Loud Security hopes to score with baseball advertising

KENNESAW, Ga.—Take your security company out to the ballgame when it comes to advertising. That's an approach that Loud Security, a regional based here, is taking this year, and president and owner John Loud suggests that other security companies might benefit from sports-centric advertising campaigns as well.

Loud Security, which serves metropolitan Atlanta, recently initiated two new baseball-related advertising campaigns. One involves using a “celebrity endorser” and the other involves advertising on the back of ballpark scoreboards.

For one campaign, Loud Security on Feb. 23 signed a five-year contract with Javier Lopez, a popular former catcher in Major League Baseball, for Lopez to endorse the company in a series of commercials, Loud told Security Systems News.

Lopez, who from 1992 to 2006 played for the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox, was “always a fan favorite,” in the Atlanta area, Loud said.

He said more than 700 commercials featuring Lopez will run each month in that region, and Lopez will say: “I used to catch people stealing all the time … but now I leave that to Loud Security.”

Also, Loud noted, Loud Security turns 20 in 2015, which also is the 20th anniversary of when the Atlanta Braves—with Lopez's help—beat the Cleveland Indians to win the 1995 World Series, so the commercials that year will highlight that.

Loud said he plans to generate extra publicity for the Lopez commercials by alerting sports media.

He suggested other alarm dealers nationwide might want to consider the celebrity endorser approach. “They have baseball players in their communities that they can go get as a sponsor,” he said.

This isn't the first time Loud has used sports-centric advertising. In the past, Loud Security paid for "Let's get Loud" segments at the Atlanta Braves' home games. At certain points during the game, the Loud Security banner would flash and the crowd would be prompted to chant, "Let's get Loud."

The second campaign Loud is launching this year also is ballpark focused.

Earlier in February, Loud Security signed a 10-year contract with the Coca-Cola Co. to be on the backs of 50 scoreboards in 41 baseball parks in the Atlanta region, Loud said.

“People always think of the front of the scoreboard, so this is kind of out-of-the box marketing thinking,” he said. “The advantage of the back is it's a whole lot less costly, it's a whole lot bigger in size and I was able to handpick the scoreboards that either had street visibility or big parking-lot visibility.”

He said Loud Security will have full rights over the 5-by-10-foot advertising space on the scoreboards.

The scoreboards are located in Cobb County, where the commercials also will run, Loud said. Loud Security, which has about 5,800 customers, is based in Cobb County, which is part of the five-county Atlanta metropolitan area. “We're focusing on where our strength and customers are,” Loud said.

He said the county has about 700,000 residents, only about 75,000 of whom are registered alarm users, “so there's a lot of marketplace.”