Campus, News

SG, SAO to sell ads on BUS

Boston University Student Government and the BU Student Activities Office have collaborated during the fall 2012 semester to bring student group advertisements to the BU Shuttle beginning in the spring 2013 semester, SAO and SG officials said.

Student groups will be able to design their own advertisements that will run on the inside of the shuttle for two weeks, said Taylor Sevigny, coordinator of programs at SAO.

“Any student group is able to advertise on the shuttle,” Sevigny said. “It’s really open to anyone.”

Sevigny said a number of student groups on campus have voiced that they will use the new advertising program.

“Specific groups that will probably utilize this are the groups that are already active on our campus,” she said. “Anyone from a Greek Life organization to the programming council. A lot of our cultural groups will use it and our groups that have performances.”

SG President Dexter McCoy said there is already interest surrounding the new advertising method.

“We’ve gotten a couple of organizations’ leaders who have come into our office asking about it,” McCoy, a College of Communication junior, said. “A lot of groups are really interested in it.”

The program will allow students to run advertisements at an affordable cost for two weeks at a time and will ensure the advertisements are evenly distributed among the different buses, Sevigny said.

McCoy said pricing was a significant concern while planning the initiative.

“It’s also important that it’s accessible and that people are able to use it,” he said.

Sevigny said the advertisements will need to pass SAO guidelines and so they need to be submitted two weeks ahead of time.

“Groups will have to request this through our office, through our events management process,” Sevigny said. “They’ll have to do it well in advance.”

Organizations that want to advertise on the BUS will need to plan in advance when they want to run the advertisements, McCoy said.

Since SG is an advocacy group for the student body and students expressed an interest in advertising, McCoy said it is an important initiative to pursue.

“It was something that would improve access to advertising and to publicity for student groups,” he said. “One of our priorities was improving the student experience and access to resources at SAO.”

Lauren Morales, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said the new advertising opportunity will benefit clubs struggling to publicize their activities.

“It’s good because there’s always people going in and out of the shuttles every day,” Morales said. “It’s a good way to get the word out there and let people know what’s going on.”

She said clubs typically advertise in the George Sherman Union, but not all BU students regularly go to the GSU.

“If a club caught my eye or an event or something that was publicized on the BUS, I’d definitely want to check it out,” Morales said.

Michael Snyder, a College of Engineering junior, also said the advertising will be good for clubs who have trouble getting the word out.

“It’s a big campus and it’s linear,” Snyder said. “Lots of times if you’re just advertising on West Campus, you’re not going to be able to reach the kids on the other side of campus.”

The BUS advertisements will help inform students of different activities happening around campus, said Rachel Gill, a CAS freshman.

Gill said even though the advertising space costs money, groups will probably pay to use it.

“Ultimately if they [the clubs] want it, they’ll go out of their way to advertise,” she said.

Snyder said BUS riders will notice the student groups’ advertisements when they run next semester.

“I notice the stuff on the T whenever I ride it,” he said. “I imagine that it would be the same for the BU bus as well.”

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