As the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31 and millions of New Year’s Eve revelers stand in the crowd and tune into New York’s Times Square festivities to watch the ball drop, they also catch sight of some of the most expensive, visible outdoor advertising real-estate in the world.
According to the Times Square Alliance, the organizers behind the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebrations, an estimated 198 million Americans and more than one billion TV viewers worldwide watch the historic New Year’s Eve ball drop. For businesses like Branded Cities Network, a digital out-of-home media company which promotes local and national brands through static and digital sign displays, few other locations offer as much foot traffic and high profile visibility as the annual New Year’s event.
What’s more, as Branded Cities boasts three strategic screen locations – the Nasdaq Tower, Thomson Reuters and 7 Times Square – ad placements appear directly in line of sight for the highly-anticipated ball-drop during the New Year’s eve event, which is picked up across most, if not all, prime-time broadcasters, such as CBS, ABC, NBC, BBC, CNN MSNBC, FOX, and more. Viewers watching the event either from the ground in Times Square or on their television sets back at home have optimal, extended exposure to the Branded Cities screen locations in perfect view as the ball descends and the clock counts down.
For the 2017 festivities, Branded Cities Network delivered a New Year’s Eve campaign, which, according to the company, tallied upwards of 12.4 million OOH impressions over the three-day period and accrued more than 51 million impressions with the event hashtag, #balldrop.
Yet, even when removed from the historic New Year’s celebrations, New York’s Times Square continues to be one of the most consistently concentrated areas in the nation. According to the Times Square Alliance, on average, 300,000 pedestrians walk through the Times Square Bowtie each day, with an additional 115,000 drivers/passengers passing through by bus or by car. Factor in the surplus of postcards, tourist photos and videos, and social media mentions that accumulate from the surge of millions of American and international tourists that flock to New York City over the holidays, and the campaign visibility quickly multiplies over an incredibly short period of time.
A neighborhood that is already uniquely alluring to the masses on any given occasion, New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve offers advertisers and marketers the highest and most prestigious OOH real-estate imaginable, making it possible for Branded Cities to give brands visibility to billions worldwide.