The prospect of reaching 50,000 sets of eyes during the Democratic National Convention is heating up an already hot market for Denver billboards, as many national players are looking for sweet spots.
“People are snatching them up,” said Shauna Singeltary, a sales representative for Outdoor Ads Inc. in Denver.
“There’s more competition for who gets them first, to get that exposure for that month. There’s going to be such traffic down there. A lot of national advertisers are interested in getting that footprint down there,” Singeltary said. “It’s getting crazy.”
Singeltary said advertising rates were steady and that “we’re not jacking anything up,” but advertising experts acknowledge that the law of supply and demand likely will increase costs for some.
“Do I think that they’ll charge more for those locations?” said Steve Wilson of Vanguard Communications. “Absolutely. You’ve got a captive audience. Traffic will be slower. People will be basically in their cars reading ads.”
Because downtown Denver doesn’t have enough hotel space to lodge the thousands of delegates, media members and visitors, the main corridors of traffic leading in from places such as the Denver Tech Center and Stapleton are prime targets. Boards along Broadway and Colfax and Sixth avenues, and around the Pepsi Center, where the convention is to be held, are also hot prospects.
But Denver’s outdoor advertising has been tight for the past three or four years, said Caroline Watson, of ad agency Cameron Christopher Thomas.
“The really good areas, like Colorado Avenue or Sixth Avenue … those are already sold,” she said. “They’re always sold.”
That could lead to more demand for mobile boards and for placards on the sides of buses, experts say.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
