The Globe and Mail reports today that the City of Toronto met with companies who will potentially bid on the street furniture contract. There is Spain-based Cemusa Inc., which signed a street-furniture deal with New York last year that officials there say which could see a $1-billion share of ad revenue for the NYC government over 20 years. French giant JCDecaux and U.S.-based Clear Channel, are also being tipped as bidders. Viacom Outdoor Canada, bus-shelter and billboard providers, and Astral Media Canada, makers of the city’s pilot-project info pillars, are also possible canidates.
Rolando Garcia, the CEO of Eucan, which provides the city’s advertising-laden garbage bins said yesterday he would prefer the contract be broken into smaller pieces, so that firms can bring their own special expertise to the table. He obivously sees the monster bins have little chance of being approved since waste bins will be rolled into this RFP. However, he said Eucan would also be able to bid on the entire project.
Mr. Garcia also get’s the quote of the day: “The most important question is, how do you want the city to look?”
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Assuming that any successful bidder will want the ‘right-to advertise’ the City should require, as part of any negotiated contract free dedicated space and the provision of associated costs (printing and maintenance of image exchange, (this last provision is very important without it the community side of the equation would die)) to be provided by the bidder for each and every outdoor advert space that they subject us to.
This space can then be made available to community groups and creatives for display of current events and other displays.