CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Turnpike users may soon be seeing sponsorships on the road.
Parkways General Manager Greg Barr said while they have not signed a contract yet, the Parkways has received the approval to agree to terms with a company to start placing sponsorships up and down the turnpike.
“It is like we are leaving money on the table,” Barr said. “Why not do it? It’s going to generate some extra money. It will help offset the cost of courtesy patrol. We can provide Wi-Fi at the travel plazas and if we can get a cell phone company to sponsor that, that reduces the cost for us to pay for the bandwidth and provide the service.
“It’s a win-win. The company gets their name out there and we reduce our costs for providing services.”
The company that the Parkways Authority is looking to come to terms with for sponsorship help is Travelers Marketing. According to Travelers Marketing website, it has 230 brands serviced across 33 states and accounts for 33 billion annual impressions.
“They are a proven entity,” Barr said. “They have a track record that they can do it. They generate money for all those other states and toll roads.”
Barr noted the difficulty to get to this point from both state and federal officials. In 2007, the Parkways Authority looked into the idea of sponsorships but walked away after receiving several complaints.
“It’s a complicated process. I realize it took us a year to develop state policy on it. Federal Highways is very concerned about this type of thing. they don’t want to turn the interstates into some advertising gimmick. They are very, very restrictive about what can be on the sign, how big it is. You can’t put a phone number, you can’t put an address. It is not advertising, it is just sponsors.”
Any sponsorship would have to stay within existing state and federal regulations, as the 88-mile West Virginia Turnpike from Charleston to Princeton is part of the federal highway system.
Barr estimated the sponsorships could bring over $200,000 per year to the Authority.