Giraffe Advertising, a local advertising firm perhaps best known for placing ads on bus benches, is branching out into a new media—automated teller machines. The firm has become a registered ATM provider and is now selling digital ad space on monitors installed atop the devices.
Giraffe Advertising CEO Brooke Barnett says digital ATM billboards are relatively new in the U.S. and are still fairly uncommon because they’re pricey. The digital monitors alone cost about $600 each. But he believes the idea makes sense for a creative agency that’s already producing digital ads for other media.
“If you’re an ATM provider there’s not much incentive to get into this, and it doesn’t bring in any additional revenue to the average ATM company,” Barnett says. “But if you’re an advertising company it’s another form of revenue, another platform to present the media.”
The ad-emblazoned ATMs also make sense for establishment owners, Barnett says. They can use the ad space to promote their own products and specials, or they can benefit in revenue sharing if Giraffe sells the space to an external advertiser.
Giraffe has been selling digital ATM ad space since early July after it acquired its first five ATM units. So far, it has placed two machines in local pawn shops and the other three in Express OMV locations, which Barnett also owns and operates.
Giraffe has ordered 10 additional ATMs and plans to place them in convenience stores, bars and at an outdoor kiosk next to a snowball stand in the coming months.
—Stephanie Riegel
