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(June 2009) posted on Tue Jun 16, 2009

Clear Channel Outdoor. a Colorado service provider and a New Mexico ad agency produce a unique billboard to promote a local AIDS Walk.

By Steve Aust

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Although the spread of AIDS and the suffering of its victims have been well documented, the disease has shifted somewhat to the back burner of the public’s perception. However, the work of the agencies and charities that help AIDS victim hasn’t become any less urgent, nor has the need for the funding of vital treatment and research.

To promote local awareness for New Mexico AIDS Services’ (NMAS) AIDS Walk, which took place June 13 at Albuquerque, NM’s Johnson Field, Esparza Advertising (Albuquerque) and that city’s Clear Channel Outdoor office collaborated to create a unique billboard campaign. First, Esparza created a relatively spartan Albuquerque billboard that simply read “Help us” with a symbolic ribbon and provide a URL, www.designthisbillboard.com (contributors could also visit www.keepmakingstrides.com). At this site, which Esparza also marketed through various social-media platforms, visitors could choose one of eight shoe types with which to leave a “footprint: that would decorate the follow-up billboard, which Clear Channel installed on June 10.

Esparza developed the billboard and website pro bono for the agency. Tiffany Hobson, the firm’s director of accounts, said the key to developing effective billboards and other campaigns for cash-strapped agencies requires the same commitment provided to for-profit campaigns.

“A lot of campaigns created for nonprofit agencies are produced in a disconnected, scattershot manner,” she said. “When we sign on for a pro bono campaign, we make a one-year agreement and get to know the client. That’s the only way to create a campaign with an authentic voice.”

The campaign proved successful. According to Hobson, approximately 750 website visitors had contributed to the billboard campaign.

According to Sally Adams, general manager for Clear Channel Albuquerque, the office donates approximately $750,000 worth of billboard space for nonprofit organizations annually. She added, “With a recession shrinking advertising budgets, this benefits nonprofits because it gives them more display opportunities. We had a board available in a neighborhood they wanted to target. I think this campaign stands out as one of the most creative.”

Circle Graphics (Longmont, CO) fabricated the billboard. As an eco-friendly, paper alternative, the shop fabricated the billboard using its proprietary Eco-Flexx polyethylene billboard material – a “green” paper alternative, according to the company -- on an EFI VUTEk 5330 17-ft.-wide printer.

Jessica Molzen, NMAS’ marketing executive, lauded the billboard campaign’s contribution to her organization.

“We’ve raised more than $4,000, with more contributions arriving daily,” she said. “Our goal is to eradicate HIV and AIDS, and Clear Channel and Esparza’s generation donations towards our cause have been invaluable. The use of traditional and new media has produced responses the world over.”