Unusual Ads Bring in Revenue for Caltrain

By

December 16, 2010

The traditional real estate market may not have fully recovered from the economic downturn, but Caltrain is having some success using a different type of real estate to generate much-needed revenue. Two unusual types of outdoor advertising, train wraps and station saturation, have brought in approximately $100,000 this fiscal year.

CBS Outdoor is Caltrain’s real estate broker. The national outdoor media company is soliciting businesses to literally plaster themselves to Caltrain.

Rolling billboards

Think of train wraps as wallpaper – but for the entire exterior of a rail car. Businesses can choose to wrap just one train car or cover an entire five-car train. When Caltrain opened this venue in 2004, Target was the inaugural advertiser. The concept was so successful that the retailer is currently using two complete Caltrain train sets to advertise the introduction of fresh produce at its stores.

Other train wraps have included San Francisco Giants, Stanford football, San Jose Sharks and radio station 93.3 RAZA. Soon to be rolling along the rails will be a train car wrapped by web services company AOL.

With the train traveling through densely populated area between San Francisco and San Jose, hundreds of thousands of people have the opportunity to see the ads.

Station Saturation

Many businesses have opted to saturate the San Francisco train station with ads – overhead, on pillars and even under foot. This is a popular venue because of the thousands of passengers that pass through the station each day, and more during special events in The City. The station at Fourth and King streets also is a highly visible location, which allows pedestrians and drivers passing by to glimpse the ads. Station saturation advertisers have included Jamba Juice, WebEx, JP Morgan Chase, and, most recently, the Hawaii Tourism Board.

While this unique program to generate revenue won’t wipe out Caltrain’s structural deficit, it definitely is helping the bottom line.

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Caltrain is a commuter rail line operating between San Francisco and San Jose, with commute service to Gilroy. Average weekday ridership on the mix of 90 local, limited and express weekday trains is 42,000. Local, hourly service is provided on Saturdays and Sundays.

Caltrain is owned and operated by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, a partnership of the City and County of San Francisco, the San Mateo County Transit District and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.