How does a local sign company compete with Goliath media companies that control advertising contracts in many public spaces, especially airports, across this great land? The short answer is value. The long answer is supplied by a relative newcomer to the sign and advertising game, Durango FASTSIGNS.

 

Durango, Colorado, is a small town, but it’s one of the more vibrant small towns you’ll find. Durango is also a popular four-season destination; here you’ll find just about everything you’re looking for in an outdoor getaway.

 

Durango Mountain Resort’s wall is a multi-media extravaganza, complete with a wall mural, an electronic digital sign that showcases the resort’s four seasons of activities, a real classic lift chair and a snowboard.

What Durango lacked to some degree was atmosphere at the airport, the extra oomph that greets visitors with an initial sense of everything the Durango area offers as they disembark from their craft and make their way to and fro, from the gates to baggage claim.

 

CREATING COMMUNITY

Up until just recently this indefinable atmosphere was controlled by one of the aforementioned Goliaths of the media placement world. FASTSIGNS set to change all that, developing relationships with the airport and local businesses as the sign company crafted its challenge to the airport advertising monopoly.

 

“One of the reasons we won a five-year contract with the airport was because we pitched the idea of digital signage, which would create a cleaner environment for the airport, allow many more local businesses to advertise with the airport, give the airport a newer look and feel and provide better customer service,” says Laurie Sigillito of FASTSIGNS Durango.

 

It was actually more complicated than that, though “complicated” is probably not the most accurate term. Instead, FASTSIGNS brought depth to the airport’s atmosphere through the strategic use of six digital sign placements complemented with static signage, mostly in the form of inkjet-printed wall murals.

 

“It was an integrated program meant to change the look of the airport to one more vibrant and community-oriented. The airport wanted us to create an environment that would help inspire people to come back for vacations, relocate their business or buy a home in Durango,” explains Sigillito.

 

The other four-screen digital sign bank is found in the airport’s departure area. FASTSIGNS Durango’s Laurie Sigillito says electronic digital signage is more effective with surrounding static signs, which help differentiate and draw more attention to the on-screen message. Otherwise, it’s just another TV screen. This is the only digital sign that does not have an accompanying wall mural, but that’s expected to change.

The focus has been very much local. Every advertiser is a local business and each has an affordable outlet to tout their products and services to tourists and businesspeople alike. The local aspect was one of FASTSIGNS’ selling points since who is better to serve local interests than a local company?

 

“Previously, the money Durango businesses were paying for local advertising was going outside the state of Colorado. We were able to hire a person here locally to manage this program and build similar programs in the Four Corners area—southwestern Colorado where it borders Utah, New Mexico and Arizona—and keep all the money here,” says Sigillito. “People are often afraid to go against the giant multinational corporation, but we built relationships with all the local businesses that were turned off by working with a big conglomerate and its pay structure with long-term contracts. We were able to put together a custom program that met their individual needs. The lesson we learned was not to be afraid to compete with big companies, because we offer value that larger companies can never provide.”

 

That value is on-the-spot flexibility to easily discern and then meet the needs of local business. It means, in a nutshell, instant customization of the message and the means of getting that message to all their potential consumers.

 

DURANGO DETAILS

Those custom messages are now easily handled by the judicious use of electronic digital signs, networked to Durango FASTSIGNS headquarters. This project was the young company’s first crack at using electronic digital signs as a comprehensive sign and advertising program.

 

“Some of the smaller sign companies haven’t adopted digital signage despite all of its advantages, like capturing the buyer at the point of sale, because it’s so different and can seem overwhelming. I wasn’t too concerned about the implementation. I concentrated on selling it, because once you win it, you’ll figure out how to implement it,” says Sigillito. “You know you can make the technology work, particularly with the backing of FASTSIGNS corporate, NEC and Scala. When the large media company had the contract they had 22 active advertisers. We’ve had the contract for about six months and we have 54 businesses advertising.”

 

The baggage claim area at Durango’s La Plata County airport includes a four-screen digital sign bank and large-format inkjet printed wall murals promoting Durango’s narrow gauge railroad and the historic Strater Hotel.

The FASTSIGNS digital signage package bundles NEC screens with Scala software. There is certainly a learning curve, but Sigillito says the support, training and installation expertise provided by these companies makes it a lot easier than it may appear at first blush. FASTSIGNS Durango used an NEC-certified technician to handle the installation, which was finished right before Christmas.

 

Before

“It’s allowed us to move from being just a sign company to one that’s more involved in the economic development of a community,” says Sigillito. “Now that it’s up and running, it’s very smooth and not at all overwhelming, though there were times in the process that it was.”

 

Everything in the airport was stripped out and repainted in preparation for all the new signage that would transform the various spaces into effective advertising venues. There are two video banks of four 46-inch screens coordinated to make one big screen at baggage claim and the other video bank at departure. The four-screen video bank at baggage claim is further backed by a mural promoting Durango’s famous narrow-gauge railroad and the historic Strater Hotel.

 

Another digital signage placement is found at what’s known as a card rack, which is basically a display filled with brochures and magazines for local and regional tourism. The video screen above the rack rotates local advertisers in seven-second increments. Businesses pay a small fee to be included in the rotating message, making it one of the more popular advertising venues in the airport.

 

Durango Mountain Resort, a.k.a., Purgatory, owns a big spot in the airport with a large printed mural and video screen touting its four-season on-mountain activities. It comes complete with a classic ski lift chair and snowboard in front of the appropriate scenes on the mural so that visitors can get pictures of themselves sitting on the chairlift or on the board to create the illusion of being at the resort. BuzzTown, a social networking company in Durango, owns another mural and video screen in the concourse.

 

A rack card display is a common fixture in tourist-heavy areas, like hotels and airports. FASTSIGNS Durango spiced up this one with a digital sign with advertising that coincides with those featured in the display.

In the security waiting area, Sigillito says it was quite antiseptic, so they warmed it up with a wall mural in the area depicting a living room with all the accoutrements. Above the fireplace in the “living room” sits a 52-inch monitor scrolling Durango businesses involved in anything having to do will living in Durango, such as real estate developers. This area was the brainchild of Jessica Unruh, the person hired by FASTSIGNS Durango specifically to run the program and work with advertisers.

 

FASTSIGNS Durango also made backlit signs and a display for a local jeweler to round out the sign program. Sigillito says the integration of digital with static signage is the most effective way to build an advertising program. She says, “If you just install a digital screen, it’s more like a TV and doesn’t really fit in or really capture your attention. We haven’t integrated static signage with the display in the departure area yet so it’s boring compared to the rest of the airport.”

 

The digital signage network has been “incredible for cash flow,” says Sigillito. FASTSIGNS Durango pays a certain percentage of revenue to the airport as well as the overhead for the system. Despite these built-in costs, FASTSIGNS Durango is already realizing profit over and above costs, which will rise as the software and equipment is eventually paid off after the four-year lease-to-own agreement. Maintaining the system and the advertising is quite simple. They get files, usually created by a video production company, and simply feed them into the system when the contract’s signed.

 

The success of the Durango airport (officially known as the La Plata County Airport) has led to similar contracts in the works at Telluride’s airport and the local chamber of commerce, while creating a solid foothold for future projects in the Four Corners area.