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MTA goes wild with subway ads

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer | MNaanes@am-ny.com

August 2, 2007

Some Shuttle train straphangers will step into a sauna, a lush rainforest or a tropical scuba dive during their commute Thursday.

They're not losing their minds. One of the Shuttle trains that buses frantic commuters between Grand Central Terminal and Times Square will be wrapped floor to ceiling in relaxing scenery and ads for a Westin Hotels and Resort campaign -- including a Bluetooth billboard where commuters can download songs -- that will fill virtually every space available in the shuttle station at Grand Central as part of what the MTA calls station domination.

In an era where proposed fare hikes and budget deficits loom, the MTA is continuing to test creative advertising techniques on buses and in subways on the eternal quest to grab more cash. In 10 years, ad revenues have grown $56 million to $90 million as of last year.

"We are looking to pilot test other ideas," said Roco Krsulic, who heads the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's real estate and advertising department. "We have grown revenue significantly in the last few years by engaging in new activities."

Looking for new ways to boost advertising dollars is nothing new. The MTA is researching if it could illuminate bus billboards at night. The agency also is looking into testing a technique that plasters images on the walls of the Shuttle tunnel that would act as an animated ad as the train moves through.

The MTA already allows station-domination ad blasts in about 20 subway stations.

But Krsulic believes that more companies will cash in on new customers by dominating stations in targeted areas of the city with new forms of advertisement, such as the first ever Bluetooth interactive billboard used in the Westin campaign.

"Coors Light may be very much interested in 161st Street Yankee Stadium, but a vendor like Donna Karan might be much more interested in 34th Street Herald Square," Krsulic said.

The newest advertising idea came from MTA board member Norman Seabrook, who suggested recently that the agency rent out Times Square station walls to Disney to paint as they like. Seabrook suggested the revenue could offset the need for a fare hike.

While the MTA is not directly looking into taking on that new frontier of advertising, a spokesman said that if the public asks the agency to expand advertising during fare hike hearings, they'd at least listen. But they would not go as far as selling station naming rights.

"I think that's generally the right policy given that we're stewards of a public space," MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said. "I think that's a good place to draw the line between public and private."