Perhaps you got into the ice rink business because you love the game of hockey and played it since you were a kid. Maybe your first job was working as a warming house attendant where you climbed onto a Zamboni and never looked back. Whatever led you down the career path of facility management, it probably doesn’t include “selling advertising and sponsorships.” The fact is, although it can be a pain, generating revenue through advertising and sponsorships is a huge part of your rink’s success. The good news is that we have some great tips to help make buying advertising at your rink more attractive to area businesses and tools with which to plan and execute your advertising and sponsorship solicitation flawlessly.
Uniquely Utilizing Real Estate
Everyone knows dasher board advertising, in-ice logos and resurfacer wraps are prime real estate for sponsor signage but have you thought about less conventional areas to offer your advertisers? Highly visible yet typically under-utilized areas can provide a great option for sponsors who may not have the budget to buy a dasher ad on the blue line but still want to show their support. Walk around your rink and think like a spectator. What areas do you see? How could you offer creative advertising within those areas? Here are some possibilities:
Stair Risers – Use repeating advertising on each riser or combine the risers into one logo
Bathroom Stalls – Implement a wrap or a framed ad to gather the attention of a captive audience
Shielding Pads – Feature your website in this area for a great fit!
Goal Frame Skirts – Create custom embroidered logos on both goals to provide maximum visibility
Water Bottle Holders – Utilize these as a small but mighty advertisement!
Selling Your Statistics
Knowing the details of your demographics is critical to selling advertising and sponsorships at your rink. What are demographics, you ask? The term simply refers to a statistical analysis of a person or group of people. A business owner thinking about advertising at your rink will want to know if the individuals visiting your rink are potential customers. If they are, they will want as many of these individuals as possible seeing their ad. Sharing the statistics about how many people come through your doors in combination with a summary of your typical visitor demographics can make your job of selling advertising and sponsorships much easier. Here’s an example of how you might consider wording your advertising and sponsorship marketing piece to capture the demographics of your rink’s visitors and attract the right prospects:
Are you looking for a great way to support the community and gain exposure for your business?
Example Ice Arena has a 1500-seat capacity with additional standing room available. Our rink hosts Example High School’s boys and girls hockey teams, the Example City Youth Hockey Association practices and games, men’s and women’s recreational hockey leagues and open skate sessions weekly. 43-50 high school games are held at Example Ice Arena during the regular hockey season with an average attendance of 540 people per game. More than 50,000 spectators will view your ad every year.
On an average day, your ad will be viewed by:
visitors from the Tri-County area
student and adult sports fans
busy parents at practices
Advertising at Example Ice Arena offers your business the opportunity to attract new and repeat customers who appreciate your support of community sports and are searching for a solution to their needs. Give us a call to secure your sponsorship today!
Tapping Into Tools
Ideas for attracting and retaining sponsors and advertisers are great but implementing these ideas can be rather overwhelming. These tools can help you streamline and organize many aspects of the process.
If you have no clue where to start when it comes to advertising and sponsorship, consider going back to school. U.S. Ice Rink Association offers a Programming, Marketing & Promotions course that includes resources for creating and implementing a marketing plan. They also offer special events and help you learn the ins and outs of advertising.
Need a great tool to plan out your dasher advertising? This dasher ad revenue planner provides a visual coupled with a calculator so you know just how many advertising spots you have left, who has filled them and exactly how much revenue you’ve generated.
Once you’ve got your advertising and sponsorship nailed down, turn to Becker Arena Products for advertising supplies including in-ice logos, dasher ads, banners, stair riser decals and custom water bottle holders. We even have helpful videos such as this tutorial for installing adhesive-backed advertising to the boards to help you out! If you are looking for more ways to generate revenue at your rink, check out this recent blog post on The Ice Scoop.
Whether you’re new to the ice rink business or have been around it for years, we’d love to hear what ways you tackle the challenges of advertising and sponsorship at your rink!
