Biking Buddies Offer Mobile Interactive Billboards

In Sacramento there is a public relations guy who is obsessed with cycling. Max Mack, at age 43, rides about 450 miles a week. Recently he organized a bunch of his biking buddies into a nine member team to sell advertising space on their jerseys.

Mack is the owner of Epiphany, a small media relations firm. Because of that background, he is the front man for the group. He offers potential advertisers various-sized ads on the group�s jerseys and shorts. (The group still has ad space available on its shoes, socks and helmets.)

The ad prices range from $1,200 to $5,000 per ad annually. They don�t make a lot of money yet...but enough to buy their high-grade bike outfits, which typically run about $400 a member per year. Their small business advertisers think it�s great, as they don�t have the budget to put their name on Formula One race cars.

Mack�s living billboards zip along city streets, passing cars slowed by traffic and giving bored drivers an eyeful of striking red jerseys scripted with ads. The group�s efforts go even further. When they break at coffee shops they hand-out their clients� discount cards to some of the customers.

Mack has greater ambitious goals...he and his middle-aged buddies want to purchase a professional racing team. He estimates they�ll need to raise about $1 million to get a team started by 2008.