Ad Firm Lands Contract for Digital Deal at Little Rock Airport

Clear Channel Airports of Allentown, Pa., has announced a five-year contract to provide digital advertising within Little Rock’s Clinton National Airport.

The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission chose Clear Channel Air-ports after a competitive bidding process.

The deal grants Clear Channel Airports the exclusive right to sell sign space within the airport to advertisers for at least five years.

The airport is contracted to earn a minimum of $800,000 from Clear Channel Airports, possibly more. The ad company will pay Clinton National a fee that “equals the greater of a maximum annual guarantee of $160,000 or 50% of gross revenue on traditional advertising sales and 40% of technology advertising sales,” according to airport spokesman Shane Carter. “It’s a revenue generator for the airport.”

The airport, if satisfied with Clear Channel Airports’ services, can opt to retain the company for an additional five years without requesting bids again.

Scott Appnel, spokesman for Clear Channel Airports, said his company would initially invest at least $250,000 to remove outdated signage from the airport and to install its own video wall, tension fabric displays, touch-screen kiosks and more. The new technology should require less power and be more environmentally friendly than the existing signs, he said.

The new displays will be installed between June 15 and July 1.

Local advertisers shouldn’t see their costs increase for airport internal ad space, Appnel said, and travelers will begin to see a “high-tech face to Little Rock” to include a 24-foot-by-4.5-foot video wall near the airport’s baggage claim area.

Clear Channel Airports has hired The Design Group of Little Rock to handle publicity and some sales work locally.

Clear Channel Airports replaced Departure Media of Charleston, S.C., as the Little Rock airport’s ad provider. From February 2007 to March 31, 2012, Departure Media paid the airport a total of $926,214.