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Format
Two static bulletins, westbound I-10
Coachella 2026 — both weekends
4 weeks
Coachella / Indio, Palm Springs DMA
Maruchan is the ramen brand that’s fed generations — the affordable, nostalgic staple that’s always been there, whether you’re a broke student or a festival-goer stretching a budget. The brand leans hard into that identity, and its fans have turned it into a genuine cult following.
Maruchan wanted to own the road into Coachella. The plan: a “MaruMart” pop-up at the Cabazon Outlets handing out free ramen during both festival weekends (April 9–13 and 16–20, 2026), with billboards built to pull festival-goers off the freeway to come get it — and get them sharing it.
Coachella billboards are some of the most fought-over inventory in the country — limited, in fierce demand, and released on the vendors’ timeline, not yours. DASH TWO needed two sequential westbound units near the right exit and a pop-up venue that lined up with them. We tracked inventory from April 2025, set alarms for the release (which landed just before Thanksgiving 2025), and locked two prime I-10 bulletins the moment they opened.
Because the boards ran 4-week cycles but the pop-up only ran on specific days, we printed custom vinyl snipes to cover the “Free Ramen” call-out and flip the boards to brand-only messaging the second it ended — so no one arrived to an empty lot.
Maruchan owns being the affordable, frugal-hero brand — so the copy leaned in: “Festival finances aren’t mathing?” and “Still here when the festival payment kicks in,” both tagged Free Ramen | Exit 104 | Cabazon Outlets.
Placement was the whole game: the I-10 Cabazon stretch is the only way into the Indio Valley — every car from LA passes it. Two westbound bulletins right before Exit 104 hit every festival-goer at the exact moment free ramen sounded perfect.
Maruchan handled PR on their end and brought influencers through the pop-up on media day, who engaged with the giveaway and shared it across their social channels — plus coverage in posts and articles that extended the billboards’ reach well beyond the freeway.
We tracked inventory from April 2025 and moved the same day the release hit (just before Thanksgiving 2025). Artwork was due that March, so production ran smoothly — the one wrinkle was timing the vinyl snipes to cover “Free Ramen” the moment each weekend’s pop-up ended.
Locations: I-10 SL 2.29 MI & 3.37 MI E/O Main St (WF). Duration: 4 weeks.
The two billboards delivered a combined estimated 3,087,872 impressions over four weeks — Unit #2 (I-10 SL 3.37 MI E/O Main St) at 1,606,484 and Unit #6 (I-10 SL 2.29 MI E/O Main St) at 1,481,388 — before the earned social and press reach.
Total media value: $44,670 ($22,640 + $22,030).
-Maruchan
Coachella billboards reward one thing: timing. DASH TWO has wrangled this inventory for years — we know when it releases, how fast it goes, and how to be ready to strike. For a brand with Maruchan’s cult, nostalgic following, owning the only road into the desert turned a free-ramen giveaway into a can’t-miss cultural moment.
