Bumvertising

Bumvertising

**Overview **

Bumvertising is the use of [|homeless] citizens to advertise for companies on their signs, it is a new form of advertising developed by Front Door Enterprise, a specialty marketing firm. In 2005 Benjamin Rogovy, president and chief economist of Front Door Enterprises, developed this system after realizing the enormous potential in wasted homeless labor. The homeless use a business model that takes advantage of high volume traffic, with the expectation that, on average, a certain number of people will donate to them in the form of cash, clothing, or food. Currently the highest concentration of Bumvertisers is located in the city of Seattle, Washington. **Reasons for Using **



Bumvertising provides companies with an extremely cost effective way to advertise to a very large audience, because these homeless advertisers are in big cities around the nation they can reach a high volume of consumers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Bumvertising also benefits the homeless advertiser because he is paid in either money or food in turn for them holding up their signs with advertisements attached. **Limitations of Use **



Bumvertisers are typically located on the streets in major cities around the nation, so naturally a limitation of Bumvertising is that a companies message will not reach people in more rural areas throughout the country. Another limitation of Bumvertising is sometimes the homeless advertisers may not be the most reliable employees.  **Costs of Advertising** 

Bumvertising is an extremely cost effective form of advertising, companies must pay homeless advertisers in the form of clothing, food, or at least state minimum wage for their services. All these factors make Bumvertising an enticing alternative to other traditional [|outdoor advertising] medias. **Reach and Frequency of Advertising **

Bumvertising is currently focused in the Seattle, Washington region, but with this new form of advertising can easily grow and expand nationally, making the reach very desireable to companies interested in emerging medias. Once Bumvertising expands it can have a national reach, with an advertising frequency of 24 hours a day, 365 days a year due to homeless advertisers always being outdoors.

**Scheduling Strategies for Advertising **



Bumvertising is a unique new form of outdoor advertising because it utilizes the homeless work force, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">an employee that is constantly outdoors, thus the advertising schedule is continuous, with the only limitation being that consumers may not see the advertisements at night because of the darkness, which may suggest a slight pulsing schedule of advertisements. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">General Impact of Advertising **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Many homeless advocates argue that Bumvertising takes advantage of homeless citizens, and is terrible for the entire homeless community. Bumvertising creator Benjamin Rogovy argues that Bumvertising is a chance to enrich the homeless community, and provides homeless citizens with some legitimacy and generous compensation. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Audience Qualities **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Bumvertising aims to advertise to consumers who are out and about in major cities around the nation, including businessmen and consumers with day jobs in major citiies. Bumvertising has been particuarly successful on the west coast due to the climate allowing homeless citizens to be outside for long periods of time. Currently an online gaming company has a campaign in place with Bumvertising, Strategic Domination is a free online multiplayer strategy game. The audience this online gaming company is trying to reach is online gamers, mostly males. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Responsiveness of Audiences **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Bumvertising aims to increase awareness for its clients companies, and increase flow to their websites by placing the web address on the homeless advertisers sign, increased awareness and website traffic are aimed to lead to increased sales for the companies that utilize Bumvertising. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Advertisers who are Successfully using this Emerging Media **

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An online gaming company is currently running an advertising campaign with Bumvertising, the online game is called [|Strategic Domination], it is a free multiplayer strategy game, and the company is currently running advertisements in the Seattle area. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Videos **

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Bhargava, Mukesh, and Naveen Donthu. "Sales Response to Outdoor Advertising." //Journal of Advertising Research// (1999). //Google Scholar//. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.