As a way to ease budget cuts, the Shawnee Mission School District has joined Shout Marketing’s high school ad network.

“We are confident that this partnership with Shout Marketing will bring some much needed relief and allow our schools to avoid at least some of the cuts,” Rusty Newman, director of student services and athletics for the SMSD, said in a recent press conference.

The High School Ad Network will allow the district to accept payment for advertisement online, along with around 500 banners and signage in schools, especially in sports facilities. The district will receive a fixed percentage of profit produced from the advertisement.

“The school will never be in the position of having to write a check,” director of Account Development David Hermann said. “The only fee is to the advertiser.”

SMSD is the first district in the state to join this program but is soon to be followed by others. The ad network was launched this year in Wichita in order to create extra revenue for schools.

“Being based , we saw the success they were having and decided to try to duplicate their success in the Kansas City area,” Hermann said.
The ad network will not only benefit the district monetarily but will help generate scholarships for district students as well. With the extra money from the ads, schools will not need to cut as much funding for activities like sports and other extracurriculars.

“The schools receive 50 percent of the proceeds, and then another 10 percent goes to scholarships and grants for supplies and technology,” Hermann said.

Although the ads will help make up for the budget shortfall, there is the fear that the program will impair school groups that rely on advertising for revenue.

“We don’t believe we will be impeding the school publication’s ability to continue on as you have in the past,” Hermann said.

Shout Marketing is a full service firm that has branched out to help advertisers reach the teenage population through advertising, along with gaining more success in augmenting district budgets.

“Initial expansion plans focus on the KC area and the Kansas side of the border,” Hermann said. “We believe the addition of additional districts is critical to growth.”