AArrow onDeck

"AArrow Advertising’s Sign Spinners are helping us save lives and end breast cancer forever! AArrow is a company that cares about San Diego and is first to give back to the community."

Laura Farmer

Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure

"Because of AArrow Advertising’s amazing commitment to the non-profit sector and the community, our participants easily found the location and enjoyed watching the exciting talents of the sign spinners."

Leslie Dykstra

Best Buddies California

"AArrow Advertising, through Mike Kenny’s leadership and commitment, has hired many job seekers by offering youth employment, an attractive wage and the desire to succeed."

David Eder

Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board

About Us

Welcome to AArrow Advertising, the world’s largest guerilla marketing franchise and home of the World Famous AArrow Sign Spinners. Our youthful energy and creativity allow you to reach your target market anywhere, anytime.

Since 2002, we have turned sign spinning into an extreme sport, performance art and the hottest form of guerilla marketing in the world.

We have trained thousands of sign spinners and serviced clients in virtually every industry throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to grow the sport of sign spinning into a global advertising medium, represented by the world’s strongest shape: the AArrow. AArrow Advertising is a dynamic, social-entrepreneurial corporation committed to youth employment, education, economic development and humanitarian advancement.We will provide our franchisees and master licensees unparalleled support and training so they may create career opportunities for today’s young people and cost effective advertising solutions for their clients.

Philosophy

AArrow Advertising is a company founded on the belief that people are the most important component in a successful advertising campaign. After starting as sign holders back in 1999, AArrow Advertising merged its extreme sports backgrounds with the desire to be the center of attention.

The result was a new advertising medium that is hard to forget and impossible to ignore. Each AArrow Sign Spinner is trained to perform hundreds of tricks and endless combinations; instantly creating a stage for this new-age type of performance. AArrow Advertising employees take pride in our ability to create a one-on-one advertising experience with each person that passes us by delivering what no other form of advertising can: eye contact and a smile.

AArrow Sign Spinners create the most cost-effective marketing solutions by allowing advertisers to place their messages anywhere, anytime. AArrow Sign Spinners can work by themselves or be spin-tegrated with a multi-element campaign.

The AArrow Sign Spinners as the stars of our company, our most important assets and the future of our business. AArrow Advertising is committed to creating well-paying job opportunities for young people all over the world and harnessing their energy and creativity to make millions of people smile each day.

History

In the beginning: 1999-2002

Sign holding is perhaps one of the oldest forms of advertising, dating back to medieval times, and has had a presence in a number of different cultures. Even in the 1990s, people could be seen lackadaisically standing on the side of the road advertising for different businesses. The industry did not evolve much beyond that, until Max Durovic, an energetic entrepreneur living in Ocean Beach, California decided to get a summer job as a sign holder back in 1999. While the pay was decent, standing on a street corner in the summer heat quickly became mundane and boring. Max searched for ways to make his job more entertaining and began to dance with the sign; using his youthful energy to attract more attention. Meanwhile, all of his friends were hanging out at the beach, surfing, skating and playing basketball.

It was not long before Max’s friends realized they too needed jobs and saw how much fun Max was having with his. They applied for sign-holding jobs and within three months a dozen became human advertisers. Max’ friends were determined to infuse their extreme sports background with street performance to catch attention of spectators and communicate a targeted advertising message.

The team began to develop tricks using their six-foot signs by spinning them around and flipping them high into the air. The friends began to compete to see who could do the best tricks; all the while attracting more attention to themselves.

The friends eventually came up with names for their tricks; modeling them after their favorite skateboard moves. They also came up with a name for themselves: the sign spinners. For the next two years, the sign spinners worked all throughout San Diego and turned street corners into stages for five hours at a time.

AArrow Advertising is born: 2002-2005

In 2001, Max returned to San Diego after completing his first year at Georgetown University with a new plan. The sign spinners decided to start their own company: AArrow Advertising. They made a promotional video and began to market their services to businesses throughout Southern California.

Becoming the first client, Healthy Back, a retail furniture store, purchased a weekend trial. Although the contract was only for 10 hours of service and one sign, the AArrow Sign Spinners made the most of their opportunity. After just 30 minutes of work, a woman walked into the store and purchased the most expensive bed there from the CEO himself who happened to be conducting a surprise store inspection. The CEO was so impressed with the effectiveness of the advertising, that he instantly walked out to the the sign spinner and handed a list of his two-dozen stores nationwide asking which ones AArrow Advertising would be able to service. With store locations bi-coastal, AArrow Advertising was in business.

Over the course of the next four years, AArrow Advertising expanded its business in San Diego under the leadership of COO Mike Kenny, while Max braved the elements in Washington D.C. and serviced clients up and down the Eastern seaboard.

Planting the seeds: 2005-2008

Max and Mike formed AArrow Advertising, LLC and began to expand to new markets. First on the list was Los Angeles and Las Vegas quickly followed as home builders throughout the country began purchasing hours of AArrow Advertising's Signature Sign Spinning Service by the thousands.

People everywhere seemed to be impressed by the new innovative advertising method and spin on an age-old concept. Newspapers, magazines and television shows across the globe featured AArrow Sign Spinners and praised the company's mission statement and commitment to creating job opportunities for young people.

The trend continued and by 2008 AArrow Advertising had operations in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York City, Washington D.C., Raleigh and Miami. With more than 500 AArrow Sign Spinners across the United States the time had come to go SPIN-ternational.

In the spring of 2008, AArrow Advertising began executing campaigns in France, Holland, England and Spain. AArrow Sign Spinner's natural ability to make people smile translated very well and all of the campaigns were a huge success.

Demand for AArrow Sign Spinners was now coming from all over the world, and Max and Mike knew they needed to maintain a structured business model to assist in training all of the sign spinners to provide the best service possible for all of the clients. They began offering franchise opportunities.

Becoming a global franchise: 2009-present

AArrow Advertising’s first franchise opened in February of 2009, with Robert Graham purchasing the rights to the entire Phoenix area. Other entrepreneurs began to realize the benefits of running an AArrow Advertising business and within a month franchises were open in Phoenix, Miami Beach, Northern Virginia, Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Orlando, Little Rock, San Antonio, Raleigh, Hollywood, North Los Angeles and Tri-Cities, Tennessee. Currently, AArrow Advertising operates in three countries and more than 30 locations. In the fall, AArrow Advertising welcomed their first master license holder in Canada.

Meanwhile abroad, AArrow Advertising was creating a buzz in Asia. A group of students from the acclaimed Yong-In University in Seoul, South Korea decided to bring AArrow Advertising to their home in the far east. After six months of preparation and research, AArrow Advertising Korea is fully operational and experiencing the same success as its U.S. counterpart. AArrow Sign Spinners have become increasingly popular and even appeared on one of the country’s most popular shows: Star King.

Currently, AArrow Advertising operates in three countries and more than 30 locations. AArrow Advertising continues to grow each day by expanding into new markets, advertising for new clients and creating more opportunities for young people.