Perimeter Advertising in Sport
What it is, how it works and how brands can benefit from perimeter advertising
The battle for consumer attention is constantly intensifying.
In this increasingly challenging fight, few forms of advertising manage to provide brands with such a unique and integrated platform as perimeter advertising in sport.
Enabling brands to promote to sports fans when they are at their most engaged, perimeter advertising has been prominent in sport since the 1900s. But how does the technology behind perimeter advertising actually work and how does it benefit the hundreds of thousands of organisations using the tool to promote their brands?
In this feature, we take an in-depth look at perimeter advertising and the benefits it has for brands.
Dominic Mills
Published on January 6th, 2023
In this Insight:
What is perimeter advertising?
Perimeter advertising is a marketing tool which uses strategically placed advertising boards to convey key advertising messages from an organisation, within an event. These messages can be displayed in a number of ways, including: through slogans, images, logos and graphics.
The use of perimeter advertising has been particularly effective in sport, as the tool allows the target audience to consume the desired sport in-conjunction with the advertising message, without causing interruption.
This method maximises the consumer's user experience and ensures messages are being conveyed at peak engagement times, something which is often a challenge in contemporary marketing, such as TV-advertisements.
Perimeter advertising in the Premier League
The benefits of Perimeter Advertising
How does perimeter advertising work?
With sporting events often capturing enormous amounts of consumer attention and viewership, the most successful forms of sports marketing take place within or alongside the sporting event itself.
Perimeter advertising does just this. It typically runs along the outskirts, or the perimeter, of the sports field or playing surface.
The first forms of perimeter advertising were non-digital advertising boards placed around sporting venues. This form of perimeter advertising is referred to as static perimeter advertising and due to the low costs and high reach, it’s still in use today all over the world.
Perimeter advertising has undergone significant developments in the last 30 years with digital advertising boards being introduced in the 1990s.
Digital perimeter advertising boards are placed in similar positions to static boards, in view of television cameras, but provide brands with the opportunity to utilise video graphics when advertising.
Digital perimeter advertising boards also allow brands to customise their messages for each sporting event.
Brands’ advertising messages are evenly spread throughout the course of the sporting event, with most major leagues opting for 20-30 second slots, chosen to maximise brand exposure to the viewing audiences.
How can perimeter advertising help brands?
Customers have never had access to more information, and more entities competing for their attention. When competing for attention is the greatest challenge, an effective advertising medium becomes an incredibly powerful tool for brands to achieve cut through and return on investment.
A 2019 Nielsen report on brand impact found that 69% of surveyed people close online videos as soon as they can, 80% of people aware of ad-blockers use them and 42% of people feel negatively about brands that interrupt their viewing experience.
With contemporary forms of advertising facing greater and greater challenges in maintaining interest and engagement, the target audience is just waiting to click the ‘Skip’ button.
Perimeter advertising offers a unique solution, as a platform which engages with its audience, where their content isn’t interrupted by the ads, but instead seamlessly incorporated alongside it.
This provides brands with an unavoidable form of advertising which can work alongside sport, forming an emotional connection.
