Download Gettingseriousaboutadvertising

by Denise Culver
Getting serious about
advertising
The idea has been around for years, but it is finally starting
to become a reality for PSPs of all sizes
hen Dale’s Seasoning, one of the top-selling meat marinade companies in the
South, wanted to develop an ad campaign that would ensure its sauces would
be the last impression that supermarket shoppers
would see before entering the store, company executives had their work cut out for them.
After all, traditional advertising — television,
radio, newspapers and direct mail — doesn’t allow
for last-second impressions to be made as shoppers
enter the doors of a grocery store.
Therefore, it didn’t take much for National Public
Communication Media (NPCM) to sell Dale’s executives on an advertising option they had never before
considered: payphones.
During October and November, Dale’s will be running enclosure ads on sidewalk payphones outside of
grocery stores throughout the Birmingham, Ala. area,
which also happens to be the headquarters for Dale’s.
The ads feature a large picture of the famous marinade, along with a juicy steak, chicken or fish, and
the slogan, “Don’t forget your Dale’s,” says NPCM
principal Jess Bullock.
“The point of putting the ads on these types of
payphones is that Dale’s wanted to be the last impression that a person saw before walking into the
grocery store, where they’re going to be inundated
by 35,000 other impressions,” he says. “The value of
having that last impression imprinted upon your
mind is invaluable.
“What better way is there to have it placed there
than by putting it on the side of a payphone that’s
right on the sidewalk as you walk into the store?”
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November 2000
A new way of thinking
This type of mindset is propelling payphone service
providers (PSPs) into the world of payphone advertising, once thought to be an elusive, if not outright
ridiculous venture, says Mason Harris, a PSP who is
also the owner of AdsOnPhones.
“I looked at trying to sell ads on payphones about
four years ago on a local basis, and I got absolutely
nowhere,” he says. “I thought it was a lousy idea, and
I just put it on the shelf.
“Then two years ago, the idea started circulating
again, and I decided to try it again. But this time, I
decided to get educated.”
Harris spent about nine months working closely
with advertising agencies to better understand the
various market strategies, demographics and other
factors he felt would be necessary to successfully advertise on payphones. He then decided to leverage
his existing knowledge of the payphone industry
with his newfound knowledge of the advertising industry and create AdsOnPhones.
The company essentially acts as a “supply channel” for both PSPs and advertisers. PSPs that are interested in offering their phones as potential sites
for advertisement provide their database information to AdsOnPhones, which in turn works with advertising agencies to secure contracts for advertisers
that are looking for payphones across the country.
“The reason that this type of setup works so well
is that advertisers are looking for payphones in all
types of markets, whether it be in Brooklyn or
Wichita, because to them, it’s just branding,” he says.
“So even smaller PSPs have an opportunity to make
revenue from advertising in this type of scenario.”
In contrast to Harris, Bullock’s background is
in the advertising arena, where he is a 30-year
veteran of the industry. He has teamed with
Barry Selvidge, a long-time payphone industry
veteran, and Tom Childers, a systems and data
veteran, to form NPCM.
Their claim to fame is a proprietary software
product known as telAware, which incorporates
all database information provided by their PSP
members with a complex demographic and
mapping component that pinpoints specific information that advertisers are demanding,
Bullock says.
“Our program provides qualified, targeted,
defined information that advertisers must have
before they are willing to place their product information on a payphone,” he says. “If an advertiser asks us about the phones that we have
available in south Chicago, we’re able to tell him
within a matter of seconds how many phones
there are, the types of enclosures they are, the location of the phones in terms of retail accounts,
and when the space will be available.
“We can also let him know the number of impressions he’s going to get, the demographics of
the people that live in the area and other information he demands to have before placing an ad.
“We’re not in the sign or enclosure business;
we’re incubating a new media.”
A new kind of billboard
While Harris tends to think of his advertising
strategy as “mini billboard advertising,” Selvidge
and Bullock stress that they’re in the business of
selling “alternative media in a billboard format.”
What it all boils down to in the long run,
however, is that advertisers are ripe for a new
form of advertising for a number of reasons, as
Selvidge explains.
“Traditional billboards have environmental
and licensing requirements that make them unattractive,” he says. “Television and radio aren’t
as attractive any longer because they have time
limitations, and they’re only viewed by one particular audience over and over.
“So the key is to find an advertising outlet
that provides access to the consumer at the
point of purchase or service, and payphones
provide both.”
Harris agrees.
“One of my advertising clients is a financial
institution that wanted to reach northern New
Jersey customers,” he says. “But the problem
with the television and radio stations there is
that they’re all New York stations, and the paper
is the New York Times. So the solution for them
was to place ads on payphones, so when their
customers would walk by the payphones, they
would see the ads, and the company would have
the exposure they wanted.”
Keeping a level head
The principals of the two companies also agree
that while PSPs should be enthused about the
new opportunities available via advertising, it
shouldn’t be viewed as a get-rich-quick scheme.
In fact, Bullock estimates that it takes most
PSPs an average of between 60 and 90 days to
earn income from advertising revenue.
Furthermore, PSPs must take into account the
cost of capital involved with advertising, Selvidge
says.
“When PSPs work with our company, they
have the choice of taking a less-expensive
route early on by choosing to only advertise on
places like the upper instruction card, the
handset or stickers, which don’t require heavy
investments in panels that are more expensive,” he says. “Later on, after they’ve earned
income from the advertising, we encourage
them to reinvest and expand into the panels.
“But it’s important for them to realize that
they are going to have some expenses, and it’s
not a get-rich-quick scenario.”
And as with any payphone-related scenario,
vandalism, theft and other issues are a concern.
That’s another one of the reasons that Bullock is
glad that Dale’s Seasoning chose Birmingham as
its test site, since he has an office in the city.
“I want to keep an eye on things and watch
peoples’ reactions to the campaign,” he says.
“We’re really eager to see how well this does, because Dale’s has already said that if this test
does well, they’ll do a regional buy next.
“This is just one small indicator of what’s to
come.”
Denise Culver is a contributing editor for Perspectives
and is also a writer and editor for other telecommunications publications.
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