Different Types of Banners For Triathlon Events
I went to cheer on a friend of mine at the the Wildflower Triathlon event down at Lake San Antonio, CA a couple weeks ago. I had never been to a triathlon so this was a new experience for me. On of the big things that I noticed at this event was how big everything was. A triathlon is not held in a stadium or arena, rather on the country side. The other thing I noticed at Wildflower is that there are a ton of people! The guy I was with told me 40,000 people were at this event, but I don’t know if that number is accurate or not, but I was there and there was a lot of people.
So when you have this many people there are at least 3 types of signs that you’ll see at a triathlon and all of them can be digital printed banners. The three types of signs are directional, advertising, and team banners.
Triathlon Banners That Give Us Direction
At a triathlon they run and bike on a huge course that can span for miles. You have cars, trucks, buses, and RV’s coming in and out of the triathlon grounds, you have athletes on foot and bikes trying to cross the finish line, and you have spectators wandering around. With this many people you have places were people congregate like at the finish line or at the food tents or at the various restroom facilities scattered around the grounds. For all these places where people to be or not to be digital banners can help guide the crowd to the right spot. While I was at Wildflower there a ton of banners lining the barriers along with a-frame signs that were pointing people in the right direction.
Advertising and Sponsorship Banners at a Triathlon
This seems obvious probably but in order for sporting events like a Triathlon to make any money they have to sell tickets, vendor booths, and advertising space. Vendor booths that I saw at Wildflower were anything from a pizza truck, BBQ stand, to tents that sell sporting equipment like shoes and bikes, to a masseuse section where athletes can get a massage after the big race. You could not be a vendor at Wildflower and not have at least a couple signs. The place where all these vendors set up are all temporary structures. Many of them pop up tents that provide shade and then you guessed it, they might hang digital banners in various positions to advertise their wares to the masses.
Sponsorship banners are the same. At Wildflower they had a section where the finish line was located. Both sides of the fence were lined with advertising banners of sponsors of the event. Banner after banner went on for hundreds of feet on both sides of the track. Banners were also at the starting place where people began their swim. Thousands of people gather at the start and the finish line and these banners are just there and will be seen by many through out the whole weekend.
Digital banners are easy to move, install, take down, and sock away for the next event. Banners are cost effective too. This means that you get a pretty big banner for not a lot of money, but you can also take down your vendor stand in hurry since the tent and the banner all roll up for storage.
Triathlon Team Banners
Then there were the individual athletes that run the race. Many of them are individuals just reaching their personal goals, but this was my first time at a triathlon and what I noticed was that there were a ton of teams running the race. Some of them were school teams, church teams, charity teams, and professional sports teams. What is the biggest way that you can say to the world that you are on a team besides the same color jersey? They made a sign with their team name on it. There were many signs like vehicle graphics, and pop up tents but the most common that I saw of the team signs were the team banners hanging between two trees among the tents and RV’s.
Again banners are very cost effective and can get quite large without costing you an arm and a leg. So when teams get together for a triathlon they want to show off their team spirit by hanging a team banner at not a lot of cost and something that is portable.