Banner biz goes up Labor Day

— -- Even if vacationers forget their beach books this weekend, they'll have plenty of reading material. Marketers will be covering the shorelines for the summer-ending holiday with an air show of ad banners towed by small planes.

Aerial ad company High Exposure will do more than 80 flights for nearly 50 advertisers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, says owner David Dempsey.

While the Ocean City, N.J.-based company serves markets nationwide, the majority of its flights this weekend will be over beaches from Cape May, N.J., through the Hamptons in New York.

"Satellite radios and iPods are so popular that people aren't getting hit with radio ads on the beach, and there are no billboards in the ocean," he says. "So if you want to reach (beachgoers) the only way is with air advertising."

Labor Day "is a very big weekend" for outdoor ad giant Van Wagner Communications, says partner John Massoni. The company has 40 planes taking off this weekend to fly banner ads across the USA, with "the majority utilized for beach advertising."

Banners share a selling point with Van Wagner's billboards and posters, he says: "We're TiVo-proof."

The largest banner New York City-based Van Wagner flies now is 50 feet high and 100 feet long (5,000 square feet). That size has been bought by companies such as Geico, Diageo and Fairfield Inn.

Massoni says that within a few weeks it will launch a 65-foot by 135-foot mega-banner.

But size doesn't always matter in making a banner stand out. Smart counts, as these banners show:

• East Bay Crab & Grille. This Egg Harbor, N.J., restaurant doesn't waste space flying its name. Its banner simply reads: "All-U-Can-Eat-Crabs 7 Nites" and gives the phone number.

"Everybody and their mother have cellphones now," says partner Chuck Armstrong. Soon after the planes take off, his phones "don't stop ringing."

A bonus he says: Even if callers don't come that night, his number is stored in their phones.

• Yellow Tail. The wine brand's banner campaign on the East and West coasts came with a twist: The tails of the tow planes were painted bright yellow.