GWCC to advertise inside of building

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Commercial messages will soon greet conventioneers, sports fans and business executives who visit the Georgia World Congress Center.

In a bid to find new sources of funding, the downtown facility will rent space to advertisers in six strategic spots beginning next year.The move could net the 3.9 million-square-foot convention center -- the fourth largest in the nation -- between $300,000 and $500,000 a year, said spokesman Mark Geiger.

"We really have never done anything like advertising within the facility," Geiger said. "We have always kept it a pure entity.

But with the way the economic times are right now we are always looking for additional revenue streams," he said.

The plan is critical for the facility. Leaders anticipate losing $5.6 million in fiscal 2010 because of slumping convention attendance and falling food and beverage sales. And up-and-coming convention cities like Nashville and Charlotte are going after meetings that the GWCC won easily in the past.

The GWCC ads will pop up in the red deck of the parking garage, at newly installed stations for charging laptops and cell phones, and on the large wall that hangs over the escalator in Building C, Geiger said. Some ads will also be displayed on shuttle buses between the center and area hotels.

Morgan Hughes, whose Revelation Outdoor Management is handling the effort, said they are looking for two advertisers: companies targeting specific conventions with short-term ads, and long-term advertisers who trying to stay top-of-mind, like Verizon or Delta Air Lines or Ford.

The ads will not be placed in the different halls that are set aside for conventions to display banners and other paraphernalia, he said. And they will not resemble the mishmash of gaudy messages so common at seaside resorts.

"(The Georgia World Congress Center) wants them to stay professional and clean," he said.

There is reason to believe the advertising can be a success. The San Diego Convention Center began placing ads on its premises four years ago, said Steven Johnson, vice president of public affairs. Those ads bring in about $500,000 annually.

San Diego's ads are limited to local restaurants, attractions and tours, Johnson said. The facility has turned away ads for businesses like condo projects because they don't address the needs of conventioneers.

"We really try to discourage people who want to put an ad here, thinking how great it will be, but what they are selling really does not work for our customers," Johnson said.