The Denver Theater District will look a little more like Times Square with the addition of two giant LED video screens in early December.
Under an agreement with the district, Phoenix-based Branded Cities will install the ad-supported screens to promote Denver’s arts and cultural scene on the side of the Colorado Convention Center near 14th and Welton streets and on the 16th Street Mall at Champa Street.
“We’ll be out soliciting arts groups to give us content about what they’re doing,” said David Ehrlich, co-executive director of the Denver Theater District, a 3-year-old cultural district that includes the Denver Performing Arts Complex. “There’s no big city in the country that has the ability to support art and culture this way.”
Branded Cities will pay for the signs and recoup its costs through advertising sales, said Chris McCarver, the company’s chief operating officer. He did not specify how much the signs will cost.
The sign on the Convention Center will be 25 feet high and 60 feet wide. It will replace an existing LED sign. The sign on the mall will be 18 feet high and 32 feet wide.
“There will be others at later dates, but we’re starting with those two,” McCarver said.
Formed in 2007, the Denver Theater District is roughly bounded by Arapahoe and Champa streets, Speer Boulevard and the 16th Street Mall. At its core is Curtis Street, once the heart of Denver’s theater scene, and 14th Street, now home to the city’s premier cultural venues.
At that time, the Denver City Council approved a zoning category for the theater district that allows for more prominent signs and advertising as part of the city’s plan to draw more people to the area around 14th and Curtis streets near the Performing Arts Complex.
Arts and cultural content will account for 15 percent of the airtime on the signs. Advertisements promoting commercial products will account for the remaining time. Time not sold touting commercial products will be returned to the theater district.
The city’s planning committee must approve the content. The committee will get recommendations about the content from the Denver Theater District board.
“We want to see content that reflects the artistic ethos of what the district is about,” Ehrlich said. “We hope to encourage advertisers to use it as a creative platform, as well as a commercial platform.”
Passers-by on the 16th Street Mall were enthusiastic Thursday about the potential for the video screens.
“If it would give me more insight on where to go and what’s happening day to day, that would be good,” said Demitrius Robbins of Denver.
Donnie Aguilar, also of Denver, was similarly intrigued by the concept.
“I think that’s a really good idea,” he said. “It will draw a lot of attention to the 16th Street Mall and give it a Times Square feeling.”
Branded Cities, formerly owned by Clear Channel Outdoor, already has seven large static displays in downtown Denver that have advertised such companies as Target and Noodles & Co. The Ellman Cos. acquired Branded Cities from Clear Channel earlier this month.
With static ads, the cost depends on size and location, while with the LED signs, pricing depends on how much airtime a promotion gets, McCarver said. He did not divulge further details.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
