The New York Jets, a franchise that has spent decades giving its fans plenty of time to contemplate the meaning of patience, would now like those fans to spend some of that time looking at billboards.

The team has struck a partnership with Outfront, the out-of-home advertising company, to extend its marketing beyond MetLife Stadium and into the train platforms, bus shelters and roadside signage that dot the New York metropolitan area. The arrangement, which Outfront is calling "IRL media" — a term that suggests someone in a strategy meeting felt "out-of-home" needed refreshing — aims to give the Jets' corporate sponsors a way to reach supporters during the roughly 357 days a year when there is no home game to attend.

"It's billboards, it's bus shelters, it's digital signage, it's building wraps and it's so much more," said Stacy Minero, the chief marketing and experience officer at Outfront. "We're thinking about this in a much more expansive way than just outdoor."

The partnership arrives during what the out-of-home industry has been calling, with varying degrees of optimism, a renaissance. Global spending in the sector is projected to reach $56.4 billion this year, according to the World Out of Home Organization, and American marketers spent $2.12 billion on the format in the first quarter alone. The renewed interest has been attributed, in part, to consumers seeking respite from their phones — a development that billboard companies have greeted with the enthusiasm of a long-ignored suitor finally getting a return call.

Ms. Minero said the Jets arrangement goes beyond Outfront's previous work with sporting events, including the FIFA World Cup and Formula E racing. Possible executions include countdown clocks to games, real-time data about playing conditions, and QR codes that unlock promotions (for fans willing to point their phones at a bus shelter).

One challenge, Ms. Minero acknowledged, is measurement. The clicks that make digital marketers feel secure are harder to come by when the medium is a building wrap.

"It's not about just launching campaigns," she said. "It's about creating campaigns that are meaningful and memorable."

Whether Jets fans, a group that has developed a particular expertise in meaningful and memorable disappointment, will find the billboards similarly affecting remains to be seen.

Original story published in Marketing Dive: "How the New York Jets extends OOH marketing for better storytelling"