American Guerrilla Marketing
Nationwide serivce
Media planning, media buying, billboard advertising, & guerrilla marketing
American Guerrilla Marketing places interior bus and shelter advertising on the Big Blue Bus serving Santa Monica and West Los Angeles. Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Blvd, Lincoln Blvd, UCLA campus routes, Venice Beach, and the Rapid 10 BRT to downtown Los Angeles.
Santa Monica is not an interchangeable market. The City of Santa Monica sits at the western terminus of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, on the Pacific Ocean shore just west of Los Angeles, with a character shaped by the beach and the Pier, by the creative and technology industries concentrated in the area known as Silicon Beach, by UCLA and the academic community 4 miles to the east in Westwood, and by the tourism economy that draws millions of visitors annually to the Santa Monica Pier, the Third Street Promenade, and the Santa Monica State Beach. The Big Blue Bus is the Santa Monica city transit system, operated by the City of Santa Monica’s municipal transit department, serving Santa Monica and the adjacent West Los Angeles communities of Mar Vista, Venice, Brentwood, and the Westwood-UCLA corridor on approximately 22 routes.
Big Blue Bus’s ridership is more economically and demographically diverse than the general Santa Monica population image would suggest. While Santa Monica’s median household income is among the highest in Los Angeles County, the Big Blue Bus ridership reflects the service and hospitality economy workers who staff Santa Monica’s hotels, restaurants, and retail establishments from their residential communities in Culver City, Inglewood, West Los Angeles, and the inland communities of the LA basin. These working adults commute to Santa Monica jobs by bus from more affordable neighborhoods, creating a transit ridership that spans from the service economy worker on the minimum wage to the UCLA graduate student on the Westwood route to the tech industry professional who chooses bus transit for the daily commute from a Santa Monica apartment to a Playa Vista or Century City office.
The Big Blue Bus’s connection to UCLA via the Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard routes serves one of the country’s largest research universities with an enrollment of approximately 46,000 students. UCLA students using Big Blue Bus for transportation between the Westwood campus and Santa Monica or the metro area create a campus transit advertising opportunity within the Big Blue Bus network that reaches the UCLA demographic in a premium Westside environment. Big Blue Bus also operates the Rapid 10, a BRT service connecting Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles via the I-10 freeway express lanes, carrying a commuter professional demographic between the beachside city and the LA metro employment center.
AGM places interior bus and shelter advertising on the Big Blue Bus across Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood/UCLA, and the Rapid 10 BRT. The Westside LA transit market from the Pacific to downtown. Direct execution.
Santa Monica’s Silicon Beach economy, concentrated in the office parks of Playa Vista, the beachfront creative campuses of Snapchat/Snap Inc. on 2301 Ocean Park Boulevard, and the tech company cluster on the Colorado Avenue and Wilshire corridors, creates a specific advertising opportunity for brands targeting the tech industry professional demographic in the LA market’s most premium geographic context. The tech workers who commute to Santa Monica offices by Big Blue Bus from the Westside apartment market are a high-income, brand-engaged demographic that is specifically reachable in the bus interior environment during the daily commute they choose over personal vehicle driving.
Venice Beach, adjacent to Santa Monica’s southern border, is one of the most globally recognized urban beach communities and one of Los Angeles’s most photographed public spaces. The Big Blue Bus routes serving Venice and the Ocean Front Walk area carry both the tourist and visitor audience heading to the beach and boardwalk and the resident community of Venice’s diverse mix of artists, long-time working-class residents, and the newer tech-adjacent professionals who have moved into the neighborhood as Silicon Beach has expanded. Advertising on Venice-serving Big Blue Bus routes reaches a uniquely discovery-oriented and visually attentive audience in the transit environment adjacent to one of the world’s most visited urban public spaces.
The Rapid 10 BRT service on the I-10 freeway express lanes carries the highest-income demographic segment of the Big Blue Bus ridership: Santa Monica and West LA residents commuting to downtown Los Angeles employment by express bus, choosing the commuter express service over personal vehicle or Metrolink because the I-10 Busway provides competitive travel times with the added benefit of leaving the driving to someone else. These are generally professional and managerial employees with above-median LA household incomes making a commute choice that reflects both environmental consciousness and practical efficiency in the I-10 corridor.
Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard, the two primary east-west arterials of Santa Monica and the Westside, carry the Big Blue Bus routes connecting the Santa Monica beach and downtown to the UCLA campus in Westwood, the Brentwood and West LA residential communities, and the employment corridors of the tech economy east of Santa Monica. The routes on these corridors carry both the tech professional commuter and the UCLA academic community in a transit environment where above-average income, education, and digital engagement create a distinctive advertising audience compared to the LA metro transit ridership as a whole.
Best advertiser categories: tech company brands targeting the Silicon Beach and Westside tech professional, UCLA campus services and enrollment advertising, premium consumer brands targeting the upscale Westside demographic, financial investment brands, fitness and wellness brands targeting the active Westside lifestyle community, and Santa Monica area restaurants and entertainment venues.
Lincoln Boulevard running north-south through Santa Monica, Venice, and the Mar Vista and Culver City communities toward the LAX approach carries a more economically diverse ridership than the east-west corridors. The communities along Lincoln south of the Santa Monica Freeway include working-class and service industry households in Mar Vista and the neighborhoods adjacent to LAX, creating a transit corridor that spans from the beach-city professional to the airport and hospitality industry worker in a single north-south route. Lincoln Boulevard routes connect Santa Monica’s southern neighborhoods to the LAX employment corridor, carrying the hospitality and airline industry workers who staff the airport and adjacent hotels.
Best advertiser categories: hospitality and hotel industry brands, airport worker benefit programs, consumer goods at accessible price points for the working households of the Lincoln Boulevard southern corridor, healthcare brands with Westside and Culver City facilities, and local Santa Monica and Venice businesses targeting the Lincoln corridor residential community.
Big Blue Bus routes serving Venice and the Ocean Front Walk beach access points carry a uniquely mixed ridership that includes both the tourist audience heading to the Venice Boardwalk and the resident community of one of Los Angeles’s most artistically and culturally significant neighborhoods. Venice’s long-time African American and Latino working-class community shares the neighborhood with the newer tech-adjacent professional residents and the global tourist audience drawn to the street performers, skate parks, and murals of the Boardwalk, creating a transit advertising context unlike any other in the LA metro area.
Best advertiser categories: Venice Beach tourism and experience brands, consumer brands with beach culture and outdoor lifestyle positioning, entertainment brands reaching the Venice creative community, local Venice restaurants and entertainment venues, and brands targeting the diverse economic and cultural community of one of LA’s most globally recognized neighborhood identities.
The Big Blue Bus Rapid 10 service on the I-10 freeway express lanes carries the Santa Monica and West LA commuter professional demographic between the Westside and downtown Los Angeles during the morning and evening commute peaks. The Rapid 10 rider is a professional or managerial employee with above-average household income who chose the BRT commute specifically for its efficient trip time and the ability to work or rest during the 30-45 minute express journey. Interior advertising on the Rapid 10 reaches this specific Westside professional commuter in a premium express transit environment with above-average per-rider income compared to the standard Big Blue Bus local routes.
Best advertiser categories: financial services and investment products targeting the Westside professional commuter, tech company brands targeting their own employees and competitor employees using the Rapid 10, downtown LA employer recruitment advertising, real estate brands targeting the Westside luxury renter and buyer market, and premium consumer brands targeting the above-median income Rapid 10 commuter demographic.
What it is: A complete exterior wrap on a Big Blue Bus vehicle creating brand presence on Santa Monica’s streets, the Venice boardwalk approach, and the I-10 express lanes.
Best for: Premium Westside LA brand launches, Silicon Beach tech company campaigns, beach culture and lifestyle brand activations, and entertainment brand campaigns targeting the tourist and resident audience in one of LA’s most photographed urban environments.
Why buy it: A Big Blue Bus full wrap on Santa Monica Boulevard near the Pier, on the Venice Boardwalk approach, or on the Rapid 10 BRT creates brand exposure in some of the most photographed and most globally recognizable urban environments in the United States. The social media photography potential of a visually distinctive Big Blue Bus wrap in the Santa Monica and Venice beachside context is among the highest of any transit wrap placement in California. Contact AGM for Big Blue Bus wrap pricing.
What it is: A large-format interior posting on Big Blue Bus vehicles across the system.
Best for: Westside LA-wide brand awareness campaigns reaching the full Big Blue Bus ridership from UCLA students to Silicon Beach tech professionals to Venice Beach residents.
Why buy it: Big Blue Bus king poster campaigns reach the Westside LA transit community in one of the highest-income coastal California markets at cost levels that reflect the system’s smaller scale compared to LA Metro. For brands that want Westside LA presence without the full LA Metro investment, the Big Blue Bus king poster is a targeted, high-quality placement in the most affluent corner of the largest metro market in the Western US. Contact AGM for Big Blue Bus king poster rates.
What it is: Distributed card placements throughout Big Blue Bus interiors.
Best for: UCLA campus services, Silicon Beach tech company advertising, Santa Monica local business promotion, and Rapid 10 commuter-targeted professional services advertising.
Why buy it: Interior cards on Big Blue Bus reach the Westside LA transit community with the most accessible format for local Santa Monica and West LA businesses and campus-adjacent organizations. A Santa Monica restaurant, a Westwood student service, or a Silicon Beach startup can place interior cards on targeted Big Blue Bus routes at budgets appropriate to the local Westside business economy.
Best for: UCLA corridor campaigns on the Westwood and Wilshire routes, Rapid 10 professional commuter campaigns, Venice Beach tourism and lifestyle campaigns, or Silicon Beach tech professional campaigns on the Santa Monica/Wilshire tech corridor routes.
Why buy it: Route-targeted queen posters on Big Blue Bus match campaign demographics to the distinct community corridors of the Westside, from the UCLA academic community to the Venice Beach creative audience to the Rapid 10 professional commuter in a premium transit environment.
Best for: QR codes targeting the highly phone-active Big Blue Bus rider demographic, Rapid 10 commuter professional service advertising, and UCLA student campaign digital first-contact placements.
Why buy it: Big Blue Bus riders are among the most digitally engaged transit audiences in California, reflecting the tech industry’s influence on the Westside LA community’s technology adoption. Seat-back QR codes on Big Blue Bus routes linking to relevant digital destinations convert the bus ride into a direct-response moment with exceptional phone-scanning engagement rates compared to transit markets with less tech-industry demographic saturation.
Best for: Simple messages on the Santa Monica Boulevard and Lincoln Boulevard routes where Big Blue Bus boarding frequency creates steady impression accumulation at commercial corridor stops.
Why buy it: Santa Monica Boulevard’s dense commercial and residential stops create consistent headliner boarding impressions for the full Westside transit community throughout the Big Blue Bus service day.
Best for: Vehicle audience reach on Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, and Lincoln Boulevard where Big Blue Bus vehicles share Westside LA’s heavily traveled arterials with the significant vehicle commuter traffic of the affluent Westside market.
Why buy it: The Westside LA vehicle traffic on Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards creates consistent following-vehicle exposure for Big Blue Bus tail displays, reaching the driving Westside community in the same premium commercial corridors as the bus interior campaign.
Best for: Supplemental interior placements on the highest-ridership Big Blue Bus routes during the morning and afternoon commute peaks and the UCLA class rush periods.
Why buy it: UCLA-adjacent and Rapid 10 peak loads create overhead card advertising environments for standing riders, adding secondary advertising contact for the full passenger load during the Westside’s morning and evening commute windows.
Best for: Exterior brand presence on the Santa Monica Pier approach on Ocean Avenue, in the Venice Boardwalk corridor, and on the Third Street Promenade approach where Big Blue Bus vehicles are visible to the massive tourist and visitor pedestrian audiences of Santa Monica’s most-visited public spaces.
Why buy it: The Santa Monica Pier and the Third Street Promenade are two of the most photographed locations in Southern California, with annual visitor counts in the millions. A Big Blue Bus with window vinyls on these corridors is visible to the full tourist and visitor audience of LA’s most-visited beachside destination, creating exterior impressions in the visual context of the global Santa Monica brand.
Big Blue Bus maintains covered shelters at key stop locations throughout Santa Monica and the adjacent West Los Angeles communities, with the highest shelter density along the primary ridership corridors on Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, and at the Downtown Santa Monica transit hub. Santa Monica’s temperate ocean climate creates year-round consistent shelter use patterns without the extreme temperature-driven shelter dependency of the desert California markets.
The Big Blue Bus Downtown Santa Monica hub at 4th Street and Arizona Avenue serves as the system’s primary transfer point and connects Big Blue Bus routes to the Expo/E Line light rail station at 4th Street and Colorado, the Breeze Bike Share, and the pedestrian network of the Third Street Promenade. Shelter advertising at the downtown hub reaches the maximum Big Blue Bus daily ridership concentration alongside the full pedestrian audience of Santa Monica’s most active commercial district.
The shelter positions along Wilshire Boulevard between Santa Monica and the UCLA campus approach in Westwood serve the UCLA academic community and the Westside professional commuter simultaneously. UCLA-adjacent shelter advertising reaches the 46,000-student enrollment of one of the country’s leading research universities in the most prestigious academic environment in the LA metro area.
$3,850/4-week cycle. Full backlit panel in a covered Big Blue Bus shelter. The Downtown Santa Monica hub and Wilshire Boulevard Westwood positions are premium placements in one of the highest-value advertising environments in the Western US, combining the affluent Westside demographic with the global tourist audience of the Santa Monica beachside market.
$850/4-week cycle. Mid-size shelter panel for local Santa Monica and West LA businesses, UCLA campus services, and Silicon Beach tech company advertising at local budget price points in the Westside’s premium coastal market.
$700/4-week cycle. Most accessible advertising entry in the Big Blue Bus inventory. Four weeks of Westside LA community presence in one of the highest-income coastal California markets at the most accessible price point.
along Santa Monica Boulevard in the Third Street Promenade and Promenade-adjacent commercial blocks, at the Venice Boardwalk approach on Rose Avenue and Ocean Front Walk, and at the UCLA campus pedestrian corridors on Westwood Boulevard creates street-level brand contact in the Westside’s most pedestrian-active and most photographed commercial environments alongside Big Blue Bus routes.
at the Downtown Santa Monica hub, at the Expo Line/Big Blue Bus connection point at 4th and Colorado, and at the UCLA main entrance on Westwood Plaza create ground-level brand impressions at the highest foot-traffic transit concentration points on the Westside California coast.
at the Third Street Promenade anchor cafes, the Montana Avenue boutiques, the Venice Boardwalk vendor spaces, and the UCLA campus coffee shops adjacent to Big Blue Bus routes extend the transit campaign into the community gathering spaces where the Westside LA and UCLA communities spend time off the bus.
in the Venice arts district on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, on the Bergamot Station arts complex wall surfaces at 26th Street and Olympic, and in the creative office corridor of the Colorado Arts District in Santa Monica create large-format impressions for the Westside LA creative, arts, and tech community that is the most socially engaged and most visually attentive audience on the Big Blue Bus network.
UCLA and the UCLA Health system are among the largest Big Blue Bus advertisers, using the Westwood and Wilshire corridor routes for campus services, enrollment, health system outreach, and staff recruitment. Silicon Beach tech companies including Snap Inc., Hulu (in Santa Monica), and the dozens of smaller tech startups in the Silicon Beach cluster use Big Blue Bus for recruitment campaigns targeting the Westside tech talent pool. Santa Monica’s premium dining and retail brands on Montana Avenue, Main Street, and the Third Street Promenade use interior cards for event promotion and neighborhood discovery campaigns. The Santa Monica Tourism Office uses Big Blue Bus for visitor-facing information campaigns. Venice-based arts and entertainment brands use interior cards for event and exhibition promotion. Real estate brands targeting the Westside luxury rental and purchase market use Big Blue Bus for brand awareness campaigns reaching the high-income Westside household demographic.
Yes. The Big Blue Bus connects to the LA Metro Expo/E Line at two stations: the Downtown Santa Monica station at 4th Street and Colorado Avenue (the western terminus of the Expo Line), and the 26th Street/Bergamot station. The Big Blue Bus Downtown Santa Monica hub is immediately adjacent to the Expo Line terminus, creating a direct connection between the Big Blue Bus network and the LA Metro light rail system. For advertising campaigns targeting riders who use both Big Blue Bus and the Expo Line, shelter advertising at the 4th and Colorado connection point and interior placements on the Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevard Big Blue Bus routes reach the transit community that connects between the two systems.
Big Blue Bus operates several routes connecting the UCLA campus in Westwood to Santa Monica and the West LA communities, with the Wilshire Boulevard routes and the Santa Monica/UCLA direct service providing campus access. UCLA’s approximately 46,000-student enrollment and the commuter student population living in the Westwood, Brentwood, and Santa Monica areas creates consistent campus-approach transit demand on the Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevard routes. For brands targeting the UCLA market, Big Blue Bus routes on the Westwood approach are the primary Westside transit advertising channel for the UCLA demographic.
Yes. Big Blue Bus operates routes serving Venice including the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and the Venice residential communities. The Venice routes carry both the Venice resident community and the visitor audience accessing Venice Beach from Santa Monica and the West LA communities. For brands targeting the Venice lifestyle, arts, and tourism audience, these Venice-specific Big Blue Bus routes provide the most precise transit advertising placement within the Big Blue Bus network for that specific community.
The Rapid 10 is Big Blue Bus’s BRT service operating on the I-10 freeway express lanes between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles, providing fast express service that competes with Metrolink and personal vehicle for the LA-to-Santa Monica commute market. The Rapid 10 carries a higher-income professional demographic than standard Big Blue Bus local routes because it serves the daily commuter market between the affluent Westside and the downtown LA employment center. Interior advertising on the Rapid 10 is specifically valuable for premium professional, financial, and tech industry brands targeting the highest-income segment of the Big Blue Bus ridership.
Yes. Big Blue Bus routes serving the Santa Monica Pier, the Third Street Promenade, and the beach access points carry significant tourist ridership, particularly in summer when visitors from across the LA metro and from international tourism use Big Blue Bus for the beach and shopping destination trips. Shelter advertising at the Downtown Santa Monica transit hub and interior advertising on the beach access routes reach the tourist audience in the transit environment adjacent to Santa Monica’s most-visited public destinations. For tourism, hospitality, and destination experience brands wanting Santa Monica tourist audience reach through transit advertising, the Big Blue Bus downtown and beach access routes are the appropriate placement channels.
Standard Big Blue Bus interior card and poster campaigns require four to six weeks from final artwork to installation. Contact AGM at least six weeks before the intended launch date for Big Blue Bus placements, and earlier for premium shelter positions on the downtown hub and Wilshire Westwood corridor during peak demand periods.
Big Blue Bus routes serving the Lincoln Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard corridors provide transit access to the Playa Vista area where many Silicon Beach tech companies are headquartered, including YouTube (previously) and numerous media and tech companies in the Howard Hughes Center and Playa Vista campus developments. For brands targeting the Playa Vista and Silicon Beach tech professional community, the Lincoln Boulevard routes and the Rapid 10 connection serve as the primary Big Blue Bus channels for that specific geographic tech employment cluster.
AGM provides photographic installation documentation for all Big Blue Bus placements, including interior card and poster installation photos, shelter panel photos, and exterior vehicle documentation for wraps. Post-campaign reporting includes all documentation photographs and estimated impression counts using available Big Blue Bus ridership data for the campaign period.
Yes. Big Blue Bus and LA Metro serve complementary geographies on the Westside, with Big Blue Bus focused on Santa Monica city and the immediately adjacent West LA communities, while LA Metro’s Expo/E Line connects the Westside to the broader LA metro area. A combined Big Blue Bus plus LA Metro Expo Line campaign through AGM covers the full Westside transit corridor from the Santa Monica beachfront to the downtown LA transit hub in a single coordinated engagement. Contact AGM for Westside LA combined transit campaign pricing.
Santa Monica has one of the highest concentrations of unsheltered homeless residents per capita of any California city, and the transit environment of Big Blue Bus serves this community alongside the housed residents and visitors. For social services organizations, housing agencies, and healthcare providers that want to reach Santa Monica’s homeless and housing-insecure population, Big Blue Bus advertising is a direct channel that reaches this community in the transit vehicle environment where they often spend time. AGM can advise on the specific routes and formats most likely to reach this demographic alongside the broader Santa Monica transit ridership.
