The McDonald's station? The Pepsi stop? The Subway Subway?
As reported by the Toronto Star last week, Toronto is considering reviewing a naming rights strategy for its massive underground subway system, just as other jursidications have also begun to consider the value of their assets.
Tess Kalinowski, the Transportation Reporter for the Toronto Star reports:
"The TTC has agreed to study the feasibility of selling corporate naming rights to subway stations as a way to raise money. The controversial request for a study of practices in other cities came from commissioner Peter Milczyn, who cited an ad from the Middle East city of Dubai inviting corporations to "Turn your brand into a destination" by buying rights to two new transit lines and 23 stations being built there."If one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world is looking at doing this, we should at least look at it," he said. Saying "beggers can't be choosers," Milczyn noted the TTC is embarking on an ambitious expansion while struggling to raise operating funds."
At a time when citizens have hit the wall when it comes to personal and corporate tax increases, not to mention property tax hikes and Provincial and Federal sales taxes, creative revenue generation strategies must be explored. A feasibility study would certainly enlighten the community as to the hidden value of the the Toronto Transit Commission. From a brand awareness perspective alone, the TTC's Ridership Growth Strategy suggests that by 2011, as many as 500,000,000 riders will ulitize the service. Wow - that's a lot of eyeballs. Couple that with category exclusive rights to communicate with those riders and a fully integrated partnership benefits package, and you've got 8 figure revenue potential that can't be ignored.
Keywords: Naming rights, naming, rights, corporate naming rights, branded cities, branded communities, selling naming rights, corporate partnerships, brand awareness, valuation, ROI
