UNDERSTANDING THE NIGHT: A Marketers Guide to Product Marketing in the Nightclub and Bar Scene - Part 3

Now that you have become further educated on the industry, lets get back to these recent articles that have crossed my desk so I can show you why this is an area where companies should allocate more of their marketing budget. The first one was a press release from a company called Zoom Media, which is the nation’s largest nightclub/bar restroom billboard company. Below are two quotes from the press release:

“An overwhelming majority or 78 percent of bar visitors surveyed could recall at least one of four advertisers that ran ads on bar-based digital billboards according to the Zoom survey administered by the media research firm Arbitron. Additionally, the survey revealed that brand aided recall ranged from 37 to 53 percent, confirming that people not only saw the ads on the digital billboards, but remembered the advertisers.”

“According to the survey, 40 percent of the people polled said they frequented bars over 10 times a month. Additionally, Zoom estimates actual time spent in bars and clubs averages 2.5 hours per visit. "There's no question that the significant dwell time in front of these digital billboards allows for long exposure and increased awareness," said Lee Levitz, Zoom’s VP of Marketing. "Just as importantly, people are choosing to be in these social settings and consequently are much more receptive to advertising messages. When it comes to bar media, the ad opt-out generation is opting-in."

The second article that crossed my desk is also very relevant to this industry. It was in regard to sampling and ran in the May issue of Advertising Age. The article talked about how sampling is becoming the new mass medium. This article is relevant because liquor companies have been doing sampling in nightclubs and bars since the beginning of time. This alone should be more than enough justification that sampling is an effective medium. It is a medium that is accountable. Sampling offers accountability in a couple of ways:

· It is a medium that allows the marketer to give a URL to a micro site at time of the sampling to determine return on investment.

· It also allows companies to determine ROI by seeing if the sampling effort creates a spike in sales in the ZIP codes relevant to the sampling.

· Sampling can also be tracked via the issuing of coupons with the product sample for a discount on the product at point of purchase.

The third item was a press release issued by ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) to see the cost-effectiveness of advertising specialties over other marketing mediums. This study proved what liquor companies and banks such as Commerce/TD Bank have known for years: that branded t-shirts, hats, key chains, pens, etc., are effective tools in building a brand no matter what the venue is. The data that this study uncovered is below, and it truly is remarkable:

• 84% of people remember the advertiser on a product they receive.
• 42% have a more favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving an advertising specialty.
• Nearly one quarter, or 24%, indicate that they are more likely to do business with an advertiser on items they receive.
• Most respondents (62%) have done business with the advertiser on a product after receiving it.
• Writing instruments are the most commonly-owned advertising specialty, with 54% of respondents owning them, followed by shirts, caps and bags.
• The majority (81%) of promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
• More than three-quarters of respondents have had their items for about seven months.
• Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently, with respondents indicating that they use their bags on average nine times per month.
• Bags deliver the most impressions, with 1,038 impressions per month on average.
• The average cost-per-impression of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive per impression than nearly any other media. (According to Nielsen Media data, the CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $0.019; a cable TV ad is $0.007; a syndicated TV ad is $0.006; and a spot radio ad is $0.005)

The nightlife scene itself is truly remarkable. It is a scene that gives birth to fashion, music, culinary delights, technology and more. This scene allows people to get creative and reinvent themselves. This scene allows the consumer to let their guard down and get bombarded by different forms of brand marketing. Brands that most likely have been created with influences that have evolved out of nightlife. So stop procrastinating, loosen your tie, let your hair down, and start allocating more of your marketing dollars to reaching your consumers of today, tomorrow, and the future in an environment that offers your brand consumer interaction for every budget.