From the May issue: With so many luxury rentals on the market in New York, advertising plays a key role in persuading tenants to pick one building over another. This month, The Real Deal dissected an advertisement to find out how marketers of new rental buildings convince potential tenants to click on a website, check out an apartment and (hopefully) sign a lease.

This ad, called “Declare your independence,” is part of the much buzzed-about campaign for New York by Gehry, the 76-story FiDi rental tower at 8 Spruce Street that hit the market in February 2011, and is now almost 80 percent leased. [more]

From the South Florida website: Palm Beach County residents are lining up to turn the facades of their homes into billboard advertisements in order to subsidize their mortgages, thanks to an offer from California-based Adzookie. The Palm Beach Post reported that the firm, which covers mortgage payments for each month that the homes keep the ads up, launched its campaign last week and already has 44 homeowners signed up in Palm Beach County. [more]

Brown Publishing, which publishes the East End’s largest newspaper, Dan’s Papers, has filed for bankruptcy, according to BusinessWeek, amidst real estate-driven financial woes. Dan’s Papers, which serves a largely affluent reader base and charges $100 a year for subscriptions, has struggled in the financial downturn, according to industry experts. [more]

In a down economy, displaying advertisements on an apartment building’s exterior might sound like a good way for a co-op board to rake in a little extra dough. But, as one co-op board learned at 59 Fourth Avenue, which was charged nearly $1 million by the city for illegal advertising displays, it’s relatively easy to get tripped up in the fine print. It’s important for property owners and boards to look through the laws and regulations that apply to their neighborhoods before jumping into an advertising arrangement, Carly Sullivan, a Department of Buildings spokesperson said. “The property owner may not even realize they need to get a permit — and they’re not necessarily told by the outdoor advertising company,” Sullivan said. Once you learn whether or not your neighborhood is properly zoned for outdoor advertising, it’s important to make sure that you’re working with a city-approved outdoor advertising company — getting on board with one that isn’t city registered could lead to conflict, according to Mitch Schwartz, vice president of Clear Channel Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company. “You’ve got to interview them, understand the legal parameters and stress that safety issues are paramount,” Schwartz said.

From the July issue: As real estate agents look for new ways to increase their name
recognition in a highly competitive market, some are trying their luck
on the silver screen.
Susan Skinner, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, recently
started advertising on 12 screens at the AMC movie theater on Broadway
and 68th Street near Lincoln Center and said the benefits far outweigh
the costs to produce the 15-second clip. While Skinner started her
movie ads a few years ago, she said her most recent ad speaks to what’s
going on in the current down market. She noted that in the down market, her appearances on the big
screen have helped her differentiate herself from other brokers who do
standard mailings. [more]

Marketers are taking advantage of empty retail spaces by leasing them
at cut-rate prices and covering them with ads. The store windows of
empty spaces around the city have been covered with ads for companies
including Intel,
Nestea and Snickers. The advertisers pay only 10 to 15 percent of
what a retailer would, said William Walther, president of Granite
Companies Asset Management, which owns several buildings in Manhattan.
Nationwide, the retail vacancy rate rose to 11.2 percent
during the first quarter of the year, the highest it has been since the
early 1990s, according to CBRE Econometric Advisors. [more]