MARTA tests alcohol ads
In its quest for new revenue, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is conducting a pilot program this year in which alcohol advertising is displayed for the first time on trains and buses and in rail stations. Until now, such advertising was displayed only in bus shelters installed and maintained by CBS Outdoor, a private company.
“MARTA has actually always had some level of alcohol advertising,” MARTA CEO Keith Parker told me recently, but the ads were restricted from appearing on “actual rolling stock, on the trains and buses,” and in the stations.
Now, MARTA is spreading out alcohol ads on its system, monitoring public reaction to them and calculating how much money they bring in.
“We wanted to get a sense of how our customers were going to respond,” Parker said. “We’ve done some surveys to get a feel on that. We’ve agreed with CBS Outdoor, our advertising contractor, to allow them to explore opportunities with alcohol advertising. We’re doing that over a limited period of time, and we’ll assess how that’s working out and go back to our Board of Trustees and make a final recommendation on how to move forward.”
Part of MARTA’s process is figuring out how ads can be tailored to the message it’s trying to promote — of the agency as a safe transportation alternative.
“The message we’re trying to convey is that if you’re going to drink, drink responsibly. And if you’re in a situation where you’re going to potentially be a harm to yourself or others, then let somebody else do the driving for you. And we are taking that beyond just us. We’ve reached out to the passenger vehicle-for-hire community (taxis, Uber, etc.) and talked to them about how we can potentially coordinate together.”
MARTA recently teamed with Miller Lite beer for a promotion in which the company gave away Breeze cards for fans traveling to the first Atlanta Falcons game this year. Accompanying ads read, “Let MARTA be your designated driver.”
The alcohol advertising push is one of several ways MARTA is looking to raise revenue, from naming rights to concession agreements and transit-oriented development.
“We’re looking at the pros and cons of all these various ways of raising revenue,” Parker said. “All those things have a plus and a minus that comes with them. So we’re assessing what brings the most positive benefit to us with the least amount of negative return.
“For example, what we’ve heard directly from folks as they talk about alcohol advertising is that it isn’t as much a jump for us. If you watch a football game, you’re going to see alcohol ads. If you’re driving, you’re going to see (alcohol) billboard after billboard after billboard. If you listen to the radio, you’re going to hear (alcohol ads) on the radio. If you open a magazine, it’s all over the place. So what real impact does MARTA have if someone sees those same ads on a train or a bus? We’re assessing those things now to determine what level we will find acceptable in the future. But it’s still a work in progress.”
I raised the issue of children and teens who travel to school on MARTA’s system. Couldn’t they be considered a captive audience for the influences of alcohol?
“If we were to go full-scale on alcohol advertising,” Parker said, “we would limit the amounts in different communities. There would be no one community singled out (for) the advertising. We would make sure all the ads pass our smell test. Is it acceptable? Does it look like it’s marketing to children in any way, shape or form? Does it send out any type of negative stereotype that we are sensitive to? We will take this very seriously.”
