LTA instead will sell ads on bus stop shelters in San Benito
County
A plan to hire a firm to coordinate advertising on County
Express buses and bus stop shelters hit a roadblock as no agencies
showed interest in running the program. The plan is now being
scaled back to be coordinated in-house and to include ads only at
select bus stops.
LTA instead will sell ads on bus stop shelters in San Benito County
A plan to hire a firm to coordinate advertising on County Express buses and bus stop shelters hit a roadblock as no agencies showed interest in running the program. The plan is now being scaled back to be coordinated in-house and to include ads only at select bus stops.
“We don’t know why” no responses were received from the county’s request for proposals that detailed the expectations of an advertising agency, said Betty LiOwen, transportation planner for the Local Transportation Agency (LTA). “I am assuming it’s because we are a pretty small market and they didn’t see much of a profit margin.”
The original plan was to bring in nearly $50,000 a year by allowing advertising on county buses and bus stops. An advertising firm would have had the exclusive right for five years to sell the advertising and in return provide the LTA with a minimum annual guarantee or 60 percent of the contractor’s annual gross revenues earned in conjunction with the local advertising, whichever was greater.
LiOwen previously said that other counties said allowing advertising on transit vehicles created a “significant revenue source” that was also a steady income stream.
“We did let the (advertising agencies) in other counties know it was available twice and we did contact as many as we knew,” she said. “Obviously, they weren’t interested.”
So last week the LTA, which operated through an agreement between San Benito County and the City of Hollister, voted to bring the advertising effort in-house and sell space on bus stop shelters near Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital on Sunset Drive and at Fourth and San Benito streets downtown. No advertising would be placed on vehicles under this plan.
The rates begin at $325 for a four-week advertising run, with a 15 percent discount available for nonprofit or government agencies. Monthly rates decrease for longer commitments, such as $295 monthly for a 26-week commitment and $275 per month with a yearly deal. There is also a $50 mounting cost with each contract.
Projected monthly revenue from the ad program ranges from $18,000 to $25,000, according to LTA estimates.
The scaled-back advertising plan calls for transportation planning staff members to issue a press release and to post signs to publicize the ad space availability.
“However, staff will not actively make calls to potential advertising clients,” LiOwen said in her report to the LTA, which also said that clients would be responsible for the design and printing costs of their advertisements.
While the idea of selling advertising space on county busses has been shelved, LiOwen said it could be revisited if the demand for bus shelter ad space is strong enough.
“If it does take off we’ll see how much time it would take staff to schedule ads on the busses,” she said. “We’re hoping it gets pretty popular. If it becomes overwhelming we’ll have to reevaluate what staff can do and what we can’t do.”
