April 08--If your nose doesn't tell you that allergy season has arrived, your eyes will.
That's because Allegra activated nine large digital billboards around Chicago on Monday whose message is triggered by high daily pollen counts. The advertising campaign, the first of its kind for the allergy medication brand, will hit drivers on busy highways throughout the city and suburbs based on real-time information, with a pitch to keep the sniffles at bay.
The digital billboards, which are owned by Outfront Media, include such messages as "Don't sneeze and drive." Like the noses of allergy sufferers, the ads are expected to run for the next two weeks based on predicted medium to high pollen counts in the Chicago area. Allegra will rotate with other advertisers, appearing for about 8 seconds every minute.
Drivers will likely see more messages as the weather warms up and the trees begin to bud, a sure sign that the fluctuating eight-month allergy season is in full swing.
The long winter delayed the start of the allergy season in Chicago, but the once-massive blanket of snow is one of the reasons behind a pollen punch in the next few weeks, according to Dr. Joseph Leija, a retired allergist who conducts the official Midwest daily pollen count for the National Allergy Bureau.
"It's going to be heavy," said Leija, 85. "All the snow is water, and water is the main thing the trees need to pollinate. You can see the trees are ready to pollinate."
Hay fever season generally runs from spring through fall, when airborne pollen released from plants triggers an allergic reaction for more than 45 million people in the U.S., according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Trees are the root cause of such allergies in the spring, with grass pollen the culprit in the summer and weeds in the fall. Symptoms include sneezing, a runny nose and tearing eyes.
Allegra-branded products had nearly $340 million in U.S. sales through the latest 52-week period ended March 22, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm. That is down 1.2 percent, but timing its ads to coincide with pollen spikes may help Allegra blow past that sales total this year.
"It's running for two weeks to start off with," said Clive Punter, chief revenue officer for New York-based Outfront Media, formerly known as CBS Outdoor, one of the largest billboard companies in the U.S. "Digital tends to be highly responsive, which means we can run short-term campaigns."
Locations featuring the Allegra ads include the Tri-State Tollway at Mannheim Road near O'Hare Airport, the Stevenson Expressway at First Avenue and Outfront Media's newest and largest digital billboard in the market, a 20-by-60-foot sign at the Eisenhower Expressway and 25th Avenue.
The campaign was developed for Allegra by New York-based ad agency Karlen Williams Graybill. Already running in Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Phoenix, it is expanding to Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Chicago as temperatures and pollen counts rise.
The ad agency and Allegra will monitor the pollen count on a daily basis, Punter said. The threshold for running the ads is a moderate pollen count or above. As of Tuesday, Chicago already had crossed into the high level, according to the National Allergy Bureau Pollen and Mold Report.
Chicago is among the worst cities in the nation for hay fever, Leija said. Pollution plays a role in elevating pollen counts, providing carbon dioxide for plants to flourish.
A national expert in allergies and respiratory conditions, Leija retired in 2012, but continues to take daily pollen counts during the allergy reporting season. Each morning, he uses a pollen-catching machine atop a building at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park to provide readings for Chicago and the Midwest.
A daily pollen count gives allergy sufferers advance warning to take medication, which, Leija said, can be effective in reducing hay fever symptoms. He also suggests keeping windows closed on days with high pollen counts.
Leija, who has been giving Chicagoans with allergies a heads-up for more than two decades, is certified by the National Allergy Bureau and takes the readings as a public service. He said the billboard campaign might help him spread the word -- before the full-blown hay fever season takes hold.
In the future, the billboard ads may be triggered automatically by a computer program measuring pollen counts in real time, Punter said. For now, the advertising campaign depends on people such as Leija, but with a decidedly more commercial mission.
"We hope that it sells product, that the advertising will work, so that Allegra in those areas will see a boost in sales," Punter said.
rchannick@tribpub.com
