Marketing Magazine, 12-08-1997

Vital Vision, a hip, young media firm in trendsetting New York, is literallytaking it to the streets, using bicycle couriers to get its ads seen aroundtown.

The company began mounting 12-by-18-inch advertising signs onto thebacks of New York courier bikes in April. The mini-billboards, called VitalSigns, stand about shoulder height to the cyclist and are attached to theseat posts by aluminum stems.

"The messenger was the only ground that wasn't tapped into," says GarySauders president of Vital Vision and inventor of the Vital Sign. "Youhave it on the backs of cabs, on buses, phone kiosks, it's everywhere.But the /er was untapped territory."

Using the bike courier as a medium for advertising has been so successfulthat expansion plans are already underway. The signs are being test marketedwith 20 messengers in London, and campaigns in Los Angeles and San Franciscoare set to lauch in December.

Saunders says the company plans to bring the concept to Toronto nextJune. The 29-year-old- Saunders, whose background is in outdoor advertisingfor a record industry, came up with the idea in 1995 and founded VitalVision around his invention. Vital Signs are the company's sole enterprise.

"Within our first two months of getting the sign out there and gettingit marketed, the response was incredible," says Saunders, who owns theinternational patent for the Vital sign. "Now we're moving to differentcities and countries."

Advertisers pay from US$175 to $200 per unit per month, and ads canbe placed on both sides of the signs. The company pays messengers US$20to $30 to ride with the signs. It requires that they be full- time couriers,assuring that the ads get maximum exposure, says Garnet Morris, the company'sdirector of marketing.

Morris says the aerodynamic signs are light-weight and don't interferewith the Cyclists or their sightlines in any way.

Although many couriers are contracted independently, Vital Vision hasalso conscripted entire courier services, using all their riders. In exchange,they offer the messenger companies the inside ads facing the rider.

Just how successful have the ads been? Urban Wireless, a SoHo cutratephoneservice, went from zero to 12,000 clients in its first few months of businessafter placing ads only in The Village Voice and on the Vital Signs, Morrissays.

Although the medium has initially attracted companies associated withhip and urban lifestyles, Morris says, Vital Vision hopes to attract moremainstream firms.

"I think that's only because we're new," he says. "As it becomes a moretried and tested advertising medium, you'll see some of the more conservativeclients jumping aboard."

Still, the street-level image has its benefits, attracting such prestigiousclients as Arista Records. Arista included the Vital Signs in last summer'smarketing campaign for the soundtrack to the film Money Talks.

"I absolutely thought there was potential in the deal, and I would definitelyexplore it further," says Ken Levy, senior vice-president of creative servicesat Arista.

Arista's ads were so successful that it had to make up 1,000 flyersfor the couriers to hand out after people began approaching them on thestreet interested in knowing more about the soundtrack.

Arista used 25 bikes for the Money Talks promotion, and plans to expandto about 75 the next time it advertises with the signs.

Vital Vision is also negotiating to be included in future ad campaignswith Coca-Cola, Morris says.

Good thing, too. With such bold expansion plans, Vital Vision is bankingon a long line of companies such as Arista and Coca-Cola to keep it ridinghigh.

PETER VAMOS is a freelance writer based in New York.