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the Women’s National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, Minor League Baseball (AAA, AA, A), the East Coast Hockey League, Arena Football League, and United Hockey League.
College bowl games include the National Collegiate Athletic Association Bowl Games; the NCAA Final Four, both men’s and women’s; and the NCAA ACC Basketball Tournament.
Professional sports special events include the Super Bowl, MLB All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Game and NHL All-Star Game. Tennis tournaments include the U.S. Open, Ericsson Open, AT&T Challenge and RCA Championships. Auto racing includes the National Association of Stock Car Racing, the Indy Racing League and the United Drag Racers Association.
Special events include the Winter Olympics and MerleFest Music Festival.
A network of more than 350 arenas, events, tournaments and colleges includes professional baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and tennis. Bags can also be distributed at business seminars, Allegro says.
Numbers
How measured?
Actual bag distribution and ticket sales can be used to estimate impressions.
Coupon redemption, web site hits and responses to special offers provide detailed feedback to advertisers.
BellSouth’s recent campaign at the Chik-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta included insertion of an 800 number and web site address for consumer response on promotional materials that will be used to track responses.
About half of the fans at any given event take the ad bag home with them, Allegro says.
Bags can be installed on every seat in a venue for an event, or a campaign can cover a select portion of a stadium for one or more games. “For instance, a sponsor might run a campaign over the holidays in December by covering the lower 10,000 seats for the first five home games in the month,” Allegro says.
Proof of installation, reports and pictures are provided to advertisers.
Research
What product categories do well?
Anything from a candy company to an insurance company, Allegro says, with retail and consumer goods at the top of the list. “I think they’re more inclined to succeed because you can put a sample in the bag.”
Communications, dot.coms and other services also do well.
Demographics
A profile of adults who attend events held at auditoriums includes 61 percent men to 39 percent women, with 26 percent single and 60 percent married. Parents make up 39 percent. Source: Spring Mediamark Research
Age breakdowns are 15 percent ages 18 to 24, 22 percent ages 25 to 34, 24 percent ages 35 to 44, 18 percent ages 45 to 54, 11 percent ages 55 to 64, and 10 percent 65 and older. Source: Spring Mediamark Research
College graduates make up 27 percent, those who attended some college 29 percent, and high school graduates 30 percent. Source: Spring Mediamark Research
Employment breaks down to nearly 12 percent in professional occupations; 14 percent in administrative and managerial; 21 percent in clerical, sales and technical; 8 percent in repair and crafts; and 20 percent in other occupations. Full-time workers comprise 66 percent; part-time, nine percent; and not working, 25 percent. Source: Spring Mediamark Research
Income is broken into individual and household with more than 16 percent of individuals at the $50,000 and up mark, 10 percent at $40,000 to $50,000, 15 percent at $30,000 to $40,000, 7 percent at $25,000 to $30,000, 11 percent at $20,000 to $25,000, and 8 percent below $10,000.
For households more than 28 percent are at $75,000 and up, 14 percent at $60,000 to $75,000, 10 percent at $50,000 to $60,000, 11 percent at $40,000 to $50,000, 11 percent at $30,000 to $40,000, 10 percent at $20,000 to $30,000, 11 percent at $10,000 to $20,000, and nearly 6 percent at less than $10,000. Source: Spring Mediamark Research
Specific demographics like college students, female sports fans and families can be targeted.
Bags can be placed in particular segments of a stadium or arena to reach a target audience. For instance, Stonewood used its bag campaign to reach a high-end audience at venues including the baseball stadiums in Knoxville and Lexington and the Atlanta Performing Arts Center.
“Sports-oriented people are also active. They often like to entertain, to spend time outdoors,” McMahan says.
Making the buy
Contracts range from four to six months for sports seasons to special one-day events to tournaments that last a week to two weeks.
A minimum buy is 25,000 bags, which can be placed at one event or spread out over several.
Lead time is four to six weeks.
Factors that affect pricing include the length of the contract, with a special price offered for a multi-year agreement.
The primary factor affecting pricing is which event and location are included. “For instance, the minor league baseball rate is considerably lower than sponsoring the opening home game for the Seattle Mariners,” Allegro says. “Also, bowl games and tennis tournaments are more costly.”
An average cost is 70 cents per bag.
Who’s already on NuBoard bags?
BellSouth, Eticketboard.com, Price Busters Stores, Grouptickets.com, EarthWood Office Furniture, Waste Management, NuLife and Stonewood.
What they’re saying
“People sitting in their boxes at a game end up spending three or four hours with your ad. There’s a lot of down time in sports. Take baseball. I love watching a game, but there’s a lot of time when nothing is going on. So what do you do between the action? People end up staring at your ad.”–Thomas McMahan, president of Atlanta-based Stonewood.
Web site info
NuBoard Media at www.nuboardmedia.com
Etc.
There is still availability to place ads on bags at events at the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games opening March 7 in Salt Lake City.
January 14, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-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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