Boomerang Media, the free postcard company, is offering advertisers
access to Britain’s ’ABC1 style leaders’ via a distribution network of
400 trendy bars.
The nationwide network, named Bardeg, will open for business in
February. Boomerang is claiming that clients could reach up to 1.6
million ’socially active, affluent early adopters’ with a core ABC1,
20- to 35-year-old profile through Bardeg every fortnight.
Advertisers can choose to run one-month or two-week postcard campaigns
on a regional or national basis.
Boomerang has handpicked the outlets based on ’popularity, critical
acclaim, design and ambience’ and the fact that each has an average of
1,500 customers a week.
Names in the Bardeg network include London’s Alphabet, voted best bar by
the Evening Standard, and Glasgow’s Pivvo Caffe, winner of the 1999
Scottish Bar Awards, although more mainstream chains such as Slug and
Lettuce are also on the list.
Boomerang’s managing director Garfield Smith said the move was designed
to capitalise on the rapid expansion of the UK bar sector and its
’immense following by twenty- and thirtysomethings’.
’We visited literally every bar in the country and were amazed to find
that no coherent media product exists that successfully targets this
important and growing audience,’ said Smith.
However, there are already two postcard advertising outfits distributing
in the UK’s bars. The first - Cardguide - has been targeting the same
profile of ’style leaders’ in 250 venues, including London’s Circus and
K-Bar, since 1992. The second and biggest operator is Freecards which
distributes in 900 more mainstream bars such as the Dome. Freecards
claims to offer advertisers a ’captive audience’ of pounds 3.5 million
consumers a month.
Bardeg is Boomerang Media’s fifth distribution network in five years.
The company, which distributes over 220 million cards a year, displays
the medium in cinemas, universities, private health clubs and secondary
schools.
