Bus stop bench advertising

[papaul1621]

Anyone in here doing it? If you are, is it worth it? In my opinion, I don't think its worth it but there's a lot of Realtors doing it in San Diego. There's even a guy who got 2 benches next to each other and advertises himself with the same exact ad.

[Justin Havre]

They are good if you are farming an area and if you have a few benches it "should" get you noticed. There are a few guys here in Calgary that you will see all over the place, sometimes almost every bench on a street.

Are they worth it?

Tough call, if you have one bench on a "premium" location with high traffic it can cost you $250 per month per bench. They do have discounted rates for multiple benches.

Now, personally I did not really pay attention to them until I got into Real Estate. It would be interesting to know how many people notice them.

[Bigtoe]

If 80% of the people go to the internet to find a home that leaves only 20% who look elsewhere. Subtract referrals and print advertising and you are left with a very small number of potential clients to be gotten from alternative advertising.

$250 a month will buy a lot of PPC. I know someone will say if you get one sale it is worth it but I like to look for the bigger returns on my investments. $250 a month to try to reach 10% of the people or $250 a month to try to reach 80% of the people. It is a no brainer to me unless you have the internet wrapped up tight already.

[metaylor9]

I completely agree with Bigtoe here. That seems crazy when you could reach the bulk of the market online. Also, I think those ads are also more of a branding opportunity not really the best for calls to action.

[Justin Havre]

oh yeah at $250 per month per bench I think there are better ways to do marketing.

The only people that I think notice the benches are other realtors.

[Justin Havre]

Here is the pricing from the company here in Calgary.


RENTAL RATES (PER MONTH) *
Number of benches Front Kickboard
1 $120.00 $30.00
2 to 14 $95.00 $25.00
Premium $250.00 $30.00
* Minimum rental of 7 – 4 week periods
Production rates of $250 for front and $85 for Kickboard

[Saodavi]

I agree with Mike Taylor ... who agrees with BigToe. If you want conversions, you're probably better off spending money on the internet or your sphere (referrals).

If you want branding, the bench might be alright. Just be aware that it does not offer a direct monetary return on your investment. It's more of a long term positioning and mind-share tactic.

Advertising != Branding. Make sure you know which one you're going after.

[Bob Crain]

Definately not worth it as an advertising medium, it is only good for furthering your brand.

What I see is that most agents don't have a brand other then their face and or their name. In other words, most of their advertising is ego centric. They have No call to action, no branding slogan, and a url that might be hard to remember.

Now, if an agent did have a brand that was easy to remember, I don't think bus benches would provide that much bang for the buck.

By the way, the very best branding is a yard sign with a sold rider. If you always have one of those up in a community then you will be rememberd.

[Steve Didier]

Besides, do you really want to spend money advertising to people who can't even afford a car??

Seriously, I think the replies here are right on. The only scenario I can think of where bus stop ads may help is if you are trying to farm a particular area or subdivision - putting one on the main entry/exit road to the area would definitely be a good supplement to any other "name branding" activities that you do in that neighborhood, ie: open houses, Just Listed/Sold cards, flyers, door knocking, etc.

If the residents saw your name and face every time they left for work in the morning and every night when they came home, you can be sure they would start to remember you and probably assume you are the "neighborhood expert." Like Saodavi said, it's a long term positioning thing not an immediate lead generator.

[jessiesc]

I pretty much agree with the others, specially the 80% logic. There are quite a few bench ads in my area, some are out in the wilderness where busses don't run (I think it's a numbers game and they place them anywhere).

If you do decide to bench mark it let us know how it works out.

Anyway, here is an alternative:
Find someone (other than another agent of course) with one of the digital billboards and timeshare the cost. It should be much less expensive then the bench seat as these billboards are usually leased to own and don't carry a very high monthly lease fee (I've looked into them for our office).

Good luck either way.