“The Harriman-Jewell Series is like no other organization in Kansas City, truly.”
When Tracy Ingle, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Harriman-Jewell Series decided to step into the world of transit advertising, she knew that their advertisement had to be just as unique as the organization. And so, they partnered with Adsposure to create a vibrant, colorful, engaging bus that covers the streets of Kansas City and shares the mission of the Series with the community.
Bringing the Best to Kansas City
The Harriman-Jewell Series was established in 1965 to bring the best of the performing arts to Kansas City, first. The Harriman-Jewell Series, located in Liberty, Missouri, has embarked on its 59th season, after celebrating its 1,000th performance last year. From concerts to ballets and recital debuts – the Harriman-Jewell series showcases prominent arts from across the globe. Additionally, through their free Discovery Concerts, the greater Kansas City community has access to, “life-enriching opportunities for [the] community’s youth and lifelong learners.”
In 2004, the Harriman-Jewell Series – backed by generous donors – launched Discovery Concerts. This program provides free concerts to the Kansas City community, and to date over 55,000 people have attended these concerts. “It’s really fun to have those Discover Concerts because you get to see a great number of people who you typically wouldn’t see at a series performance,” says Ingle. “We have a lot of young children, young families that come to those events.”
Bringing the arts to Kansas City, and making these experiences available to people of all backgrounds, is the purpose of the Harriman-Jewell Series.
Building Brand Awareness
For the Harriman-Jewell Series, the motivation behind working with Adsposure and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority was to build brand awareness. And what better way than a 40-foot mobile billboard?
For Ingle, she knew a full wrap was the perfect direction to take with transit advertising to build the name recognition she was hoping to.
“When I first found out that we could be on the entire bus, it was really exciting for me, because our main goal with using the bus is to get name recognition. To have big, huge, beautiful images of our artists driving around Kansas City with our logo all over the bus [is exciting].”
And the bus definitely turns heads and garners attention! The bus has Harriman-Jewell Series’ logo on every side, and its vibrant design includes images of this season’s artists surrounded by bright pops of color. This bus is hard to miss!
“It’s super exciting to see the bus in the wild. We’ve actually been at the Folly at a performance getting ready outside, and we saw the bus drive by and everyone gets really excited. And that was really cool. It’s really fun,” says Ingle. “When people see the bus and they know who the Harriman-Jewell Series is, it’s just a reminder…and if they don’t know who we are, we hope it just makes them really curious as to want to know more about us.”
And the bus has been doing just that. Ingle says that people come into performances and tell her that they’ve seen the bus, or send her photos of the bus on the streets all the time
Driving Creativity in Kansas City
Tracy had a vision for the Harriman-Jewell Series bus. Each season, the Harriman-Jewell Series has a theme, and she knew that she wanted to incorporate that theme into the design of the bus. Now on the third bus that they’ve created with KCATA and Adsposure, there is a plan of attack for coming up with such a showstopping design. Tracy mocks up the design in house, and then hands it off to the Adsposure design team for the final touches.
“In my role as Marketing Director for the Series, I get to do a lot of fun things…But definitely the bus by far is one of my most favorite things that I get to do,” says Ingle.
The Harriman-Jewell Series advertises across many different mediums, but there is truly nothing like your design rolling by on a 40 foot bus!
Advertising That Gives Back
Unlike other mediums, when you choose to advertise with Adsposure, part of the dollars spent on advertising goes directly back to the transit authority and the community. This is especially important in Kansas City and for KCATA, where transit is free for residents. For Tracy and the Harriman-Jewell Series, this is just an added benefit of working with Adsposure.
“I actually did not know that part of those ad dollars went back to KCATA and knowing that makes it so much better… knowing that our ad dollars are making free transportation possible, in some small way, is really exciting. People use transit for work, for school, for errands, and knowing that advertising performing arts is helping that is pretty neat.”
Ready to jump into the world of transit advertising? Our experts can work with you to meet your advertising goals! We can’t wait to see your 40-foot moving billboard.