Corporate sponsorship plan is a sign of the times

Deirdre Newman

When the new Estancia football stadium is built, fans could be

confronted with Coca-Cola as their only soft-drink option at the high

school gridiron.

And while they quench their thirst at halftime, the city will be

slaking its desire for more revenue through the exclusive agreement.

This scenario is just one that may emerge from marketing research

into the city’s current and future assets and how to use those

resources to pull in new revenue. The city is looking to maximize its

assets to get some relief for continual million-dollar budget gaps

between spending and revenue.

On Monday, the City Council approved an agreement with a public

marketing group for research -- preparing and putting into place a

corporate sponsorship plan at a cost of $36,000.

But some residents do not support the council’s decision to pay

for a program that they say will cause visual blight.

“It would be added to an already poor budget, and I’m very

concerned about more signs going up everywhere,” resident Judi Berry

said. “We have too many signs that can’t be controlled by adding a

bunch more to them. Just drive down 19th Street and Placentia Avenue

and see how many sings there are. Or look at the bus stops. I don’t

think we need any more.”

The council awarded the contract to Public Enterprise Group, which

has helped hospitals, counties and cities -- including Long Beach and

Huntington Beach -- raise more than $42 million in guaranteed

revenue, according to a staff report. Company staff members will now

scour the city’s assets to see which ones are the most conducive to

sponsorships and corporate partnerships. Traditionally, sponsorships

provide dollars and corporate partnerships provide products and

in-kind services.

The city would benefit financially because companies are looking

to purchase advertising and sell products at city-owned facilities,

since they usually have high exposure in the community, according to

the staff report.

In Costa Mesa’s case, Public Enterprise Group will be sensitive to

the desire of the community, as it was during the marketing it did in

Huntington Beach, Chief Operating Officer Don Schulte said. In that

city, hanging a big sign over the pier and calling it “Ocean Spray

Pier” was suggested, Schulte said. But blatant marketing did not feel

right to the company and ultimately was nixed, Schulte said.

“I said, ‘I live here, and I don’t want that,’” Schulte said. “So

we just applied the same understanding and knowledge that we had

doing [marketing] for facilities and events and what not. We went

through the same process of having buy-in, understanding the core

values, so you’re not selling out. What you’re really doing is

enhancing.”

And marketing does not necessarily mean plastering a facility with

signs, Schulte said. In an exclusive deal the company negotiated

between Coca-Cola and Huntington Beach, there are no signs

advertising the relationship.

“A company is not going to come in and plaster a city with signs

and pay money to have people mad at them,” Schulte said.

The company will not find a new identity for Costa Mesa, since its

official motto is “City of the Arts,” Councilwoman Libby Cowan said.

While city staff members have pursued marketing and sponsorship

programs in the past, the scope of the current undertaking is much

larger and worthy of a professional firm, Cowan added.

“As a staff member of another city, I know it takes a certain

expertise to get beyond the small donations and that’s really what

we’ve hired this group to do,” said Cowan, who is Irvine’s community

services superintendent.

The council also approved an agreement with Public Enterprise

Group to explore a sponsorship plan for the city’s skate park at

TeWinkle Park, which is tentatively set to break ground on Sept. 22.

This will cost the city about $51,000.

The vote on the agreements was 3 to 2 with Councilmen Allan

Mansoor and Chris Steel dissenting.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].