How Associations Are Unlocking New Non-Dues Revenue Through Out-of-Home Advertising
Consider a large medical conference with more than 12,000 annual attendees. Identifying, vetting, and implementing new sponsorship opportunities at that scale is a significant undertaking. EMC Outdoor brings more than 32 years of experience supporting association events and tradeshows through OOH advertising — a track record that makes them a natural fit for associations looking to expand beyond traditional sponsorship packages.
This expertise allows association teams to offer a new category of sponsorship opportunity — one that lets industry partners reach attendees throughout their entire journey to the event, not just on the show floor. In one association’s first year of partnership, the conference was held in Washington, DC.
Working with the tradeshow marketing team at EMC Outdoor, the association identified sponsorship opportunities throughout the city — from the airport and Union Station to the Metro, rideshare vehicles, billboards, bus kiosks, and bespoke, creative, experiential marketing campaigns that exhibitors used to drive attendee traffic to their booths and educational events, including satellite symposia and product theaters.
Expanding Non-dues Revenue With New Sponsorship Opportunities
I was responsible for identifying, vetting, and implementing new sponsorship opportunities and expanding non-dues revenue for my association’s large medical conference supporting 12,000+ attendees annually. I discovered EMC Outdoor through their LinkedIn presence and quickly learned they had supported association events and tradeshows using OOH advertising for over 32 years!
This expertise promised to help our team offer new sponsorship opportunities to industry partners by allowing sponsors and advertisers to target attendees throughout their journey to the event. The first year we partnered, our conference was in Washington, DC.
I worked with the tradeshow marketing team at EMC Outdoor to identify new sponsorships throughout the city, from the airport and Union Station to the Metro, rideshare, billboards, bus kiosks, and bespoke, creative, experiential marketing campaigns the exhibitors could utilize to drive attendee traffic to their booths and educational events like satellite symposia and product theaters.
Preserving Your Existing Sponsorships
A common concern when introducing new sponsorship offerings is the risk of cannibalizing existing revenue. EMC Outdoor works with association teams to develop a pricing and timing strategy that protects current revenue streams. OOH advertising packages are typically introduced to existing sponsors, additional exhibitors, and non-exhibiting companies as a complementary tier — not a replacement for existing opportunities.
Extending off-campus opportunities to all potential advertisers — including those who cannot afford a booth or traditional sponsorship — broadens the pool of revenue sources.
Working with EMC Outdoor as the official media buying agency of record for the event positions an association to:
- Capture the non-dues revenue dollars.
- Control the message by approving the ad creative before installation.
- Approve the placements of the ads around the convention and along the attendees’ journey.
No Additional Work — EMC Outdoor Amplified Our Capacity for Expanding Non-Dues Revenue
For most association sponsorship teams, bandwidth is a constant constraint. Staff members juggle multiple responsibilities — registration, housing, exhibits, affiliated events, marketing — and any new revenue initiative must justify itself without significantly adding to that workload. This is where EMC Outdoor’s partnership model is particularly well-suited to the association environment.
EMC Outdoor uses the association’s exhibitor and sponsor list to market OOH advertising opportunities directly, functioning as a seamless extension of the association team. This arrangement is especially effective because OOH media is a specialized field — advertisers ask detailed questions about placements, formats, and pricing that require deep market knowledge. Because many association events rotate cities each year, that expertise is especially valuable. EMC Outdoor knows the media landscape in each market, so the association team doesn’t need to.
There are millions of OOH opportunities across the U.S., served by thousands of media operators. EMC Outdoor has logged more than 10,000 hours of boots on the ground in the top twenty convention markets — giving associations a trusted, established guide through a complex media environment.
EMC Outdoor prepares custom proposals for every sponsor inquiry and provides white-glove service throughout the entire advertising lifecycle — from proposal and invoice to fulfillment, proof of performance, and collections. This end-to-end management means association staff can focus on their core responsibilities while non-dues revenue grows in the background.
Over the last decade, EMC Outdoor has been able to deliver new association partners an average of $130,000 in the first year of partnership!
Several factors shape the revenue outcome of each partnership.
- Start early so there is time to promote these opportunities.
- The city and available media play a role. Associations compete with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and other national advertisers for the same media inventory.
- Competition, product launches, and the general landscape of available sponsor budgets all influence the final revenue outcome.
- Trust and effective collaboration between the association sponsorship team and EMC Outdoor’s tradeshow marketing team.
These variables shape the ultimate outcome. A partnership that launches only six months before an event, for example, will find that many advertisers have already committed their budgets elsewhere. Those still looking to make a bigger impact — or to differentiate with city-wide visibility — become the prime targets for OOH packages.
Advertisers who engage in the first year and see results tend to return and increase their investment. Companies begin to incorporate conference OOH into their annual budgets as a reliable channel for reaching association members — their core target audience. These strategic partnerships generate non-dues revenue that compounds year after year. Companies begin to budget for conference OOH and invest advertising dollars to reach the association members who are their target audience.
What is the cost of expanding non-dues revenue?
Associations can partner with EMC Outdoor at no financial cost. The primary investment is time — typically 5 to 20 hours in the first year. The cost of OOH advertising includes an association fee built into the media pricing. If the program does not gain traction with sponsors, the association risks nothing.
Contact Us to learn more about how EMC can help grow your non-dues revenue.