"Albuquerque's Sunport seeks to eclipse its ad revenues with extended contract"

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Sunport seeks to eclipse its ad revenues with extended contract
The Sean O'Hara
The New Mexico Business Weekly


An Albuquerque International Sunport selection committee is expected to make
a decision on Nov. 1 on who will facilitate a long term advertising contract
in the airport, one part of its on-going 3-year, $14 million plan to
moderize the terminal. 
  
The advertising contract would most likely be a five-year contract
commitment from the selected advertising firm to create a more profitable
advertising program for the Sunport. The firm selected will generate more
revenue for the airport by maximizing advertising revenue, which advertisers
pay for space in the airport's facilities, and in turn channel a percent of
what it collects from advertisers to Sunport and the city. 

Mike Rice, the Sunport's director of aviation, says a selection committee
will decide who should manage its aviation contract. The selection committee
is expected to forward its recommendation to City Council in November. 

The Sunport, which is administrated by the city, has worked with airport
advertising firm and New York-based JC Decaux USA, on a month-to-month basis
contract for the past several years but is now hoping to establish a longer
contract. 

According to Rice, about five advertising firms, including JC Decaux,
attended a pre-bid meeting held by the selection committee earlier this
year. 

"We have had a month-to-month advertising contract for several years now and
in order for an advertising company to invest in the type of advertising we
are looking for, they need [to make] a long term commitment," Rice says. 

The Sunport is in the midst of a three-year $14 million optimization program
that includes upgrading bathrooms and adding new waiting lounge furniture to
modernize the look of the terminal. 

"The current company is doing a good job with us, but it's time to modernize
everything and this is just another step in that direction," Rice says. 

Rice hopes the advertising firm that is chosen will help the airport
communicate with advertisers and bring more revenue into the Sunport, the
city and the state. 

Expanding the Sunport's advertising is something Rice says he was
immediately interested in when he became Sunport's aviation director earlier
this year because of his educational background in advertising and public
relations. 

Rice says that all of the advertising firms are "more progressive" than the
airport's current model. He expects a longer contract commitment will allow
the selected company the opportunity to maximize revenue for all parties. 

One of the advertising companies interested in winning Sunport's advertising
contract is Pennsylvania's Interspace Airport Advertising. 

The Allentown-based firm is aggressively seeking the contract and was in New
Mexico last week during the 2004 New Mexico Governor's Conference on
Tourism. 

Marianne Lieberman of Interspace says her advertising firm has worked
extensively with officials from around New Mexico such as the Albuquerque
Convention & Visitors Bureau, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the
Tourism Association of New Mexico and Rick Johnson & Company in grooming its
bid proposal to the city. 
  
"The reason we chose Albuquerque is because it fits our niche. Interspace
specializes in origin and destination airports which are major economic
engines for the city and the region, or in this case, the state," Lieberman
says. 

Lieberman says the Sunport offers a "one-stop-shopping" area that promotes
tourism and economic development in both the state and Albuquerque. 

Because the Sunport is not a transfer market, Lieberman says it offers
"tremendous opportunities" for economic development and tourism when
visitors travel through the airport. 

"[The] Sunport is an amazing airport facility and is recognized across the
country. It gives you a sense of the place as soon as you arrive because of
its architecture and Southwest themes. The Sunport is talked about in the
airport and economic development industries," Lieberman says. 

If selected, Interspace hopes to incorporate a themed advertising approach
that reflects the city and state with ideas that would include a three
dimensional scale-sized balloon in front of a sunset mountain backdrop
depicting the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and a 3D scale
Eclipse Aviation model plane hanging from the airport's interior. 

It also hopes to install Revmax, an advanced, computer controlled,
internally illuminated display that rotates posters, one after another, and
can house up to 10 different ads in one location. Interspace says the
technology maximizes revenue from minimal square footage. Interspace also
proposes to install welcome centers with staff that feature multi-lingual,
interactive, LCD touch screen monitor phones, which offer a main page with
organized categories linked to hotels, restaurants, city attractions, sports
and convention information. 

Lieberman says Interspace proposes to invest $700,000 in the Sunport and
estimates that the firm will return more than $6 million dollars over the
term of the contract. She says local advertisers will benefit through the
direct exposure of Sunport's eight million visitors that pass through the
airport annually. 

Interspace, founded in 1974, is a family-owned firm and has advertising
contracts with 175 airports in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean,
New Zealand and Australia. 

According to the firm's Web site, it has paid its airport partners more than
$18 million in 2003 and invested more than $30 million in customized airport
displays.


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