Audio: https://connectdot.cosocloud.com/prcccadhpxrj/
December 6, 2023
Event: FHWA Value Capture Series
ROUGH EDITED COPY
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
VALUE CAPTURE: ADVERTISING, NAMING RIGHTS, & SPONSORSHIPS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
JOB NO. 25833
CART CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY:
LINDA M. FROST, CERTIFIED REALTIME CAPTIONER
on behalf of
MID‑ATLANTIC INTERPRETING GROUP, INC.
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This transcript is being provided in rough‑draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Due to the nature of a live event, terms or names that were not provided prior to the assignment will be spelled phonetically and may or may not represent the true spelling.
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>> OPERATOR: Your conference will begin momentarily, please continue to hold.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Value Capture: Advertising, Naming Rights, & Sponsorships. At this time, all participants are in a listen‑only mode. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pepper Santalucia.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Thank you. I would like to welcome to everyone to Value Capture: Advertising, Naming Rights, & Sponsorships. As the operator said my name is Pepper Santalucia. I'm with the DOT's Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'll facilitate today's webinar. The webinar is scheduled to run two hours until 3:00 p.m. eastern. We're recording the event and that recording will be made available on the FHWA Website as well the speaker slide decks.
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That, I would like to introduce the first presenter, Mr. Sasha Page. He is a principal at rebel group Based in Washington, D.C. He has over two days of experience advising on infrastructure finance, public development, and public private partnerships. He worked with public agencies in Chicago, Boston, Miami, and Raleigh Durham among others. For the past several years, Sasha assisted FHWA as subject matter expert on Value Capture.
With that, I turn it over to you.
>> SASHA PAGE: Thank you, Pepper. I appreciate the opportunity and everyone joining us on this session on Value Capture: Advertising, Naming Rights, & Sponsorships. My colleague, Christine shepherd and I put this together, she was unable to be here today. So, I'm pleased to have Ashley Zidon from MnDOT, Sam McClain, and Kyle Canter and Myles Gallagher to talk about these revenue sources and provide some great examples.
As Pepper said, I'm happy to entertain your questions, your comments. After my session and the other sessions as well, hopefully if we have time at the end of the overall ‑‑ after all of the speakers have given their presentation.
So, I'm going to give you an overview of advertising naming rights and sponsorships. And how they can be used for transfer station and what sectors they can work in make and how the funding is collected and deployed. Lastly, I'll talk about some legal and market factors and hope some participants, the speakers after me will elaborate on some of those items.
In general, transportation agencies have a number of assets that they have, and these have value for businesses, civic groups, and private parties, obviously train station, rights of way, highway rest stops, service plazas and service vehicles are some of these assets that are most relevant for naming rights.
So, really, these are opportunities to monetize these assets and create additional revenue streams for transportation agencies. That's the greatest interest in this. Other interests as well is to create places and preserve assets alongside rights-of-way, as Ashley will talk about in her presentation.
So, while advertising has been a very common type of commercial activity arrangement with private parties, especially for transit agencies, sponsorships and naming rights are relatively new arrangements.
That comes from the enormous experience that has occurred in the stadia and related naming rights active Italy is a form of public infrastructure. A lot of thinking is coming from that, and participants will talk about that. And this is one example of the Alliance Field in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is named after a major firm. It is also near a really, very extensive BRT system that the transit agency has put together there.
So, let me give you some background on how these three arrangements work. Naming rights, an agency sells a name to ‑‑ to the rights to name infrastructure system, to accompany, to a large institution, a non‑profit, a medical center, a University. Who can retain control of the brand name. One example is a sales force transit center in San Francisco.
These arrangements are typically for five or ten years or longer. So, they are fairly long‑term arrangement that both parties enter into.
Sponsorships is when a private agency, or a civic organization, sponsor a roadway, a rest stop or vehicle fleet. And they control some of the branding. The best example are highway sponsorships that you see in many places. These are typically two- or three-year term arrangements.
Advertising is ‑‑ it becomes in a variety of forms, of course, but when you sell space in a system like Ohio DOT rest areas, along buses or transit stations. Are there typically terms of six months. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but those are some good guidelines to go by.
In terms of again, for sector uses, highways, most of them are for rest areas, and vehicle fleets, as you see in the left, State Farm vehicle fleet cosponsored some rest areas. We'll get into some of the specifics of that transit stations are named as well. There's of course some advertising in some sponsorship and naming rights, as you can see NRG Stadium, early ones, as I mentioned earlier, Sales Force Transit Center in San Francisco. So, to simplify what you can do with each of these arrangements, a general highway, rest areas, as I said, advertising is possible, legal, as well as sponsorships. Naming rights are really not based on the highway Beatification act. You can't name a specific rest area after an organization or a company. Exceptions have been with some grandfathered facilities.
With transit, that's not an issue. Advertising is common, naming rights is increasing, and there are also sponsorships as well. Hopefully that gives you a view ‑‑ I think our speakers will talk about there's a bit of a blurring in some ways, naming rights and sponsorships in some areas.
In terms of funding, the typical structure is that payment is made on an annual basis by the private entity or non‑profit organization and during the life of the contract. For instance, tufts University pays the NVTA in the Boston region $200,000 each year for ten years, to name the station at its main campus, Tufts Medford Station
The use of these funds tends to be for operating expenses, they can in theory fund capital expenses but most agency, transit agencies, use them to fund expense, operating expenses. Sales force transit agency, moneys used for maintenance of that facility. Also, in Ohio DOT, their rest area advertising and sponsorships program which receives 2 million a year, help has offset the maintenance in those facilities. There are some legal considerations here. They do appear simple, but there are some issues. The First Amendment principles allow viewpoint discrimination. A company cannot be excluded from the naming rights transaction because of its image or business practice. Whether is a match with an agency's desired image or not. There's also the Highway Beatification Act which I mentioned which restricts advertising on the right‑of‑way of certain roads, no billboards, essentially. But it is also the Fourteenth Amendment or equal protection clause which prevents an agency from rejecting a bidder based on agency's politics. Therefore, in they reject naming sponsorship could be subject to legal challenges.
All of these issues, of course, you need to talk to local counsel this is why in some agency, in particular, they have decided not to engage in naming rights. But, real I, it is a case-by-case basis.
I do want to put that the revenue perspective, the revenue opportunity in perspective, with advertising, you know, really, we're talking very much in this webinar about naming rights and sponsorships. But in terms of advertising, which is a more traditional form of commercial arrangement, if you look at the example of five transit agency, five major ones, the last several years, here you see their operating revenues in the bar, the amount of advertising, which is in the orange ranges from 5 to 30 percent, of those operating revenues. As you can see in Washington, Chicago, Miami‑Dade, Dallas, and Minneapolis St. Paul, so there's a large range, and these range from $18 million to $33 million, to 6, 14 and $3 million respectively.
So, that gives you perspective in terms of what advertising it shows, when you look at what naming rights has yielded, you'll see it is less but non‑insignificant. So, major naming rights agreement that have occurred in the last decade or so can range on an annual basis from $250,000 per year to over $4 million per year it is material, but advertising suggests. Nothing wrong with that, but to put that in perspective. One is the sales force transit center. And UC San Diego blue line. It's one of the largest, 25 years. I think this is great. The purpose, of course, is to make agencies and internal and other stakeholders aware of this opportunity, but we also need to temper our expectations regarding the revenue potential, MBTA, had a program which failed to receive adequate bids which they were seeking of a million dollars per station in 2013. Of course, it depends on local conditions and local situations, but it is ‑‑ it's a great funding source. It's relatively easy able to implement but obviously nun need to put this into perspective, I believe our speakers will give you more information on that.
In terms of rode, the ways are similar. In Rhodes talking about sponsorships in Virginia, enter into a contract for $2 million per year for expending advertising and sponsorship of safe phone areas, of all of the rest areas, obviously it's well received, but put in perspective of all Virginia's transportation need.
Iowa did have legislation, it passed for naming rights, for its roads, not Federal roads but found private sector is not interested in that time.
There's a variety of experiences here, I think the positive, but one has to be aware of this.
I will finish there and look forward to fellow speakers joining me and happy to answer any questions now or afterward. Pepper?
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Great. Thank you, Sasha, I don't see any questions right now in the audience chat, so, we will proceed with our next presentation, who ‑‑ our next presenter will be Sam McClain. Sam is Vice President of sponsorships at travelers marketing, the national leader in creating, developing, implementing, and managing transportation sponsorship programs on behalf of DOTs and toll road authorities. Sam has been with travelers marketing for 15 years and is an expert in establishing private ‑‑ public private partnerships that generate revenue to support state public policy objectives.
Sam, the floor is yours.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Thank you, Pepper, I appreciate the introduction, thank you for attending today. I'll try to walk you through the basics of the sponsorship, some of the things we learned over the 25 years in this industry. Just really quickly, who Travelers Marketing is, we've been doing it over 25 years. By "it" I mean exclusively transportation industry, sponsorship, and marketing, so we're not doing other assets. It has been since the start just around transportation assets. We have over 35 states under contract that you see there, and we are on a revenue share basis, so, we don't charge a consulting fee. We charge based on when we're able to sell something, and in doing it that way, we've generated over $250 million for our agency partners.
So, talking about why you might want to pursue transportation sponsorship, you do want to pursue transportation sponsorship. Obviously, the first reason is to generate new revenue, but it is occurring revenue. Once you establish it, every year it should be the same or more revenue coming in, and it is non‑tax, non‑toll revenue, so it has its advantage politically as well, showing as a transportation agency you're out in front trying to get revenue wherever you cannot just increase taxes or tolls.
A couple other reasons you might not have thought about. It increases visibility in safety. This is what the Pennsylvania Turnpike trucks. And making it more visible. It makes them for visible and we try to initiate safety as part of the sponsorship. Just a look at it at night, everything is reflective.
And also, raising public awareness for what your agency is already doing, you have controls or maintaining bridge, things like that. There's a way to use the sponsorship to let the motorist and public know about that asset and how you're maintaining it, or how it is helping them to be safe. So, the awareness, and the press, just gives you another opportunity to remind motors.
We got over 2,600 articles from the sponsorships we've done, so, it is definitely a story that the media likes, sponsorship.
Let look at how we go about doing that. So, the steps, I'm going to go through each of these individually, but basically first we want to identify which assets you might have that are sponsorable. Determine the value for those assets, then you got to sell. You got to find a sponsor for them and then of course, once do you that, as we just talked about, use the launch to get as much publicity as you can. Let's walk through some of those, identifying the assets.
The first thing, I think Sasha touched upon, review the state, review Federal guidelines, know what you're able to do, sponsorship dos and don'ts, and look for assets that are highly visible to motorists. That's going bring the most value in. And which programs get the most positive attention, not everything a transportation agency does is necessarily related to something the motorist would consider a benefit to them, you know, closing roads, and detour, and potholes and what not. Some of those things, you're not going to find sponsors wanting to put their brand associated with it.
So, a couple of examples here of things that, over the years, have been offered to us. The first is snowplows, that's a good service, clearing the roads has a positive association. You look at that picture you can figure some of the problems that we had.
We don't know when those vehicles are out on the road so we can't guarantee or talk about how many impressions are going to be seen, if it is a slow winter as far as snow, these trucks won't be out very much. Excuse me, of course when they are out, is anybody else out? Is anybody going to see them? Are the conditions so bad that you wouldn't see the sponsor on them. That's just an example of visibility and keeping that in mind and impressions.
Weigh stations in the middle of FHWA approved sponsorship for weigh stations but think of the number of people that will actually see that. Very targeted market. Truckers are going to see it but the number of uses for a weigh station on a daily basis are so small that the value of it, total value is not that much. And last one is looking at TMC building. Maybe you hear on the radio station, "This traffic report brought to you from the Geico Transportation Center," or what have you. But naming the building doesn't give that sort of reach that the radio ad would, right, the actual naming of the building how many people go to the traffic management center. Your impressions are really low for something like that.
Here's some of the ones we've been approached with and looked into and found probably not ‑‑ the value is probably not there for the effort.
But let's look at examples that are, something that's highly visible, positive associations. On the left there's two different programs. On the left is the sponsor highway sign. High visibility and a good positive association. You're keeping the roadway clean and every vehicle that passes the sign every day, 365 days a year, you count them for us, but we can sell them based off confirmed number of impressions. Those are the kind of things you want to look for. The one on the right is safety service patrol that has to be out of Ohio, but most states have those and very positive association. Everything these vehicles do is helping motorists get back on the road, no charge, and they are very visible, highly visible all on the highways. So, those are the examples of types of things you're looking for when you're trying to find a sponsorable asset. Once you sponsor the asset you have to determine the value. How do you know how much to sell it for. Really start off by calculating the viewership. How many motorists are likely to see this?
That's ‑‑ we use those annual average day of traffic. Most of you have that information. That's one of the advantages working directly with a transportation agency. You have the actual count, you know how many people are going to go by and see that. We'll then do that with a load factor. 1.5, counting for a passenger in every other vehicle increases the number of impressions you can show the potential sponsor you're offering then you have to figure out how much to charge per ‑‑ it's a thousand, is what the industry uses, CPM, cost per thousand is what that stand for. I won't get into the Latin. But is that going to be a dollar for every thousand people? Is it 50 cents, is it $2? Once you get that rate, you get that by comparing it to other out‑of‑home advertisements or sponsorships.
So, you got to basically determine what the value of the asset is. I'll tell what it isn't. It's not what your operating costs are, and I run into that a lot. We spend $4 million for this program. You're saying sponsorship is only worth 500,000. How can that be? Nothing to do with the operator cost. Not going to offset all maintenance fees or anything like that. There's no relationship to that and think like a marketer when valuing it. What is it worth to the sponsorship, the company that will sponsor it, sorry.
There are ways you can increase that value. Obviously, you can increase the impression somehow, but that's usually limited. What's the prominence of the sponsor identity. Obviously on the safety service patrol, you have a bumper sticker on the back of that truck. That's not worth if we put a sponsor on the side, on the front, on the uniforms, et cetera.
The frequency of viewings, if there's a way to increase that, it depends on the assets you have or asset you're talking about. Look at competitive sponsorship opportunities, and any public relations opportunities, this is an area where the agency can increase the value. If you do a launch of that, that increases the value, going to repeatedly do events, that increases the value. Social media mentions of the sponsorship or of the asset, including it's sponsored by. And we found exclusivity. A lot of times people think if one logo on the truck is good, like Nascar, 15 would be 15 times as good. It is not. Having exclusivity and having one Brandt brand that can be identified with that asset and can sort of be known as a partner with it, we find gets a higher value spreading that out over two our five or ten brand which all get a small mention.
I know we'll talk about naming rights going toward but that's one way to increase the value. One thing to say safety service patrol sponsored by Geico, but another way of saying the State Farm Safety Patrol. Another way of naming rights increases the value of your asset.
And which carries higher value? Left is truck parking with small sponsor logo. All you can do is sponsor logos, no urls. No information, no slogans, no 800 numbers.
On the right, we can talk more about the product and benefits and give contact information. This is a sign inside a rest area. As you're approaching a rest area, there's a sign. Thoughts, make a choice which one you think would be worth more? The reason it is the one on the left, the truck parking signs, is because of the higher visibility. Every motorist that goes by can be counted as an impression, versus 10 to 12 percent of motorists who actually pull off into the rest areas and will ever see that sign in front of the rest area. Sign in front of the rest area gives a lot more information about the sponsor or advertiser, but so fee people will see it compared to the number of cars that will pass by that large highway sign, and there's also a positive association with truck parking or whatever the highway sign, whatever asset the highway sign is talking about. The rest area itself, the highway sign is a positive association, compared to a sign inside of a restroom or in front of a restroom.
We'll do up with more. Which of these carries the higher value. I talked about the highway sign which is 511 which is FHWA approved. If you have 511 signs up you can add sponsorships to those signs. They are highly visible. Kids a good office. 511 is a safety patrol program. We have those sponsored in over 20 states. And some elements that come with it. Would also has highway sign, signs on the truck, universes, and assistive motorists.
Which of these carry higher values? Clearly the safety service patrol sponsorship. Just as highly visible with the highway signs compared to 511. Such a good positive association. That's where brands want to be involved in the safety patrol sponsorship because of the good work it does. They want their brands associated with that, to engage and interact with motorists. Plenty of peer opportunities beyond just the launch, every time there's some assist, somebody is saving a life. There's another press opportunity there. And promoting them, the vehicles can be used in events and things like that. Certainly, social media, if you read any of the comments from motorists who have been assisted, they are all glowing. Every one of them could become a social media post and we found as I mentioned, offering exclusivity is the way to increase the value.
That's just kind of talking you through some examples of what I was trying to say a bit earlier or give an impression of.
But, once you found the asset value, you have to sell it, and these ‑‑ transportation sponsorships in general are sold not sought. Meaning there's not a lot of brand or agencies out there looking for what we have to offer as transportation professionals. They are certainly familiar doing billboards, radio, television, those sorts of things but not thinking, gee, I wonder if I can get on a highway sign. That's something you have to be aggressive putting in front of potential sponsors and selling it to them, the benefits of it unique in what we have. So, it is not that common in the industry.
So, in defining the value of it, think about it not from your perspective, but the sponsor's perspective. So, what is in it for the sponsor? What are they getting? Not what you need, but what is in it from the sponsor? How will that association help them? How many times will they be seen. What are their marketing goals? Are they trying to be community oriented, are they trying to be customer service oriented? What are they trying to present their brand and how will your asset do that.
And how are they going to use the funding? How will it benefit the motorist. That helps the subject say, we made this sponsorship because we want to increase highway safety and want to keep the highways clean in our community, who is the beneficiary of their sponsorship. That message can help increase the value, but also, increase the number of sponsors who are interested in the asset, and I'll give you an example of that in a minute as well. The larger message is there some safety message you can tie into this, and you really are going to have to distinguish your opportunity from all of the other marketing opportunities. You got to picture that the person you're calling to ask for sponsorship is getting that call once, twice, four, five times a week, getting calls for, hey, we have this opportunity. We have this you can advertise in. Marketing managers are inundated with that. You have to make your assets stand out.
Oh, go through a little road map here. I'll do it somewhat quickly. If you have questions afterward my contact information will be at the end. We talked about assessing the market and figuring out which asset you own that are sponsorable. Then find a list of sponsors in the area. Auto scope, auto dealers, why they want to be with your product, and analyze that list and figure out which is most likely to be interested in your asset. Then you have to develop something to present to them. Collateral, some PDFs, some video that will gain attention, again, separate from all of the others they've seen, yours in unique because it is transportation sponsorship, it's somewhat rare. If you have existing relationship, maybe it is somebody on a board that works with the MPO, there's some relationship that already has started that's the best place to start. You're going to find a friendly ear. They will at least listen to your proposal and maybe help you shape it to find out why it doesn't work for your brand but might help with the next one. If you have some relation with a business in your list, that's where I would direct you first.
After that, it is going to be extensive outreach. You go to a whole list with an initial offering, e‑mail, phone call, something to weed out who has some interest versus not for them at all. And customize a proposal, figuring out what that brand is looking for and how your asset fit was what they're looking for. Number 8 is follow‑up. Look for No. 8 through 18. There's follow ups to get this done. These are sold and naught sought or bought. Hopefully you can get these and close the sale. Something to think about when going through when looking to sell your asset. One more case study here, that I think combines much of what I just said, but we've had ‑‑ about ten years ago we had states coming to us, saying we need help with the rest areas, we don't have fund to operate, or maintain them. Can we get a sponsorship for them. We tried. We tried sponsorships for rest areas, we see the quotes here. What we found is brand weren't interested in associating with rest areas, not all rest areas have a positive reputation, they're not that clean or well-kept in some of them. Whether yours is or isn't that's a harder sell. The impression was, I don't want to be involved. I don't want my brand involved in a rest area. It was hard for us to make that connection. What we did, we added value by creating rest area as destination to use your phone. We created safe phone zone sponsorship at the rest area. It is just another Amenity, if you will, at the rest area. That's what we found was sponsorable. We had companies like Geico, Verizon, and AAA, you see here, interested. They wanted to now be involved in that safety message of using your phone safely at the next rest area.
That's how we got much more interest from sponsor, hopefully that example sort of ties all of the things I talked about here and give us some idea how you go about selling this.
Once you've done that, you have to implement it. You have to put the signs up, get their logo up, that's generally done better from the transportation agency standpoint but if you have to get a third party to do some of that work, that's understandable, figure in those costs when you're pricing your asset. And then you want to communicate the purpose of the sponsorship. We talked about a media event. You see cameras here, at one of the events that we held talking about safe phone zones in Florida. And then the next time that sponsor hears from you, shouldn't be when it is time to renew. You got to be continually communicating with that sponsor anything that's happening with their assets. If there's something unique, lifesaving event, a great comment comes in, what you're doing with the dollars and here's how it helped those sorts of things you want to keep the sponsor engaged with the sponsorship, when the renewal does come due, it's a no‑brainer, they love it, got good feedback from you and traveling public. That's a lot to do. That's why we've been in business 25 years. If you can find an agency to help, maybe local agency, who knows the business such as our, agency such as ours, or business coming up soon, we do this in transportation, so we know what you're going to be doing it and best way to go about it. And trying to reduce strain on your team, hopefully to successful sponsorship. That's pretty much my presentation, there's the information. If you do have further questions after this, or you feel I can help in some way, you have a specific question about the asset, be happy to do that. My e‑mail and phone are here. Thank you. Thank you for the time. Pepper.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Sure. I'm going to turn it over to Sasha to handle the Q&A. There are a few questions that have come in.
>> SASHA PAGE: Great.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Okay. Great. Thanks.
>> SASHA PAGE: I think there's a couple questions here, let's start with indicate bin Bush. Who owns billboards advertising on the highway. Also do all states allow billboards advertising? Sam, can you address that?
>> SAM McCLAIN: All states do not allow billboard, I know Hawaii does not. I think Vermont might have a rule against billboards, but most states do allow billboards, there may be restrictions on them. Generally, who owns them is the person who puts the billboard up. What happens is the company that can release the plot of land adjacent to the highway, usually it is off the right‑of‑way of what the state owns, local agency, they find a farm, find a corner, and build a billboard, which is expensive. They are not easy to do. Which is something they look to get a return on over 20, 30 years of time. That's generally who owns the billboard and who generates revenue from that. That's a great question, that's part of what Started Travelers Marketing as a company. All of that revenue goes to this company but people that puts eyeballs for that revenue to be generated. Travelers Marketing was a way to capture revenue for the transportation agency itself.
We feel that the agency should be getting that revenue that the billboard companies siphoning away. So, we're looking for different assets and different ways that the agency can keep some of that sponsorship and marketing dollars.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Let's address the other two questions. Aren't commercial activities prohibited at Federal rest areas? That's the big topic, maybe you can jump into that, Sam.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Commercial meaning selling things, having fast towards in a rest area is prohibited at this time but not advertising sponsorship of assets in the rest area or rest area itself. That's not prohibited. That's a way to generate revenue and sort of work around that law that says you can't have commercial sales, is really, I think, what that law prevents, sales of things from the rest area, but what we're doing is not selling anything.
>> SASHA PAGE: Of course, exceptions, number of rest areas are exempt, because they were built before the Beatification act.
Last question, what about sponsoring the TMC video feed that the public uses, news agencies use these feeds when reporting on traffic. Is anyone sponsoring those video feeds? Currently place the logo at the bottom of the feed.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Who asked that, Sasha.
>> SASHA PAGE: Owen Hassen.
>> SAM McCLAIN: I think I recognize that name. I think it is a great idea. A great example taking everything that we talked about here. We tried to do it years back. What we ran into was, what you're valuing that feed on, is when the media takes the DOT's feed of traffic, or cameras, pulled that feed down, and then rebroadcasts it, there's not a lot of public that's going to your site to see that camera. You can certainly do it that way. You can put advertising or a sponsor on the feed on your Website, but the number of people that go there to look at it is so small, but the value is diminished. What you're looking for is what the media reproduces or rebroadcasts those, that has a high value, and the problem is the media knows that. And they want that value. What they are doing is selling their own sponsorship to your feed. Much like I talked about with billboards. They are taking eyeballs or information the transportation agency is creating and they are benefitting and getting revenue from it. We are looking at the embedding revenue into the feed, if we embed a car dealership, or the sponsorship, "this traffic report brought to you by" now they have a problem. The media wasn't willing to take the feed if it has advertising or sponsorship embedded in it. They will find a different way to present traffic information. Some billboards have traffic cam on it. So, they say if you insist on this, we'll find a general work around is the general feeling. We had to walk away from that. That was eight years ago, some things changed. I think there's an opportunity there we haven't cracked that one.
>> SASHA PAGE: The other comes from MoDOT. We make the media use our logo.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Media will use DOT logo. This is the official traffic camera. They are selling an ad over top your video or selling sponsorship over that segment, they didn't want to use money if me or how you also sold it.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay, thank you. One more question, and then if we get additional ones, we'll do it later. So, this is from Darma. According to regulations is there a limit on the amount of space for selling billboards along highways. If there isn't, is the sales model a linear curve that will also increase revenue along with the number of sales, or is there a peak point when sponsors are no longer interested because the advertising space is too saturated? I think there's two questions.
>> SAM McCLAIN: I can answer the second part. I can't answer the first part. That's probably going to be state by state asking about how far ‑‑ asking how far between billboard to billboard what the regulations are. I'm not sure of that, probably state by state, it may change. But the second part, is oversaturation. You got it.
Yes, that can happen. Certainly, if you've been in those areas, billboard, billboard, billboard, the value of each one drops. The collective is probably higher if you have one or two billboards in that space. There's a cost to building billboard. There's somewhere in there that drops over that return on investment. I have seen billboards that are stacked up. And south of the border divides them all and provides a message with it.
In general, I would say the more billboards your ad, the return-on-investment drops per board. I think exclusivity, the fact there's no one weather else to advertise across that five‑mile stretch that increases possibility of having a billboard in that stretch but if you want 20 that decreases the value of each.
>> SASHA PAGE: Right. Burma Shave did that a whale.
>> SAM McCLAIN: Yes, they were one. There is one then another that told a joke or message.
>> SASHA PAGE: Thank you. We'll go through additional questions afterward.
Thanks, Sam, I think we should turn to Ashley Zidon. Pepper?
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Thank you, our next speaker will be Ashley Zidon. She's a program supervisor at Minnesota DOT and been there for two and a half years. She has long range planning experience, both at the local and state levels, where she offered a range of comprehensive park and transportation plans. Ashley has a degree in landscape architecture, environmental design, and masters in community development, and she's currently leading the highway sponsorship program at MnDOT, and we look forward to hearing more about that program. Ashley, go ahead.
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Thanks, Pepper. Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here. Greetings from Minnesota. My name is Ashley Zidon. I'm the program supervisor at highway sponsorship at Minnesota Department of Transportation and it is really, really great to be here and share MnDOT's program journey so far, and great opportunity to share our work. So, I'm hoping to share with you all today how our program came to be which has then established since 2017. We're still relatively young in program years. I would like to share a little about the nut and bolts of our program and provide some inspiration for you all who are looking to create your own program, maybe some program critiques or make some enhancements and leave you all with some reflection, and insight in our future work.
So, this is our team. Our program says seated in MnDOT's office of land management, and our department oversees a large range of property management and land management functions and being seated in the office of land management is a great vantage point to coordinate the views and development agreements on what we call licenses. We are really understanding that full range of property management instruments at our fingertips. So, we're a small but mighty team. There are two full‑time staff: Myself, the program supervisors and my colleague Shawna Gibson and we hit full power in 2023 when Shawna joined our team. We're a small but mighty team but now we have a greater capacity to do even more great work across Minnesota.
So, passed state statutes back in 2017 and the program was designed in 2018. If you think it's important to mention that we do have state statute that you all can go and research on your own, the state statute 160 .801, in our program's purpose is really to leverage public/private partnerships to advance aesthetic and environmentally sustainable projects along the Minnesota roadside. And our program works specifically with businesses, civic groups, and individuals. Those are non‑traditional partners that DOTs are traditionally used to working with. Again, businesses, civic groups, and individuals. And one initial challenge was that the Department of Transportation agencies are really designed to work with our local government agencies, rather than private companies, and developers, our non‑profit sector, and civic and philanthropic sector partners, so our agencies really need to adopt working with non‑governmental partners who really have different need and expectations.
Our statute allows us to improve highway aesthetics and sustainability statewide. We can leverage tax dollars by accessing outside resources, therefore reducing maintenance liabilities. We can create and maintain critical pollinator habitat through the statute. One of many ways to explore new and innovative features of right‑of‑way. And, of course, we are subject to the Federal Highway order 5160.1A for sponsorship agreement and acknowledgment signs.
The highway sponsorship program was designed also to accommodate a range of ‑‑ or tackle a range of aesthetics, feedback, and complaint we receive. Those of you and other agencies on a local level, you have a range of complaints that you routinely receive. Receiving complaint on roadside maintenance. We receive complaints on noise, mowing and maintenance and pollinator habitat and litter. We track those as I'm sure those on you this call do. We do intentional research, and then we also review the feedback that we gather, and have community engagement with ongoing projects, and transportation planning work.
The impetus for highway sponsorship, really has ‑‑ there are three program goals that the program looks at in advance. First is we're looking to advance innovative uses of the right‑of‑way, and this looks like enabling projects from our non‑traditional partners to really address those statewide aesthetic and environmental goals, working with businesses, civic organizations, and individuals, so those non‑traditional partners, but these projects would not be possible without this statute and this program.
Another goal, we're looking to promote collaboration and long‑term partnership with the private sector and civic partnerships. We want to develop programs of mutual interest, not only advancing goals on the community level but also MnDOT goals as well.
This program helped with a quicker response time of about 90 days. We're currently sitting at a little over 90 days at this time. There is revenue generating opportunities, of course, we can produce our maintenance liability, and then a third goal is, it really can help MnDOT be more responsive to community needs, and our priorities. So, you can pull in outside resources to respond to complaint, like highway litter, lack of landscaping, those are shown on the slide prior, so, we can help advance community goals, environment goals and arrange priorities.
There are two case studies our team loves, and we want to share those with you. The first is the Chicago Gateway Green Project, a local non‑profit manages 95 gardens on Chicago's freeways around downtown through a memo of understanding with the Illinois DOT. 95 gardens. That's astronomically high. They are sponsored by corporate philanthropy. Folks have their logo on the sign, and non‑profit in Chicago Gateway Green a litter pickup. And Chicago Gateway Green is a 25‑year‑old non‑profit. It is great to see a non‑profit with such experience and do such important work.
So, please keep some reading on your end when you have time. A second case study we love is A Greener William Project in Indianapolis. With Indiana Department of Transportation. This project transformed a six-mile gateway to Indianapolis along i‑70 with landscaping in October of 2010. We're 30 years later. The project was a collaboration with the City of Indianapolis, Indiana department ‑‑ sorry, Indiana Department of Transportation, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, along with community leaders, neighborhood groups and Eli Lilly foundation.
They closed I‑70 for 12 hours, they installed 7200 native plants and shrubs and there are three new sculpture installations. This is a massive project, it is an inspiring example of how they were creative with their funding, and it is a really good example for those looking to build complex projects and bring a range of partners to the table.
‑‑ this slide here a range of programs here at the Minnesota Department of Transportation that supports aesthetic, environmental and community connection goals. On the left there's a program called community roadside landscape partnership program. The program is lead in our office of environmental stewardship and they work with units of government through reimbursement program, or MnDOT does cover the design and plants. And then you have us on the other side where we require the sponsor to underwrite all expenses and we work with non‑governmental partners.
What this slide says to me, and a takeaway for you all, especially on the local level looking to build programs, is understand how a new sponsorship program could fill a need or a gap. But also, how can it enhance other program goals and how can it complement your other suite of community aesthetic programs.
I'm confident a lot of you are interested in what type of projects, or project interventions does the highway sponsorship program approve or promote. I think it is really important to note that project goals have soft edges and sometimes they don't fit perfectly into a mold, but the highway sponsorship proposals that come through our office can generally fit into these five buckets of enhanced landscaping, expanded mate Nance, pollinator and habitat projects and range of aesthetic initiatives. These can look like gateway landscaping project, entrances to downtown and commercial districts along state highway. Has a contact sensitivity component to it. Landscaping for traffic combing measures, enhanced landscaping adjacent to businesses or corporate campus, think of some of these anchor institutions, colleges, or universities. We feel a lot of pollinator habitat expansion and I have case studies that I'll speak to briefly and can look like roadside habitat for ground nesting species, art and place making project, noise wall painting and maintenances, can look like educational interpretive panels but can look at evaluating aesthetics of highway corridor. So, it can also have this planning arm to it as well.
And it mentions a lot of project interventions are geared to motorized modes of transportation. We need to take intentional moment of pause to acknowledge the mode of transportation and realize the role projects have. My prompt is really mindful on your range of transportation users and be really intentional on creating places for those active modes.
We have a sponsorship sign. It is really important to remember that if others want to be acknowledged, this is an example of our sign, we call it beautify machine, an example of a logo, we allow logo and text. The sign is 54 inches by 36, but proposals are eligible for up to two signs but not every project is guaranteed a sign. And we rely on traffic engineering office to approve those locations. There are ‑‑ there is one project that doesn't have a sign. The text and mobile has to perform through variety of mobile and text requirement, and our team is exploring a new pedestrian skill. The pedestrian sign, scaled more for downtown environments, so we don't feel this large sign is the best context for the downtown environment.
A couple other highway ‑‑ possible highway sponsorship projects can look like right‑of‑way solar. Digging really deep into the gateway landscaping project. It can be removal of invasive plants. It can also look like place making for construction mist gags. Like in ped trail maintenance and under bridge enhancements which is a large complex area. And what sponsorship can look like. Noise wall painting, rural traffic calming, wildlife protection small animal exclusionary fencing and educational interpretive panels supporting scenic byways. I want to bring home we're trying to be innovative what sponsorship projects look like.
Highway sponsorship license as Value Capture, this comments in the form of four different types of highway licenses. The first is a sponsor can hire a MnDOT approved contractor to conduct ongoing maintenance in landscaping. The second is the sponsor can underwrite maintenance activities. For placing our approved aesthetics. Third type of license is sponsor can leverage human capital to conduct a range of installation and maintenance activity. They might cap internal staff or employee volunteers to do this work, and then the fourth type of license is a sponsor can collaborate with additional partners on a project proposal, so bringing more partners to the table, creating new and existing philanthropic relationships
And here's some additional Value Capture benefits to the program. It can reduce maintenance liabilities, improve your partnership with communities and support livability and quality of life. Can help leverage taxpayer dollars for enhanced aesthetic elements in your project. Protect investment in plant material and may generate modest revenue. And each program is going to be unique. Not all benefits share the same way. With our program, we're focused on improving partnerships with community, reducing maintenance liabilities, and supporting livability and quality of life.
Let's dig into some of the nut and bolts of our highway sponsorship program here at MnDOT. This diagram represents a collaborative process to support a range of aesthetic and Beatification projects that come to our program. And the process is dined to indicate both sponsor and MnDOT goals and objectives. We take a two‑pronged approach to review sponsorship proposals. The first is an applicant or prospective sponsors submit concept application, so, a much lighter application.
At this stage, the project is either approved or denied. Let's say they are approved. They are then invited to step 2 where the applicant can ‑‑ will submit a full proposal which is then routed through a very large review and comments process. And the approval process ultimately concludes with a highway sponsorship agreement, which we call a license, that is signed by all party, by the sponsor and then a range of decisionmakers and MnDOT and these licenses are typically three to five years, although the statute allows us to go up to ten years, depending on the nature of the project.
So, let's dig into the concept proposal, just as an example for you to reflect on to take back to your own shop. The content application is reviewed by the district it was submitted. Unique September proposals. We fold in variety of specialty staff based on the request. And staff reviews all of the content as it relates to the proposal. Folks review the application, they review the exhibits that are submitted and then some additional support staff that myself and Shawna put together to help support the proposal, and then this district team approves or denies at this stage.
So, let's say the approval, received a green light, and it is then the prospective sponsor in the full proposal, is much heavier than concept proposal. We do not require architecture plan sets. But it is certainly easier. We are used to reviewing content at that level. We ask for a site plan, ask for additional project narratives and descriptions. We ask about their operation and maintenance plan, and we also ask about other attributes around their labor plan, how is their project funded, and what does that look like, and what tip I wanted to share with you all, is the importance of online assistance but creating assist tense tools. Not everyone knows how to create a project. This is a list of all focus review areas in MnDOT that reviews these proposals. It will look different for your office and agency, but you have team members from the office but also in the district for the project's design.
I want to walk through a couple project examples. This first project is with Anderson corporation. It is one of the first project, in your project portfolio the project is landscape enhancement project for the screening and doing mitigation of their industrial facility and City of Bay Port this project include design, plant purchase and installation at Anderson's expense. There were comments. They had to make adjustments and based on clear zone and plant selection and the facility staff will perform ongoing maintenance for this project.
Another large project, this is pollinator habitat project in central Minnesota along interstate 94 in district 3. This is a huge success. This is the first per MnDOT but Federal Highway Minnesota to approve a new pollinator project along the interstate. It took many years to get this project to fruition. The full project will be eight acres of new pollinator habitat and we approved just under four acres of phase with. Another pollinator project is with the St. Croix Valley, not far from the first example I shared with you. It is about eight acres. The site has really interesting stories. There was a lot of illegal bumping which helped clear some of that up. There's been 15 years of unauthorized maintenance, and it is a great success story in that the prairie restoration is now completely self-sustaining.
I'm running close on time, so, I'm going to breeze through this slide on this section of the presentation, wasn't to share there's knowledge gain in capacity building public/private partnerships at MnDOT and a lot of time for reflection and learning.
I want to leave you with some reflection and future program development with our highly sponsorship program. Some lessons learned is matching projects are of particular interest to stakeholders. In small communities, but it is not fair to tie this to small community, city need a long lead time for project plans, funding and fund‑raising, keep that in mind. Make the process easy for community-based partners with less capacity. Figure out what are barriers are to minimize some pitfalls. Explore partnerships like tourism, economic development agencies and art and culture organizations. Work alongside some existing programs. So, we're going to look to team up with scenic byways and their connection to rural Main Street and also opportunities to promote some internal DBE, woman, vet‑owned contractors.
Some of our program outcomes, we are able to collaborate and encourage long‑term partnerships with the private sector and civic partners. We can use the right‑of‑way to generate a whole range of benefits, aesthetic, environmental, social, equity, increase opportunity engagement alongside highway aesthetic and Beatification projects. There's this really long-term environmental benefit aspect to the proposals which, in turn has economic and societal ripple effects and, furthermore the program has really sparked an important shift in agency culture here regarding the potential for engaging outside partners and champions and really open that door for future public/private partnerships and other innovative uses of right‑of‑way.
Some steps force our team is, we want to be really intentional with our outreach, in creating our new communication plan. We're looking to develop some program metrics for program development, and evaluation. We want to use data to drive decision making, and target geographies across the state. Just think of the immense and powerful data that you have at your fingertips. We're really lucky to level data platforms that partners built for us. We want to do co‑mapping exercises across the districts to identify sites of significance and interest and identify hired Sizes that need significance or interest.
And understanding social capacity at the local level and do stakeholder mapping and analysis to identify who those partners are.
And then, in summary, our team is looking to continue to lean into innovative practices that can advance, not only community, but MnDOT's goals as well, and we're hoping to explore those innovative uses of the right‑of‑way, promoting collaboration and long‑term partnerships with our private sector stakeholders and civic partnerships and really be nimble in our responses to community needs and priorities.
So, that's all we have for those of you who are interested in growing your highway sponsorship program, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We love to innovate and love to share what we've learned. So, thank you very much, Pepper, I'll turn it back you to.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Thank you, Ashley. I don't see questions in the chat. Let me ask you two questions and then we'll move on. How many licenses does your program manage at one time?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: That's a good question. Currently we have under ten licenses. We're really intentional about actively managing those licenses, so, we've really been intentional in designing what those yearly check‑in meetings look like, also how can we build on to existing licenses. But we range ‑‑ the request that we manage that come in the range of up to five, but sometimes they can be as low as one, but in the quieter times it gives the opportunity to build out some of that program work that has maybe been put aside due to the fire and the need of the requests that come in.
I hate to say, Sasha, that it depends. Projects come in waves.
>> SASHA PAGE: Sure, I understand. One of the questions, that great program does require some work on everyone's part. How do you work with civic organizations and non‑profits that may not have the resources that, let's say, a private company has to hire somebody to do most of the leg work for them. How do you deal with that and what are your challenges?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Good question. The good thing, myself, Shawna and the previous program Director, we have experience working on the local level. We've been using this phrase of elevating the sponsors. We have non‑profit or group that is not quite experienced or don't have the resources. We reach out to our network and do an assessment of who is the next partner with maybe more resources or ability to culture or mentor and team them together. There's also the aspect of, we have to coach, and we have to have intentional conversations of letting these groups know that there is a place for them at such a large DOT, and there's great opportunity for them to make impact. That also means that our program team, we have to work through that technical assistance. And really have to dig into what are some local resources that we provide support for them to apply to grants. How can we get creative on matching dollars, so, we really put on a different hat when we step into that technical assistance role to help some of these smaller or less experienced non‑profits or civic groups.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Great. I hate to ask this. But the pollinator, eight acres, I assume we're talking about bees? Is that right?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Yes. Yes. I'm also learning, though, pollinator habitats are not full bye bees but the range of inspects. But also, the idea of creating habitat for birds, also nesting species that kind of its own ecosystem. But we all know the monarch is really struggling right now, so being intentional with some of those partners looking to advance the many benefits of pollinator habitat.
>> SASHA PAGE: There's no honey that's going to come out of this, is there?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Sorry, Sasha, you cannot come to MnDOT and collect honey together.
>> SASHA PAGE: Go ahead. I think we should move on. Thank you very much. Ashley and hopefully if you have questions, feel free to put them in the chat for Ashley.
We'll turn now to Pepper.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Thank you, Sasha. We're now turning to our last presentation of the day. We will be hearing from the Superlative Group. We have Kyle Canter on screen now. Kyle is the chief operating officer at Superlative Group. In that role she's responsible for all aspects of business management, plant management. Strategic staffing and financial management and sales. Kyle has 16 years of experience in naming rights in corporate sponsorship. His unique experience with municipal leaders at all levels of government combined with understanding of C suite leaders at some of the world's most recognizable brand providing with intuitive understanding how to analyze potential sponsorship and marketing sponsorships.
>> KYLE CANTER: Thank you. I'm glad my camera was on otherwise you would have thought I left. This, Pepper. Thank you for your time, we're looking through walking through the slide here. So, I'll jump right in. Just some quick background on our firm. We've been around 30 years, based in Cleveland, and have an office here in London. We focus really in two areas. First is the valuation process. So, you heard Sam speak a little about understanding what assets you have, and then understanding the value of those assets, so, our firm offers that. This is where we come in and assist in understanding what you have, and then what the value of each of those partnerships would be worth. And then the sales aspect of sponsorship. So, active, an agent on behalf of properties, and go out and sell those properties.
I would say, we're uniquely positioned in that probably 90 to 95 percent of our work is focused in the municipal space. So, work with a lot of transit system, DOTs, Convention Centers, again, the commonality is most of them are municipal assets and that comes with a unique set of challenges and/or opportunities depending how you want to look at them. And delivered 3.5 billion in naming rights and sponsorship over the 30 years to our client.
So, I mentioned that we're focused in that municipal space, and we kind of pride ourselves on continuing to push the envelope there. I know that obviously here, there are a number of, you know, regulations and guidelines, and order, and so on and so forth. But we believe, and we've seen in the transit space, that we keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and innovating and thinking creatively, and eventually more and more opportunity will present itself, so, we believe very strongly in kind of the evolution of this space. I think we, use the example that 30 years ago h‑the majority of ‑‑ in fact, very few stadiums, ballparks and arenas had a corporate name on them. That's just 30 years ago. That's not that long ago. And today they don't come out of the ground without that line item filled. It is a part of the financing of those buildings.
And so, we believe that the continued evolution of sponsorship in the municipal space, will eventually lead us to that, and I think there's some really creative things that can be done here specifically in transit.
Here's a handful of transit systems that we've worked with. You'll see a mix of transit systems, DOTs, bike shares, airports, again, I think somebody said earlier, you guys control the eyeball, and people need to travel the minute they leave their house, so, you have access to them. And that's really where the value is.
Our process, which I think Sam touch on as well there, that first step is that asset inventory and valuation, and so we have a whole division that focus on that, and there's a lot that goes into it. Essentially, though, on a high level, it is understanding the number of impressions that any partnership will generate, and an impression can come in a variety of different ways. An impression can come from physical signage. An impression can come from social media, from live events, from press releases, so, there's a number of different ways that, from a partnership, you can generate an impression, which in turn adds value to that partnership. And then it is understanding what the value of each of those impressions are. So, not every impression is worth the same. So ‑‑ just like you would pay a different rate for advertising in the Newport versus a billboard on the highway versus social media impression, so, we apply different values to each of those impressions and ultimately generate a valuation that can be supportive to the sales process. And then, that's that second phase is that strategic sales campaign and development, where your prospecting, you're presenting opportunities, you're using that valuation, to present the opportunities and to present where the value is, you're negotiating agreements, and then you once you're completed with the agreement, then you're fulfilling the contract and managing the ongoing rights and submitting progress reports to those partners so that they feel engaged throughout the sponsorship, not just, I think Sam said it very well, that you can't wait until renewal time to contact them again. They need to be engaged throughout the partnership and feed value throughout the partnership, throughout the term.
So, here's an example of the EDOT Freeway Service Patrol. It is now Geico. I think you saw a slide of that previously, but this was the State Farm agreement. At the time it was up to 10 years and up to 8.7 million, and I think you see there, I'm going to get into a couple other examples of partnerships that we explored with ODOT and are still hopeful that eventually some of those will move forward.
This is an example of just the summary chart of our valuation work that we completed for ODOT. I wanted to show this, just so you kind of see a high-level result of what comes out of that valuation process. There's a lot of work behind these numbers. This is just a summary, but each of these programs and opportunities were valued through that valuation process, and this is kind of a high-level rate card, if you will, that was the end result of that work.
We had a question earlier about traffic cam remarks and I knew I would come around to this slide. That was one of the opportunities that we developed for ODOT where you watermark in the sponsorship into the camera, and we still believe it is a viable opportunity, and a good one. I think, as mentioned, I think there does need to be some coordination with partners, that are using the feed, but I think it's an example of, we see DOTs so often kind of providing these services that are then monetized by others instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to monetize them themselves and allow others to work around them. And this is a good one. The DOTs are operating these systems and managing them, and it is a valuable asset. I think there is some question on what the value is and how much of that you can quantify, but I think for the right brand, it's an interesting and unique way to kind of own a program.
These are two examples of bridges and overpasses. This is an area we feel strongly about into the future. These both exist today, that one on the right is over the five there in San Diego. And is a lit sign. University of the San Diego, California did contribute to the cost of that construction, but they were only one of, I believe, five different contributors to the construction of that bridge there. And it is not called University of California, San Diego way or anything like that. I believe it is Gilman drive. But just an example of signage that does exist, and so, eventually, being able to monetize these kinds of opportunities in an organized way, in a consistent way, but these are opportunities that we think are unique, and they are almost always additive to the driving experience. Both of these are obviously very close to these two campuses. So, I'll allow the driver to, I think, there's probably 60 or 70 cities that have done the same thing over the overpass there. When you're passing through the city, they put the name of the city up on the bridge as well.
So, these are opportunities that we feel strongly eventually should be monetized in a way that's again, additive, and consistent throughout the entire state.
In transit, you see naming rights and sponsorships continue to grow. They temperature unique opportunities. I would say the sponsorship market is still familiarizing themselves with the value here of these sponsorship and naming rights opportunities in the transit space. There are a number of systems 0 who have initiated programs, and, again, we believe over time, just like in the stadium, ballparks, and arena, that this space will continue to grow and expand, and it will eventually be a very consistent program for transit systems all over the country.
So, here's two examples of two agreements that our firm schooled in San Diego. There's the UC San Diego Blue Line, so they named that blue line that goes up through their campus. The value of that is 39 million over 30 years, and then the Sycuan Green Line was 25.5 million over 30 years. They ended up buying out of that early, after ten years, I think. That was the value of the agreement that was originally schooled.
Cleveland RTA, Sasha mentioned earlier was an early adopter in naming rights and sponsorships. We did the first naming right and sponsorship there of the health line, gosh, almost 20 years ago, 15 years ago. So, we've schooled a number of partnerships there, on their behalf. You see them listed. The health line was 6.25 over 25 years. That was partnership between the Cleveland clinic and University hospitals, so they came together to co‑brand the Healthline and split the cost and fee. They both have their logo.
In transit, what you see on the state line is the image there. What it offers is consistent branding on the exterior of vehicles on some of these lines. So, you don't have the injury lawyers and casinos and whatever other kind of negative advertising you can imagine. It creates a consistent brand along the line. Yes, there's a corporate name, school or college or University, health care system, whatever it might be, but it does add to the brand of what that line is
Richmond, same thing there. We did naming rights to the BRT line. It was a new BRT line they were building, VCU Health and Bon Secours named the pulse line there, and they paid 6.4 million over, up to 15 years.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Sorry, folks, we've lost Kyle temporarily, but we will have him back online shortly. Sasha, maybe we can take advantage of the time. You could talk maybe on the comments in the chat, or we can refer back to the two presenters.
>> SASHA PAGE: I have a couple questions both Sam and Ashley can address. I think in all of those instances, large company, large institutions engage. Are there ‑‑ is this of interest to small companies? Can you get small Enterprises engaged here? Does it make sense for them, in terms of the financial effort, in terms of their benefit from sponsorship or any kind of advertising. Maybe, Sam, do you want to start?
>> SAM McCLAIN: Yeah, sure. I think it's an interesting question. I guess it is going to scale based on the assets. So, I'm thinking local ‑‑ maybe we have city, County, municipal folks on the call here. So, a local asset, maybe it is a bridge in town, something like that. That could appeal to a smaller local business that want to be known for that. The nice thing about what we offer is brand awareness, basically, so, when you say a small business, small business that want to go needs brand awareness. Just knowing that business' name will increase the chances of them getting in a consideration set, people thinking of X, Y, Z category, I think of that business and see the name every day when I drive. That's the benefit to a smaller business. You might not get them to commit to a longer term, maybe it's a year or two sponsorships initially, so they can see if it is working for their business, but I'd say, decide the asset appropriately. I don't think you'll get a small business on statewide safety service patrol but will get them on a single asset in the town where that business is located.
>> SASHA PAGE: Sure. Ashley wheat your experience with smaller organizations?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Well, I certainly think from that perspective, Sasha, this is a program that they can engage with, as opposed to some of our other programs that hasn't been an option for them. So, we have to create that relationship. We have to do intentional outreach, but I think about ‑‑ when I think about building community or making aesthetics enhancements throughout rural Main Street. Your downtown anchor institutions absolutely essential to the success of place, and I think they play a really important role as one of the owners, or stakeholders along some of our roadsides.
I also think about some of the non‑profits on the local level in the service space organizations, like your Lion's club, your JCs, your rotary, they can also step in to help with some of the lists. I always think of some bike and ped champions and stakeholders at the local level. They are immensely powerful players, they are super plugged in. They know how to get work done. I think that's a great stakeholder and small business that has a place in its work, particularly on the active transportation side. They would be a really great partner, Sasha, our list of licenses, we have one small business, but the majority of our licenses are service‑based organizations, watershed strict and a couple larger ESTs.
>> SASHA PAGE: Thank you. Of the next question, it was for Sam, but I think for you as well. Do your sponsors change over time? We've all seen stadia called one thing and a couple years later, oh, no, it is another name. Is this an issue you see with these kinds of arrangements, and is that a problem, as ‑‑ in terms of replication, or visibility, how these are perceived?
Sam, do you want to start?
>> SAM McCLAIN: Yeah, sure t‑is not desirable to have the sponsors changing frequently. It doesn't benefit the sponsor to not be associated. It takes times for the public to make the connection, so, we're certainly interested in as long ace turn as we can possibly get. The other side of that coin is, as I mentioned in that presentation, we're selling things sponsors are not familiar or comfortable with. So, they are not going to commit in many cases to a three‑year, five‑year when they haven't tasted it, what it can do for their brand. We try to get as long as a term as we can. Initial three-year term, great. With two-year renewal, great.
One of the things to think about. Start‑up cost, getting that on the asset. Whether the sign on the bridge or highway sign, there's an initial start‑up cost that makes it less desirable to do a shorter term. You are advertising initial start‑up, you are better off doing that over two, or three years. And as Kyle mentioned they had buyout clauses, they may sign up for 20, 30 years, but after that time they want to get out, whether business reasons or it is not working for them, you can let them get out of that initial term.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Any thoughts on that, Ashley?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Maybe from a slightly different perspective, we haven't seen the types of sponsors change over time. But we have a couple provisions or terms that are licensed that should the sponsor change, or let's say that transitioned to a different agency, we would have the partners sign a different license. We also would encourage that the sponsor not shift, I guess, until end of the license. So, you have to be a little creative and mindful, that you got to take down a different sign, set up a new sign, that would be charging for a new sign, so, just being mindful of sponsor responsibilities shift.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Yeah. Let me ask you another question. I think there's a couple questions here both of you, I think, obviously you're with a large DOT, Ashley, and Sam, I'm correct you work with large DOTs that are statewide
>> SAM McCLAIN: Generally, yes.
>> SASHA PAGE: What about smaller transit agencies or smaller regional transportation agencies that are just region. Does the city have a program like this make sense for them? Do they engage in sponsorships I know transit is differ than transportation, maybe talk about smaller organization that has less resources to develop this, manage this with all of the inevitable process issues?
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Sam, this certainly can be worthwhile. It is going to scale down. That whole outreach I showed might be a lot less if it is a smaller city municipality that maybe has relationships with potential sponsors already. It could be the type of thing where you are going to the sponsor first saying, we're thinking of making this asset available for sponsorship, would it be something your company would be interested in. That would shortcut the process for you and make the effort well worth the while if you have some interest, maybe, as I said, some board or MPO that runs a company, that sort of thing.
A list of potential ideas, maybe from a city level, certainly sponsor highway signs that we've seen, beautify the city, local businesses are going to want to be involved in that. The landscaping that Ashley has shown, mowing, things like that, certainly on a local level, is just as much value to the local community. I don't know that they will have SSPs, maybe there's a parking garage that the city runs, adjacent to the highway and can be seen from the highway. I know I'm in Orlando, and I drive by I‑4 there's a parking garage by the arena that has a big sponsor sign on it. That's because it is facing the highway. The city doesn't necessarily own or operate that highway, but they have a building that can benefit from the eyeballs on that highway. So, that's something to think about as well. If the city or town is adjacent or as assets near enough to the highway, you can get the same benefit of the many impressions that go by if you add sponsorship to buildings near there.
Coming up in the future, EV charging stations are going to pop up everywhere. There's potential revenue associated with those as well. And I know a lot of times that I go in, have a gateway, welcome to ‑‑ that could easily have a couple local businesses supporting that gateway sign. Maybe the sign gets bigger and better. Maybe there's some landscaping or flowers and things around the sign because you got additional revenue from some of the local businesses.
So, yeah, I think it can scale on a city level as well.
>> SASHA PAGE: Great. You think you get that from small businesses that want to represent their program, Ashley? What do you tell them?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: I'm thinking on a variety of angles. On the local level, a lot of this work is already happening. Perhaps it hasn't been formalized, particularly designing the program that works with public/private partnerships to advance environmentally friendly projects along a local network or specific aspect of transportation system. I think there's great opportunity for intentional partnership development. There are only so many dollars for projects. Communities often asking for more, and better services or projects that are delivered to advance local goals. So, teaming up and leveraging creative opportunities is also an add on the local level.
>> SASHA PAGE: Great. There are a couple questions in the chat here. I'm going to address these to you. Randy Wright asks, how can we ensure high value low-cost sponsors and avoid injury lawyer type sponsors mentioned earlier? So, maybe, Ashley, you have experience with that area. Do you have any guidelines in your program, and also, have you dealt with this issue?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Yeah, let me read the question one more time, Sasha. I would recommend offering in some application review criteria, to make sure you're avoiding some of the pitfalls. You know, one way also you could offer some program goals to ensure that project proposals are meeting the intent of your program, and if you find that programs don't hit those marks. It is my opinion as program leaders, that you can deny the request because it doesn't meet the intent of your program. I'm not sure if that answered the question but I think it is something I need to keep thinking on. Good question.
>> SASHA PAGE: Yeah, obviously there's a legal aspect here. I don't know if you have dealt with that in your client, Sam?
>> SAM McCLAIN: Yeah, we have. Randy used the word ensure. Not sure we can ensure it doesn't happen. One of the ways we can ensure it doesn't happen is sell it to someone else. We talked about developing a risk of prospects. If you're developing a list of prospects in certain priority and you get the aspects sold before one of these controversial sponsors, come, there's not much you can do. It is sold.
Having a sponsorship policy in place, the policy can outline categories of businesses that the ‑‑ that you're not able to take sponsorship from. For example, alcohol, you're not saying I won't take sponsorship interest that business or that corner, but you may have whole categories where your sponsorship policy is determined that it is not in the state's best interest to have certain categories sponsoring highway assets. Whole is a good example and justifiable one. And there's generally four, five others ones that go along with that. That's another way to help protect against it. I don't know if it ensures it won't happen or can't happy.
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Sasha if I can add one more perspective on this. So, as part of our license, you have a variety of provisions in terms that speak to the type of work. How it needs to be conducted in the general service that is provided. So, as project staff, we have to actively track and manage that license, and if we find that activities of the sponsor aren't meeting the intent of the license, we have to have intentional conversations of how can we, you know, mediate a potential issue, does it make sense for us to pull the license which we never have to date. I hope that we don't have to pull one. But how can you, you know, step in, and take corrective action to make sure that the activities, or the operation and maintenance commitment to align back with that license.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. That's very helpful.
Adrian Mabry has a question. How has other public agencies worked through procurement standards? I experience resistance to the sales process with my organization who requires us to issue public solicitations.
Again, let start with Ashley. Do you ‑‑ is there relevance for you? Is there a procurement process that you need to follow if more than one organization want to sponsor a particular section of highway or have a particular sign?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: It hasn't come up yet but let say there's a parcel or a section of corridor that's of particular interest to many, many partners. We can do an RFP process to mirror the process for ‑‑ our leasing work in office of land management. There also could be an opportunity for us to come to the table and say how can we work together collectively as a group for this sponsorship proposal. It might get really interesting, who is going to be the licensed signee. We also have to get creative, who is noted on the sign. I think I would take it two directions if, you know, if need we could go for the RFP and bid process to mimic the leasing process for a particular parcel or section of corridor, or to bring all party to the table and talk about what collaboration can look like.
I haven't run into it yet.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Sam, are there procurement issues that you deal with?
>> SAM McCLAIN: I touch a little bit on it in the last answer. I think it crosses over a little bit. One thought is the procurement can actually be for an agency that will then go do the sales process. So. The benefit of that is public procurement. You put out opportunity, any of the people that are interested in doing the sponsorship could have responded to that public procurement, if an agency responds and win, then the agency is charged with going out and procuring the sponsors. So, that takes it a little bit off of every asset has to have its own RFP or solicitation. You know, you kind of get one agency that's handling the sales process. So, anybody that has an inquiry or want to go on, cease the sign going up saying I didn't have a chance, how do I get on that. You might see that agency going forward. It might help, Adrian, from that concern. I understand from a state public aspect you have state requirements you have to go through every time, and that can be burdensome, if you get an agency that handles that aspect of it, it can help.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Good. I think we're closing ‑‑ we have a couple more questions, if people want to put any more questions in the chat, please do.
Question, does sponsorship ‑‑ does the demand for this change have in recessions? You know, we've obviously gone through some ups and downs the last couple years, not a great recession as we had in 2008‑2010, but what is your experience with recessions, and how do you address that if you're looking at this as an ongoing funding source?
Again, Ashley, would you like to start with that?
>> ASHLEY ZIDON: Well, I certainly can attempt. I stepped into this role in 2022. So, well into the pandemic. And the prior program Director fielded an astronomical amount of requests for highway sponsorships. To me, the ‑‑ what ended up happening is folks focused on the local level. How can they enhance community and local project, and they found a tool to do so along Minnesota roadsides. I think there's been this new appreciation for focusing back our local in place and communities you call home and make local improvements. I'm not sure what it's going to look like in the future with the recession, but I do find many hands make light work, and there's a lot of stakeholders on the local level who want to make impactful change.
I don't necessarily see interest changing, but time resources, and, you know, grants ‑‑ grant and funding opportunities for projects, might be trickier in times of recession, but I still find the partners are really passionate in their work.
>> SASHA PAGE: Sam?
>> SAM McCLAIN: Well, first of all, I want to thank Caitlyn for her nice comment, but I want to thank Ashley for going first, because it gives me a minute to think of my answer.
But, yes, the recession certainly is going to, for what we do, limit the number of brand or sponsors that would be interested. We find they pull back on their marketing dollars in recession, or direct them to more known results, entity, whatever that is, direct mail, Internet, things they can measure, one of the difficult things about what we're talking about here today, it is difficult to provide a brand of measurement. Here's exactly what you can get out of this. We can show how many eyeballs they get. We're generally transportation sponsorship and advertising, I think is on the outer edges of the brand's marketing budget, not necessarily the core of what they are doing.
It depends, as I say that, the safety service sponsorship, brand that have those, I don't think would give them up in a recession, but some sponsor highway sign and some of those things, a branch pulling back, it might be difficult in time of recession. One way to maybe counter that is look for longer term commitment, it may sound counter intuitive, but you can lower your dollar amount if you have a two, three years commitment. We know times are tough and discount it and give it to you in two, three years. When times get better, you'll be locked in at this lower rate if that might help a brand. As I said, you have to think from that brand's perspective or sponsor perspective, what can you do to make it easier for them in a tough time, too. If it is money you don't have to have, there's a way to discount that first year, and it is going to look to them like you're trying to help them. We'll give it to you at 50 percent this year if you sign a two‑year deal, that may be a way around it.
>> SASHA PAGE: Yeah, good. I think last question, and I'm going to put you on the spot, Sam.
>> SAM McCLAIN: I knew I was getting that. Thanking Ashley for going first. Go ahead.
>> SASHA PAGE: Actually, I think the question that was asked at the end of Kyle's presentation who is not able to join us now or come back. How do you keep sponsorship of transit services from running afoul of FTA charter service rules. This may be a bit too specific. But I don't know if you have any thoughts on that? If not, we can, you know, ask Kyle about his thoughts afterward.
>> SAM McCLAIN: I think I'm going have to defer this one to Kyle. I saw Stephen Hunt had a similar question about charter services earlier. It's not an area. We stay in transportation. That trust means highways and roadways. We haven't ventured in the transit area.
>> SASHA PAGE: What about EV charging. You mentioned that's a growing area. Is this an opportunity for sponsorship?
>> SAM McCLAIN: I think it is an opportunity. As you said, it is new. I'm not speaking now from experience. I'm speaking from projections looking out. One of the things we love about it, it is a captive audience for maybe 20 minutes or so, maybe a good spot for video advertising, like a gas pump. We've seen that be successful. We look at that model and say how do we repeat that here. The downside of it, because it takes so much time, you're not getting that much turnover, you're not getting that many impressions at a pump. I'm thinking along the lines, at the ‑‑ I don't know if they are called pumps but the charging station, one could have some advertising associated with it. Maybe you get the brand of vehicles creating the electric vehicles, those brands might be interested in sponsoring the entire E V charging area, something like that. I believe there's coming regulation against highway signs being sponsored for EV charging. I think the Federal Highway is looking for signage saying EV charging. That kind of thing without that being sponsored, unfortunately. I don't know if that's finalized yet. Now you're talking about on site, the people that pull into the EV station or who you would be reaching. Very targeted but a bit limited in the numbers.
>> SASHA PAGE: Okay. Good. Thank you very much, both of you thank you, Kyle. Turn it over to Pepper to complete the webinar.
>> PEPPER SANTALUCIA: Thank you, Sasha. Thank you to our presenters today. All of them, for their informative discussions. I do want to remind folks that we have one more webinar in our 17‑webinar series during the calendar year. We just have a couple more weeks and we'll get our last one in. It is titled Value Capture Tool Kit For Practitioners. This webinar will highlight the various resources that FHWA has developed over the last few years for Value Capture and informing transportation agency, community development organizations about the different Value Capture techniques that are out there. So, hopefully you can join us again in a couple weeks.
I did put into the chat that the ‑‑ there is the file share window, or pod, above the audience set, just to the left of this slide that you see now. If you bring your mouse pointer over top of that file name, you should see a downward pointing arrow. If you click on that arrow, it will initiate ‑‑ should initiate a download of a combined PDF of the slide for today.
You can also click on the three arrows in the upper right corner of that file share window, and you can select the download all feature. That should also initiate the download. If you're interested in getting credit or confirmation of your participation today, you can send the request to the e‑mail address, valuecapture@dot.gov. Value Capture is one word. You can provide feedback for us on today's webinar through that e‑mail address. In addition, we ‑‑ I'm pulling up an evaluation tool that can also be used to provide feedback
Again, I want to give a big thanks to our presenters for volunteering their time to inform our audience today. Also, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the FHWA web conferencing office, and the past support of FHWA's Everyday Counts program. And with that, our webinar today is concluded. Thank you for your participation.
>> OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
[ Webinar concluded]
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