Runningboards Marketing Helps Students Celebrate Through Socially-Distanced Graduation Ceremonies

Runningboards Marketing recently supported the community of its hometown — Watertown, New York — by participating in various graduation ceremonies to help local students and their families commemorate this important milestone.

“Because of COVID-19, Governor Cuomo closed school buildings and restricted how many people could be at public events,” said Runningboards Marketing COO Chris Mooney. “This made traditional graduation ceremonies a near impossibility. A couple of our employees had seniors graduating, so we brainstormed different ways we could make their graduations memorable in a positive way. Afterwards we approached local schools to see how we could help them as well.”

Graduation ceremony support

Runningboards Marketing offered digital graduation messaging with its Digital Advertising Vehicle (DAV®) for several school districts, including Alexandria Central School District; Lyme Central School District; Sackets Harbor Central School District; Carthage Central School District; Indian River Central School District; La Fargeville Central School District; Watertown City School District and Belleville Henderson Central School District.

Many of the local schools provided outdoor ceremonies that followed social distancing requirements, utilizing DAV to display photos and videos of the graduating students. Each ceremony was a bit different, with some requesting DAV to be parked and others having the trucks join in their parades.

“For a few graduations, we were part of town-wide parades where we displayed a slide show of the graduates and had music playing,” said Mooney. “The families loved seeing the pictures and videos we displayed on DAV. It seemed like everyone had their phones out taking pictures and videos. For another, we set up like a drive-in theater and played a video of the graduation that had been pre-recorded, and sent the audio out to vehicles with an FM transmitter.”

Community involvement model

As Mooney points out, the Runningboards Marketing business model has always allowed franchise owners to interact with their respective communities.

“RBM has a very unique product: DAV,” said Mooney. “DAV allows owners to be a part of any community event, and bring along stunning graphics and premier audio. Our LED screens are versatile in that we can display anything that uses an HDMI port, or can be converted to one. And DAV is mobile, which means we can be almost anywhere. Whether a client wants to advertise their local business or give a friend a birthday shoutout, the options are almost endless.”

With DAV’s ability to run a variety of ads, Runningboards Marketing was deemed an essential business during the initial lockdown in New York. So long as DAV ran public service announcements related to COVID-1, Runningboards Marketing was able to carry on with business. This, along with the franchise’s low-cost business model**, which does not require a brick-and-mortar location or numerous staff members, creates a fun and relatively hassle-free business ownership opportunity during any economic climate.

Franchise growth and opportunities

This may be why the brand was able to accomplish the incredible feat of** signing its first two franchisees during the pandemic**.

Now, the brand is continuing to look for qualified franchisees to help bring DAV across the country, and the Watertown graduation ceremonies are a prime example of why the time has never been better to join the Runningboards Marketing family.

“Giving back to the community always feels incredible,” said Mooney. “The kids spent the last half of their senior year isolated from their friends and we were able to help bring them closer for their graduation. We’re proud to be able to utilize DAV to help our communities at a time when it’s needed most.”

Start-up costs for a Runningboards Marketing franchise range from $75,000 to $255,000. RBM accommodates a variety of investor models, from active owner-operators to semi-absentee candidates with $50,000 in liquid capital and a net worth of $150,000. Key territories for development should have a population of around 125,000 people. To learn more about franchising with Runningboards Marketing, visit ***