Tollway jumps into advertising business

If you’re stranded on the Illinois tollway with an empty tank of gas, rescue could come courtesy of the Aflac duck.

Or another corporate sponsor could display its logos on H.E.L.P. trucks in order to bring the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority needed cash, officials agreed Thursday.

The agency this month will ask interested companies to submit proposals to advertise on its emergency assistance trucks and expects to award a contract in April.

If the strategy is successful, the authority could expand sponsorships to other property, ranging from salt domes to naming rights for plazas.

Marketing manager Diana Stewart cited six other toll or transportation agencies that used sponsorships for safety patrols. Revenues ranged from $2.2 million a year for the New York Department of Transportation to $470,000 for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In most cases, the advertiser has been an insurance company.

“The industry is looking at nontraditional ways to add revenues,” Stewart said.

The money would help compensate the tollway for its H.E.L.P. truck program, which costs about $2 million annually. H.E.L.P. trucks change tires, tow and bring fuel to stranded motorists.

Tollway board directors at their weekly meeting endorsed the concept with some caveats.

“We’ve got to be careful not to make it too visually distracting,” Director Bill Morris said.

Corporate logos would be displayed on the front and back of trucks, marketing officials said.

Directors also cautioned staff to avoid cigarette or alcohol ads.

“We won’t accept liquor advertising on tollway trucks,” Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said. “We want to maintain the integrity of tollway vehicles.”

The next step could be hiring a broker to seek out other sponsors for property including maps and its website.

“We don’t want to inundate customers with every logo and ad, but we owe it to them to see if there’s ways to generate revenue,” LaFleur said.

There’s one revenue stream, however, the agency won’t accept and that’s political ads. Disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s name was prominently displayed on toll plaza signs until his ouster in 2009 when the agency removed it and agreed to dispense with such displays in the future.