City Councilmember Carl DeMaio today released a proposal calling on the City Council modify its policies regarding City marketing partnerships with outside commercial entities.
Official sponsorships, naming rights, advertising, and exclusive rights are just some of the forms of revenue-generating marketing partnerships that DeMaio wants to tap to help close the city’s structural budget deficit.
DeMaio is proposing two marketing pilot programs to test advertising deals in public Right-of-Ways and using Public Information Kiosks. He also proposes issuing a “Request for Information” to local marketing firms to generate additional revenue-generating ideas through marketing partnerships.
In addition to calling for a legal and technical review period, DeMaio outlined a process for seeking public input on ideas and regulations for marketing partnerships and the use of the revenues that may come with these partnerships.
DeMaio’s report also catalogues best practices from a variety of cities who have successfully used marketing partnerships to generate public revenues. That report can be found here.
“We need to generate revenues for city services, and marketing partnerships are one creative way to do that,” commented Councilmember DeMaio.