Did you know Canada has over 3,300 indoor and 5,000 outdoor hockey rinks? Now, imagine placing arena ads in each of these venues. When you only advertise your brand in professional hockey arenas, there is one key segment of your audience your ads are not reaching–the millions of community hockey players, parents, supporters, and coaches dotted across the country.
Why Advertisers Should Use Community/Grassroots Advertising
If you are not advertising your brand at community arenas, you are leaving huge sections of your target market untouched. Your audience may watch big games on TV, but it’s at the community level where junior hockey is played and the passion for the game really comes through.
There’s something to be said for the grassroots advantage. You can leverage your community involvement to improve the connection you have with young players and their parents, grandparents, and coaches. By sponsoring teams or events or providing revenue for the local arena through advertising, you can create brand loyalty.
How Advertisers Benefit from Professional Arena Ads
There is a good reason most big companies concentrate on professional arenas when advertising. First, these games have a wider national reach as opposed to community arenas. For instance, when the big boys such as the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators, and, of course, Team Canada, are playing, the media coverage is a marketer’s dream come true.
No marketer can afford to ignore an opportunity to reach a national audience. However, the impact of these ads could be even higher if advertisers were to consider advertising in community arenas as well.
Why Full Circle Cross-Advertising Is More Effective
There is a reason major brands such as Nike, Rogers, Bauer, Scotiabank, McDonald’s, EA Sports and others have been placing ads in both professional and community arenas. They understand the power of full circle cross-advertising. The ability of arena ads to drill down to the grassroots is key to making a brand influential from the ground up. By advertising during national and provincial games, and all the way down to the grassroots, your brand or advertising message is able to reach every segment of your target audience.
Advertising your brand at the professional level is a great idea, but this is only one place to advertise. There is a very strong case for placing arena ads at the community level. It is at community arenas where everyone congregates. To miss out on such a huge market is akin to leaving money on the table.