Phonesites, the exclusive contractor of ad space in BT payphone
booths, has signed up three big-name clients.
Nike, Sainsbury’s and Sony PlayStation have all booked Phonesite
campaigns to run this month.
’The urban sub-culture of park football’ is the theme of Nike’s payphone
advertising drive. The sports giant is aiming to use payphones to catch
16- to 24-year-olds on their way to a ’kick around’.
Nike has bought 3,000 sites within a two-mile radius of famous football
grounds such as Fulham’s Craven Cottage and Arsenal’s Highbury, and
within a 250-metre radius of communal open spaces and parks such as
Epping Forest.
It is erecting floodlights at different locations across the London
region each evening so footballers can play after dark.
The ads quote a freephone number, which carries a recorded message
giving the location of the day’s floodlighting and invites callers to
enter the first Nike Park Football Awards.
They are produced to look like a hand-written poster and call for anyone
finding a ball lost during park football to give it a good home.
Virgin Interactive is using Phonesites to publicise the launch of its
Resident Evil 2 Platinum game in the run-up to Christmas.
The national campaign, booked by Banks Hoggins O’Shea, includes nearly
500 Phonesites situated around 100 metres from stores which stock the
15-certificate game including Virgin, HMV, Our Price and Electronic
Boutique.
Again, the core target market is young men.
Virgin Interactive marketing manager Louise Gaynor said: ’The ability to
be so specific about where ads will appear meant we could ensure that
the audience was within striking distance of an outlet. So not only do
payphone user profiles deliver typical gamers but the effectiveness of
the call to action was greatly improved.’
Finally, Clarke and Taylor has booked 200 of Phonesite’s ’phone light’
illuminated A3 ads for Sainsbury’s in order to build awareness of its
recently opened flagship store in Greenwich.
The ads, which will run alongside outdoor activity, use the ’making life
taste better’ theme and feature four different creative executions.
They have been placed in payphones situated within a one mile radius of
the Millennium Dome to attract both local residents and tourists.
Sainsbury’s local marketing manager Mike Gardner commented: ’The energy
saving features of the Greenwich store makes this a particularly
important opening for us.
’Being able to communicate with potential customers in the local area
through a highly visible medium like illuminated phone lights has proved
a cost effective, targeted method of publicising the event,’ he
added.
Phonesites has access to 95,000 BT payphones in the UK and Ireland.
The company, along with sister ambient media outfit Taxi Media, is owned
by Associated New Media holdings.
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