I am trying to create a WiFI hotspot for my restaurant because I feel
it will attract more customers.  My problem lies in that I must pay
$40.00 a month for an Internet connection plus the added cost of
hardware.  I have an idea to advertise products I already sell ? Coke,
Pepsi, Gonella, etc? and have these companies pay for them.  I was
thinking of installing a TV/monitor in my restaurant and having
companies give me a CD-Rom or anything to advertise their products. 
The revenue I obtain from this should allow me to pay for the wireless
Hot Spot idea.

My question is how to I go about in charging companies in advertising
in my restaurant.  If they do decide that they want to do it, whether
it is a slide show of pictures or a streaming movie that will show on
the TV/monitor, what would be a reasonable charge?  Hourly, daily,
monthly?  I will install a computer for this to be possible.  Is this
even a good idea?

Thanks,
Rick

Hi Rick

There are a number of ways to go with this. 

One of them is Bennie's idea about the movie theatre advertising.

Here are a couple of companies that do that

Cinema Media Group
http://amovielist.com/cmg/cinema_media_group_Press_Release.htm

On Screen Cinema Advertising
http://www.cinemaads.com/onscreen.html

Ah! Here it is - the company I was looking for - they're on every screen I see
National Cinema Network (NCN)
toll-free phone (800) SCREEN-1 (727-3361) 
Web site www.ncninc.com 

You can find more of these companies on Google by running this search:
intermission advertising screen national

The other, less intrusive, and more popular way to generate money is
include advertising on your menus. You've seen those 'books' at the
Cheesecake Factory and other places, so don't be concerned that your
customers will hate it. In fact, it's a good way for them to get 
familiar with other merchants in the area. Not only will this opion
cut down on your printing costs (you can still issue a daily specials
page off your computer), but it will give you a share of the advertising
revenue. 

I Don't know where you're located, but doing a search, I found several 
site around the country that provide this service. For instance. 

http://www.lunch-times.com/

Start with this Google Search
restaurant menu advertising

Also, and I don't know what this is called, but some restaurants or
bars have a device that scrolls news and ads. You may want to visit a
bar near you and see what I'm taking about. You can ask them about the
vendor. (I wouldn't even know what to call it.)

Also, follow up with Closeau's suggestion about the co-op dollars. 
Ask your Coke, etc. vendors how to tap into that. They may be able
to point you to their advertising agency. I spent some time in a
supermarket's buying office and the salesmen were very familiar
with the co-op promotions available. 

It's a good idea to offer the service. But remember, the flip side
of the success? If your WiFi spots is really popular, the more time
people spend taking up the space, the less table turnover you will 
have. So, once you set it up, watch your revenues. If people just
stay at the tables for hours, you may have to establish minimum
hourly purchases...

Good luck

Your TaxMama-ga

I'm not crazy about the idea because I think that the big boys would
need a lot of convincing that they are going to get value for the
advertising buck.

Sorry!

I think you have several things going on here:

I don't know that running clips at your location is a value to your
suppliers. And if it were, then I see it as different motivation than
paying for the cost of Wi-Fi.

Some industries have "co-op" dollars available and allow you to have
rebated to you a small percentage of your purchases for the purposes
of offsetting your costs of approved advertising. In the audio
industry, for example, comapnies like Yamaha would allow you to submit
a percentage of your print or TV ad costs up to a percentage of your
yearly pruchses - perhaps 50% of the cost of the ad up to 2% of your
yearly pourchases. Maybe Coke and the others have "co-op" advertising
policies?

Next, the cost of Wi-Fi is not much at all. Perhaps that alone with a
window banner will bring in enough additonal business to pay for
itself?

And last, companies like Boingo can help offset your Wi-Fi costs or
even get them to generate a profit!!:

http://www.boingo.com/hso/

"...Join the Boingo? Roaming System and Tap into Boingo's Reach 

Through its own subscribers and partnerships with leading carriers,
ISPs and MSPs, millions of hungry Internet users have Boingo software
and access to Boingo's roaming system. That translates into millions
of potential paying users of your hot spots, and it's why Boingo leads
the industry in roaming partnerships with hot spot operators around
the world.

Here's how it works: Boingo buys wholesale access to your hot spot
network, paying you a connect fee every time a Boingo roaming system
user accesses your network, and paying you a bounty every time a
Boingo-branded subscriber signs up for service while in one of your
hot spots. You get increased revenue, and because Boingo or one of its
partners handles all the marketing, billing and support, more of that
revenue falls to your bottom line.

Hot spot profitability is determined by utilization. Your hot spots
have a fixed cost, so the more revenue-generating traffic you can
drive against them, the higher your profits. The traffic Boingo brings
you is incremental to traffic you already have, so it instantly
increases your utilization rate, and thus your profitability..."

Perhaps looking at it this this way might be helpful for you Rick.

Regards,

-=clouseau=-

It sounds to me as though you might be looking for something similar
to what many movie houses show prior to the movie previews beginning
(i.e. slideshows or small snippets of advertisements).  Possibly
consider a partnership/sub-advertiser deal with a theater near you.