• by Lynn Russo Whylly , April 15, 2008

Fly into any of the three New York City area airports - LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy or Newark Liberty International - and the first thing you'll see as your plane taxis up to the gate is, no, not your five-year-old waving through the window, but ads. On the outside of the jet bridge is a bright red HSBC logo. Walk through the jet bridge and you'll see panel ads for the international bank on both sides of the wall.

"Airport advertising delivers an affluent audience with high discretionary spending power," says Bob Cilia, executive vice president of sales and marketing, airports, for outdoor media firm JCDecaux NA, who placed the missives. "HSBC recognizes that," he says, adding that "it matches up well with their positioning to be the world's local bank."

"Strategically, jet bridges become a way of connecting brands to something very physical, as well as emotional," notes Richard Notarianni, executive creative director, media, of Euro RSCG, who says that more than 500 million people pass through the top 10 U.S. airports a year.

For now, jet bridge ads are being used strictly as a branding device. There are no current plans to add Bluetooth or RFID chips, Cilia says. But when they do, oh boy, just wait till these puppies can interact with the chips in your passport.