Way-Finding and Corporate Sponsership

Way-finding can be rather expensive: thousands of dollars each year in maintenance for the system, and well over a thousand dollars if one sign gets knocked over by a heedless driver or devious teen. Because of the costs there is motivation to find other ways to sponsor the system without the use of much tax dollars. DDO wanted me to do some initial research on corporate sponsorships on way-finding systems.

After looking and looking, I only found one City that does it.

Portland uses corporate sponsorship to subsidize its way-finding program. Businesses are allowed to purchase a “slot” on the way-finding sign for $200 a year. That’s cheap advertising. The annual fees are collected by the City and are used to maintain the system as a whole. Businesses are advertised by their name only (same size and style of font) an no logos are allowed on the signs. After talking with the City of Portland, I was surprised to find out that not a lot of businesses utilize this opportunity. Thus, the program is not totally self-sustaining, at least at the moment. Portland believes there are several reasons why there was a low-response rate. First, they did not advertise very well. They sent an intern out with some pamphlets and told him/her to deliver them to various businesses. Looking back, what they should have done was go to a non-governmental agency that helps businesses develop in Portland (much like DDO) and have them encourage businesses to advertise on way-finding signs. A second reason is that businesses were unfamiliar with what way-finding was and what it would look like. Now that the system has been in existence for two years Portland expects a greater response rate.