National, regional advertisers targeted for airport

The Reno advertising agency that handles sales inside the Reno-Tahoe International Airport this week launches a campaign to draw more national and regional advertisers.

The Younger Agency initially will target large national companies that have a presence in northern Nevada — companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks, General Electric and Intuit.

Sandy Clark, director of sales for the Younger Agency, says completion of the airport’s gateway project — the new security checkpoint, restaurants and retail — creates more opportunities to reach the departing passengers that often are targets for national advertisers.

Because that $17 million project allows all passengers to move through a single security checkpoint, advertisers in the gateway area will be able to reach all departing passengers. That wasn’t possible when individual security checkpoints were located on each of the two concourses at the airport.

“We now have a whole new way to create a first and last impression as travelers flow through the airport,” says Clark.

Those national advertisers currently account for a small part of the ads above baggage claims areas and along concourse walls. About 40 percent of the revenue generated by advertising within the airport comes from the gaming industry, with ads for special events, business-to-business sales and healthcare accounting for much of the rest.

All told, those ads are an important source of income for the financially self-sufficient airport.

The advertising revenues, projected to generate close to $800,000 for the airport in this fiscal year, help keep a lid on the fees the airport charges airlines and provide a competitive edge in the battle to win new service.

Liz Younger, principal of the Younger Agency, and Clark will be taking two paths as they seek to boost sales to national and regional accounts.

First, the agency has an aggressive regional sales program that’s focused on marketing packages for the eight airports in the West where it holds the advertising-sales concessions.

Along with Reno, where the agency got its start in the airport-ad business in 1996, the Younger Agency is the concessionaire for airports at Boise, Spokane, Juneau, Elko, Grand Junction and Magic Valley (Twin Falls) airports.

For larger national accounts, the Younger Agency will muscle up with representatives of JCDecaux, an international ad agency that works in joint ventures with the Younger Agency to sell ads at San Diego International and Dallas Love Field.

The partnership with JCDecaux, Younger says, gives the Reno agency continuous access to buyers at major advertising agencies across the country.

In its sales sheets for the Reno airport, Younger Agency notes than about 42 percent of the 3.48 million travelers through the airport last year had household incomes over $100,000.

Business travelers account for 37 percent of the airport passengers, with leisure travelers accounting for the rest. That’s reflected, too, in the split between local travelers and out-of-towners: About 62 percent visitors and 38 percent local.

Along with lighted signs and video display screens, the advertising media available at the airport include the vinyl banners that greet visitors as they cross from the terminal into the airport parking garage as well as floor displays near the baggage-claim area.