Let’s say a model desires to get its identify in entrance of thousands and thousands of individuals, bodily and indelibly. The perfect it might probably do is grasp its identify on a stadium, proper? In any case, there’s unparalleled visibility, a captive viewers, and the status of associating with a landmark property. What could possibly be higher?
Properly, there could also be one comparable alternative, and purposes are open: The NYC Ferry is in search of a title sponsor. Which means a model with sufficiently deep pockets will get to color its identify on a fleet of vessels plying the waters of the nation’s capital of tradition, trend, finance, and tourism.
“One of many promoting factors right here is there aren’t lots of large issues that you may identify in New York Metropolis,” NYC Ferry government director James Wong informed ADWEEK.
Clearly, a model can’t slap its identify on landmarks just like the Empire State Constructing or the Brooklyn Bridge, and “there’s not lots of transit programs that somebody can put a model identify on” both, he added, making the ferry deal “a singular alternative.”
Distinctive sufficient, a minimum of, that the town’s Financial Improvement Company has retained naming rights consultancy Revolutionary Partnerships Group (IPG) to seek for a model that wishes to “rise above the noise and embed itself into the day by day lives of thousands and thousands of New Yorkers, together with the broader ecosystem of vacationers and vacationers who transfer by the town every day,” within the phrases of IPG CEO Jeff Marks.
That’s not simply advertising and marketing boilerplate. The corporate that inks this deal (Wong wouldn’t disclose the asking value) will get its identify each inside and outside 38 ferry boats that final yr carried 2.7 million passengers. The riders additionally represent a various, financially enticing crowd: 94% New Yorkers, 38% multiracial, and boasting a median family revenue of $113,000.
And because the ferries join 25 docks in 5 boroughs by way of 60 nautical miles of routes, a sponsor model would theoretically take pleasure in visibility from individuals on dry land, too, together with the 65 million vacationers who go to the Massive Apple yearly.
Marks believes there’s additionally an ennobling impact in retailer for the “proper model” that appreciates the civic import of a partnership like this.
“Think about a model associate serving to to subsidize discounted fares for center faculty college students, creating particular entry packages for metropolis staff, or launching initiatives that serve underserved neighborhoods,” he stated. “A model can generate measurable advertising and marketing worth whereas delivering significant advantages to New Yorkers, finally forging a deeper, extra enduring relationship with each the town and its individuals.”
In fact, status naming offers do carry specific dangers. Excessive visibility doesn’t essentially translate to elevated gross sales, for instance. In 2018, Temple College sports activities economist Michael Leeds crunched 25 years of knowledge from stadium-naming offers and concluded: “We discover little proof that the acquisition of naming rights had a statistically important impression on the worth of the businesses that purchased them.”
There’s additionally important public embarrassment if the naming rights aren’t absolutely thought by. In 2013, Florida Atlantic College scuttled a deal to let the GEO Group (a personal jail operator) identify the varsity’s soccer stadium (house of the Owls.) Locals started calling the place “Owlcatraz.”
Presumably for these causes, the town’s being very choosy in the case of suitors who’d identify its extremely seen ferry boats. Would metropolis fathers give their imprimatur to, for instance, the Dr. Scholl’s Bunion Ferry? How concerning the Fleet Enema Ferry or the KY Warming Lube Ferry?
Properly, no. “We are the town,” Wong stated, “so we will probably be making considerate and accountable decisions on who we associate with.”
