Abcon Media is lowering the boom on the lucrative U.S. market. The Toronto-based out-of-home advertising company announced this week that it is bringing its Boom-Ad product to the United States, thanks to a partnership with ATMedia.
Atlanta-based ATMedia specializes in airport advertising, including shuttle wraps, interior static and digital shuttle ads, column and elevator wraps and floor graphics.
The Boom-Ad consists of a vinyl sleeve wrapped around parking gate arms at parking lot and garage exits. The ads are situated at eye-level, typically than 10-feet away from drivers, and remain in their line of sight for up to 30 seconds.
Introduced in 1996, the Canadian Boom-Ad network is comprised of approximately 800 units in major markets across the country. Abcon president and CEO Les Abro said the market is continuously expanding because of ongoing construction of new buildings and garages.
The deal with ATMedia includes approximately 460 Boom-Ad placements at 77 executive airport parking facilities in more than 30 markets. The company says the units will garner an estimated 16.5 million impressions per month.
Delta Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, Ford, GM and Allstate are among the U.S. advertisers that have used the product.
The product is aimed at the “executive traveler” demographic, which pays a premium to park their vehicle at off-airport lots. The company defines the group as high-earning business executives, serious shoppers with significant spending power.
Abro told Marketing that he has been trying to break into the U.S. market “forever,” and has hit the “jackpot” with the ATMedia partnership. “We’re working with decent, honest, nice people and that’s a fit for us,” he said.
Abcon has been aggressively diversifying its product roster in the wake of Toronto’s 2010 sign bylaw, which had a significant impact on its core vinyl mural business “The sign bylaw almost destroyed us,” said Abro.
While large-format vinyl banners still comprise a “large portion” of the company’s overall business, new product lines include golf-cart media (digital ads on golf cart-mounted GPS systems) and a one-year-old hotel network that includes product sampling and pop-up vinyl signs.
The latter is featured in an estimated 230 hotels, although Abro declined to specify which ones for competitive reasons.
