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New group promotes ATM advertising

For years, ATM owners have attempted to come up with an effective and profitable model for ATM advertising. The medium has struggled to gain acceptance in the mainstream advertising marketplace, but a new group is attempting to change all that.

January 23, 2002

The ATM Industry is caught up in a search for a new source of revenue and one of the obvious avenues is advertising.

For years, ATM owners have attempted to come up with an effective and profitable model for ATM advertising. The medium has struggled to gain acceptance in the mainstream advertising marketplace, but a new group is attempting to change all that.

In March, a group of ATM executives met to discuss ways to promote advertising at ATMs. The result of that meeting is the creation of the ATM Advertising Council.

Tom Harper, president of NetWorld Alliance (publisher of ATMmarketplace.com), said he recognized the need for such an organization when he tried to coordinate a national database for advertisers to search for ATM advertising. That's when he realized the ATM advertising industry needed some direction.

He set the wheels in motion to form the ATM Advertising Council, calling a group of like-minded individuals to set up the Florida meeting. It coincided with the annual meeting of the ATM Industry Association, an industry trade group.

"It started as a trend and became a new industry," Harper said. "We would like to see the ad council increase advertising revenue for all ATM deployers. We'll do that by creating a collective voice to speak to the ad industry at large and educate ad agencies and their clients on the benefits of ATM advertising."

Harper said the ATM advertising industry faces two primary obstacles. The first is that the ATM is a relatively new means of advertising. There's not much of a track record to prove its effectiveness, and it's difficult to deliver demographic data on the number of people who see ATM ads.

And ownership of ATMs is fragmented, making it difficult to build a network of machines with which to coordinate an advertising campaign. Even with a handful of sizable ISOs, individual merchants control the ATMs under any ISO's direction.

The council, at the Florida organizational meeting, restated its mission of promoting the ATM as an effective and profitable advertising medium. 

Short-term goals

The Council formed four committees: Marketing/Public Relations, Research, Membership and Standards, and Technology. By June, members of the council plan to develop objectives for these committees with defined action plans.

Another short-term objective is to educate ad agencies and their clients about the existence of the ATM Advertising Council.

Shelly Chandler, PNC Bank product marketing manager and an interim board member, said the Council's task is formidable.

"The biggest challenge is perception," she said. "Advertisers don't perceive ATM advertising as a consistent medium. While the medium has been around for a couple years, we still don't have enough data to rely on."

For now, the Council is focused on building membership and encouraging active participation.

Member benefits include access to case studies, research, membership directory, member events, newsletters to advertisers and voting privileges. Membership dues range from $150 to $350, depending on the company size. Membership dues will cover general operating costs of the organization, though a budget hasn't yet been established.

"It's great to see so many well-known ATM professionals come together in this group," said Harper. "It's now time for volunteers to step forward to serve on the various committees."

About 30 companies have expressed interest in joining the Council. Currently, 10 companies are official, paying members, including ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc., ISO International Merchant Services Inc. and advertising broker ATM Advertising Inc.

In May the Council will hold elections for permanent board members who will serve two-year terms.

Finally, the council plans to incorporate as a non-profit organization, using standard parliamentary procedures. Council member Neil Johnson, president of Euless, Texas-based International Merchant Services, Inc., is playing a major role in establishing the group's incorporation.

Long-term goals

At the meeting, the Ad Council discussed six long-term goals.

• It will develop a Web site for members and the advertising community. The site will serve as an information referral source.
• The Council will develop and issue its own research to key audiences. Existing research from members will be available and will be one of the central areas of the Web site. This information will also be available to advertising agencies and their clients. "Leveraging the learning, successes and failures of others, sharing information that will help all of us succeed, should be our primary focus, " said Chandler.The council plans to solicit corporate sponsorships to help fund research.
• The organization plans to communicate key messages to members, ad agencies and their clients. Mike Szimanski, president of ATM Advertising and an interim board member, said it is important to share information regarding media buyers' needs and requirements. Szimanski emphasized the importance of sharing information to market the ATM medium as viable and effective.
• In the future, the Council will publish a quarterly newsletter targeted to ATM industry professionals, selected media buyers and planners in the advertising community. This update will provide a direct feed to national advertising publications about developments in the industry and its members. 
• Members of the Council plan to organize at least two annual meetings with key media buyers and planners. 
• Finally, the Council presented a long-term goal to expand to include other ATM marketing activities.

The next step

The interim board is currently accepting nominations for permanent board seats, including self-nominations. Elections will be held in May.

Contact Tom Harper at tomh@networldalliance.com or Shelly Chandler at shelly.chandler@pncbank.com on joining the board or a committee.

Other members of the interim board are:

Ken Karant, Diebold (karantk@diebold.com); Neil Johnson, International Merchant Services Inc. (neil@atm24.com); Mike Szimanski, ATM Advertising Inc. (mjs@atmadvertisingonline.com).

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