Marketers see fliers waiting to claim bags as captive audience

— -- Airport advertisers are after travelers' last idle moments: waiting for luggage at baggage claims.

Eager to generate more non-aviation revenue, airports including Kansas City, Seattle-Tacoma and Omaha Eppley are placing advertising on baggage carousels. At least 13 others have similar plans, including Atlanta; Philadelphia; Boston Logan; Huntsville, Ala.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Wichita; Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss.; Albany, N.Y.; and Milwaukee Mitchell.

"They're a captive audience, waiting 15 minutes or so for bags to arrive," says Zack Clark of DoubleTake Marketing, which designs and installs ads. "It brings some color and revenue to the airport."

The ads are large adhesive banners placed on the moving portion of the baggage carousel. For carousels that have a series of metal plates that collapse on each other, DoubleTake applies an adhesive graphic to each plate to compose one large banner. Ads range from 20 feet wide to an entire belt.

It's the latest airport advertising initiative targeting a demographic considered wealthy, young and cosmopolitan. Non-aviation revenue makes up about half of U.S. airports' operating revenues, according to Airports Council International-North America.

Some airports have removed public art for advertising, while others have considered placing ads on land adjacent to runways. Advertising can be found on electrical outlet stations near gates, boarding passes printed at home and trays used to place jackets and laptops at security checkpoints. "Look down at your feet. Do the tops of your shoes have ads? If not, it's only a matter of time," says Bob Garfield of industry publication Advertising Age.

Deanna Zachrisson, manager of concessions business at Seattle-Tacoma, says the airport conducted a test with Toyota to determine if carousel ads would be durable. A large banner photo of a Toyota Venza circled at one carousel. "Once we showed it to other advertisers, it was a quick sale," she says.

Seattle-Tacoma has ads on three of 14 carousels and plans to sell more. The airport will also attempt to sell them to conference sponsors that want to advertise their products as attendees arrive.