Marketing with a message while helping city schools - Van Wagner Communications programed, National Backboard Network - Managing Your Small Business - Brief Article

Nation's Business, Dec, 1995

Thanks to companies of all sizes, inner-city schools around the country are sporting new basketball backboards, hoops, and nets--supplied at no cost to school districts to replace equipment that had been damaged or stolen. In return, the donor companies' logos are displayed on the backboards along with positive motivational messages such as "Stay in School" and "Winners Never Quit."

An outdoor-advertising firm, Van Wagner Communications, in New York, started the program, called the National Backboard Network. NBN installs, inspects, and maintains the equipment that companies buy.

So far, new backboards have been put up in 1,500 schools--one per school--in New York, Dallas, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. NBN hopes to add more business sponsors to furnish second backboards in each of those schools.

Businesses interested in participating or in starting the program in their city should call Tom Turner, vice president for marketing and sales at Van Wagner Communications, at (212) 953-7744. The monthly cost per backboard is $50, and NBN asks for a three-year commitment.