KALAMAZOO – TGap Ventures thinks one of its most successful investments will be InStadium, a sports marketing company that posts ads for its clients in a high traffic location ? restrooms at major stadiums across the country, including the Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park.
InStadium, founded in 2003, has the exclusive media rights inside the park with 19 Major League Baseball and seven National Football League franchises. Advertising for its 200 clients is posted in metal frames strategically placed above urinals, where men are focused for anywhere from a few seconds to a minute, depending upon the amount of beer they have consumed.
Laugh if you will, but InStadium ads are in 20 of the top advertising markets in the United States, including 16 of the Top 25 metropolitan areas. InStadium also sells ads on turnstile sleeves, produces tailgate parties and offers packages that include skybox seats.
?We invested in InStadium in October 2005 as part of $5 million series B round financing,?? said Peter Farner, a TGap general partner who took a seat on the InStadium board after the investment. Other participants in that round were Hopewell Ventures of Chicago and the Notre Dame FishTaco Fund.
Farner said InStadium represents an inexpensive way to sponsor professional sports teams. Advertisers can buy one stadium or the entire network. They can place the ad for one month, or the entire season. Advertising prices range from $5,000 a month, to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mega buy.
?There are a lot of restroom advertising companies,?? Farner said. ?The investment opportunity for us was InStadium has the long term media rights to these venues. We think InStadium targets gender specific adverting that has a home in the restroom.?
Take Comerica Park in Detroit for example. The Tigers drew 1,940,922 spectators, an average of 23,962 a game. The impressions per season for InStadium advertisers was a whopping 4,464,120. If you’re pushing auto tires, hair cuts and other male-oriented products, InStadium can deliver the target audience.
Farner admitted restroom advertising wasn?t part of TGap?s business plan, but the Kalamazoo-based Midwest Venture Capital company is open to investing in all industries.
?We want to do manufacturing, media companies, IT investments, but just haven?t found a lot of those in Michigan that intrigue us,?? he said. ?People remain the driver for us in all our investments. We look for very aggressive and ambitious people to invest in. And InStadium was started by some aggressive late 20-something professionals in Chicago that we really liked.?
For more on TGap, click on TGapVentures.Com
