How to Play Offense with Stadium Graphics

Are Stadium Graphics Worth it for My Brand?

Stadiums across the country facilitate huge amounts of energy, spending and celebration. It is exciting to watch your home team storm to victory on TV but being there in person offers a whole new level of stimulation. Companies recognize the power of associating their brand with these positive experiences. Stadium graphics offer a path to achieving brand saturation by connecting themselves to the celebratory atmosphere often experienced at a football, soccer, basketball, or baseball game.

Customized stadium graphics and banners tick another successful advertising box, impressions. Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor holds 107,601 people at full capacity. That is the equivalent of a large city of people who might notice your brand in every big game. An already massive audience is multiplied exponentially by live TV, highlight reels and social media posts constantly capturing and circulating stadium advertisements around the country.

It makes sense for marketers to become involved in sponsorships and plaster stadiums with advertisement graphics from top to bottom for these reasons. However, deciding to invest in stadium advertisements is only the first step to beating your brand’s competition.

What Should I Put in a Stadium Advertisement?

Tap into Fan Fever:

If you or someone close to you fervently supports a sports team, you will understand the fertile field this creates for capitalists. Fans love to display their dedication to a team and feel a strong connection to brands that appear to also be on their team. If a fan is tossing up two similar products, such as whether to go to McDonald’s or Burger King after the game, a banner on the way to the parking lot displaying fans consuming Burger King will make an impact.

Team Colors:

Most stadiums host a home team or teams. Matching printed graphics to the color scheme of the local team will help your brand fit into the stadium and add to the atmosphere rather than being a distracting eyesore. Of course, your brand may also have theme colors, which are also important for brand recognition. Designers may compromise by bordering the graphic with team colors but staying true to the brands in the logo. Using colored text and background designs boasting in the team colors is another way to show support for the home team, which most visitors will be rooting for.

Celebrity Players:

Paying a player to participate in an ad campaign will add additional costs, but your brand’s association can be a massive win. Stadiums, where the player plays or used to play, are the best places to place graphics with sports stars.

Where Should I Place Stadium Graphics?

Play off the Paparazzi:

Sports attract cameras like flowers attract bees. Where one is, the other is bound to follow. Placing your graphics where they will be in live streams and TV coverage elevates your graphic’s number of impressions. Around the sidewalls of a playing field is a great place to achieve popularity. It’s a rare fan who doesn’t share a stadium visit on social media. Graphics along the bleachers or in the atriums where people take group photos is another great idea.

Hone in on Halftime:

Take a hint from TV advertising campaigns and focus your graphics on the spaces crowds congregate at halftime. Above food and drink stations, on the floors of hallways and the walls of bathrooms can be even more effective in attracting the attention of fans than out in the stadium. Don’t forget the locker rooms for the players, either. If your brand catches the eye of a renowned sports star, second-hand marketing could be enormous.

Remember the Outside:

It’s not an uncommon occurrence to wait in line to enter or exit a stadium. Take advantage of this standstill with banners on light poles or around the entrances to stadiums. Especially impressive graphics might become landmarks people use to find each other in the crowd and can certainly provide photo ops for fans, who then post your graphic on social media multiplying your impressions.

Investing in stadium graphics is a fantastic advertising strategy at the end of the day (or game). Reaching thousands of people in person at the game, as well as those watching on TV or tracking the game on social media, stadium graphics are some of the most viewed advertisements in the world. When designing a banner or sign for a stadium, it’s important to keep the context of the place in mind. Feed off the fan fever and use the live coverage to boost the number of impressions your advertisement makes every game. If you manage to cover those bases, you will be scoring big in the marketing world.