Uncertain Economy Brings New Life to Old Business, New Company

Retailers feeling the woes of a floundering economy and escalating advertising costs are finding renewed value in one of the oldest forms of advertising - the walking billboard.

January 26, 2008 Long Beach, CA -- As the the stock market slides, and the dollar plummets, retailers are feeling the squeeze. With rising oil prices and a weak dollar, consumers are spending less on big-ticket items, such as automobiles. The crisis in the sub-prime mortgage industry has also taken it's toll on furniture store retailers, home improvement centers and other major retailers. With advertising budgets shrinking across the board, one southern California advertising agency is enjoying a fresh start and renewed success by offering it's clients affordable advertising alternatives using human directionals.

Long Beach based Advanced Advertising Promotions LLC is an advertising agency specializing in retail sign events using human directionals. "'Sign walkers' are what we call them in the industry" explained Mark Williams, C.E.O. of the newly formed company. "More and more corporations are incorporating our sign events into their advertising budgets. They offer our clients a 'quick fix' so to speak. Since these are mostly weekend events, our clients usually see relatively instant results. It's not uncommon for the average retailer to experience a 30-50 percent increase in sales while hosting a sign promotion on a busy weekend." Williams also eluded to some near-future enhancements to AAP's sign event program but was not prepared to go into detail at this time.

"It was like the breakup of the AT&T of the sign event industry" remarked Williams' new business partner Dennis Keizer, of the now dissolved Advanced Media Solutions. "We all had to decide where to hang our hats. Mark and I have known each other for over twenty years. Together we have a strong client base and we can offer them better and more complete service. We've already been very busy."

"We had one of these sign events over the holidays and sold over 50 cars" said ValleyHi Honda's General Manager, Frank Montebello. "We've used signage and sign walkers in the auto industry for ever. In the car business, we're always looking for a way to generate excitement at the dealership. These events work well as long as you don't overuse them" he concluded.

With consumers constantly being inundated by television, radio, internet, e-mail and print ads, more companies are looking for a way to stand out. Sign promotions offer the retailer a way to get their message to consumers that are already in the area, thus creating the opportunity for the impulse purchase.

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Contact: Marketing Department
Advanced Advertising Promotions LLC
3505 Long Beach Blvd. Ste. 2-D
Long Beach, CA 90807
562-612-3680

About Mark Williams: Mark Williams was born in Fort Wayne Indiana. He moved to California in 1986 and began his business career in the corrugated packaging industry. As a national account representative Williams focused his attention on value-added packaging and point-of-purchase displays, and began to gain an interest in the creative and printing aspect of the P.O.P. industry. After another decade in the printing industry, Williams partnered with Chad Zaputil and formed Advanced Media Solutions LLC. in 2004. AMS quickly grew to become the largest sign event company in the United States servicing such national accounts as K-Mart, Best Buy, Autonation, and La-Z-Boy. The company performed over 2000 sign events in 2007. Last year, Williams and Zaputil agreed to dissolve AMS at which time Williams partnered with Dennis Keizer to form Advanced Advertising Promotions LLC.

About Dennis Keizer: Dennis Keizer is a native Californian. He worked in the corrugated packaging industry as a structural designer of custom packaging and point of purchase displays through most of the 1980's. It was over twenty years ago in the corrugated packaging industry when Keizer met his current business partner, Mark Williams. After over a decade of creative design experience, Keizer took his talents to the streets and became an independent sales representative for Express Packaging Company. Early in 2004 Williams recruited Keizer, who then turned his efforts to selling sign events and promotions. Last year Keizer partnered with Williams to form Advanced Advertising Promotions LLC., where he currently oversees the daily operations of the company.

About Advanced Advertising Promotions: Advanced Advertising Promotions LLC was founded by Mark Williams and Dennis Keizer to better serve their retail customers by providing innovative, aggressive, and cost-effective advertising alternatives. A.A.P. incorporates brightly-colored storefront signage with professional human directionals to attract passersby and drive traffic to retail businesses. For more information, visit http://www.advancedadvertisingpromotions.com/

This release was published on openPR.