RETAIL/LEISURE : Billboard Ads Help Sell Ocean Pacific’s Snow-Boarding Line

With temperatures soaring and autumn beginning to feel like summer you might think that sports apparel maker Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd. would be blanketing billboards with swimsuits, right?

Wrong. The OP ads on 125 billboards in Orange and Los Angeles counties feature the company’s winter snow-boarding line.

The Tustin-based company scheduled its outdoor advertising campaign of its snow-boarding line to coincide with the cooler weather of fall, hoping to remind consumers that snow season is just around the corner. The company, however, did not predict the current heat wave.

The billboards, which mark the first time OP has used them to hype its winter clothes, feature snow boarder Damian Sanders locked in a tight turn while dressed in a crimson outfit from OP’s Tech line.

The billboard campaign has captured unexpected enthusiasm from retailers, who typically order merchandise months in advance. While company officials do not say the billboards have resulted in big orders so far, they are scheduling quite a few appointments with retailers who want to inspect the line.