He is out there to start an advertising company. The basic idea is advertising on parking meters, but it's even better than that. It's a system called 'sponsored parking' where businesses pay for ads on parking meters, which actually makes it free to park there.
They have been working on getting Day Media Inc. started for about 2 years now. They are pretty close, but still have a few things to do.
Yesterday, 7 February 2011, Steve presented the idea to the Lethbridge city council. They need to amend a bylaw in order to operate since the parking meters are city property. The council didn't give a 'yes' or 'no' answer, but instead said they wanted some more info. So Steve will be doing a bit more work and then presenting it again in a couple months.
This is some of the press coverage:
It was on multiple radio stations (Rock106)(94.1 CJOC)
The radio station, Country 95.5FM has the following article by Marion Warnica:
"Lethbridge's Own Dragon's Den Rejects Free Parking Scheme"
The familiar 'ping' of coins into a downtown parking meter slot may be an endangered sound in the city's downtown, if one company has its way.
Lethbridge-based "Day Media" approached council with a business scheme that would see advertisements on parking meters. A percentage of the profits would feed back to the city so residents don't have to pay for parking.
Council rejected the idea, but Mayor Rajko Dodic told the group this "isn't the end of the road" for them. He recommended they do some more research and create a formal business plan before pursuing it further.
Company president Steve Day says he's been developing the concept during the past two years, and has the informal backing of several businesses that he heard of through "friends of friends." The company wasn't able to formally solicit businesses with the concept because they don't yet have a business license. But they did bring it to the attention of the Heart of the City Downtown Revitalization committee and the Downtown Business Revitalization Zone [BRZ].
The two downtown business groups are split on the issue. Heart of the City, a committee that's a division of city council, rejected the sponsored parking scheme. But Steve Day says the committee misunderstood certain aspects of the plan, and he hopes to win them over with a formal presentation. At the other end of the spectrum, the BRZ - an independent group formed to promote business downtown - fully supports the idea. Executive director Ted Stilson wrote council a formal letter, waxing enthusiastic about the plan's potential to attract more business to the city's core. "I believe that their sponsored parking concept would be an excellent tool to attract more customers to the downtown," we writes. He goes on to say he would be "excited" to see the "unique" idea implemented in the downtown.
The city's elected representatives are not as sure. Councillors raised several concerns about the company's lack of a formal business plan, the fact the idea was already rejected by the city-directed Heart of the City group, and the concept of placing paid advertisements in the public right of way - which is currently not allowed under city bylaws.
"This would be quite an exception, and an exemption to that rule. And I could see it opening the door for other advertisers wanting to get in on that," says alderman Jeff Carlson.
Carlson says the presentation just left him with too many questions, and that many of his concerns echoe those of the city committee that originally rejected the idea. He says the fact the company tried to go around that decision undermines the process and sets a precedent that could drag the issue out "for years and decades."
"I do get concerned when somebody does approach a committee, the committee makes a reccommendation, and then council says - send it back to committee for more discussion," he says. "There needs to be some trust factor between council and committees of council, that when a committee makes a reccommendation, council trusts it."
Representatives of the sponsored parking plan say their experience at city hall has inspired them to apply for a business license and come up with a more formal plan, which they'd like to bring back to the Heart of the City group within a month.
The Lethbridge Herald has this article on the front page by Gerald Gauthier:
"Parking Meter Proposal Gets Hearing, Little Else"
A company proposing to sell ads on downtown parking meters will have to do more homework if it hopes to get city council's okay for such a venture.
The owner of Day Media appeared before council members Monday, seeking approval to sell business sponsorships on parking meters. Company president Steve Day told council the sponsored spots would provide free parking for downtown patrons, and a portion of the advertising revenue would be returned to the city to offset any potential losses of parking revenue.
Once a parking meter was sponsored, a special advertising shroud would be placed over the meter head, eliminating the need for users to plug coins into the device, according to Day. Enforcement could still be done by chalking tires, as is already done in one- and two-hour parking zones in the city, he said.
After listening to Day's pitch, only a minority of council members were convinced the idea warranted referral to city administration for further study. Instead the proposal was simply filed as information.
Council would have to amend the city's land use bylaw before such a venture could go ahead.
Mayor Rajko Dodic said it would set "a bad precedent" to allow advertising on meters, which are technically a public right of way, and he suggested the company has done too little in terms of market research so far for council to give the idea serious consideration.
Ald. Jeff Carlson also said he felt it would be inappropriate to allow advertising on publicly-owned meters and that doing so could lead to problems with enforcement.
"It's a frustrating response," Day said afterward. "We strongly feel we have a solution that can benefit not only the city but the motorists and businesses."
He described Lethbridge as the perfect city for such a venture because of the number of parking meters about 1,600 and the size of its business community.
The proposal has so far failed to gain the backing of the Heart of the City revitalization committee but it did receive a written endorsement from Ted Stilson, executive director of the Downtown Lethbridge business association.
But he added he wasn't surprised by it and intends to pursue the issue further with the Heart of Our City committee in the hope of returning to council within a couple of months with a more detailed proposal.
Day acknowledged his company had little in the way of market research to go on given the fact he hasn't obtained a business licence yet and therefore couldn't do any direct soliciting to gauge interest from local businesses.
"What we will most likely do is go and get our business licence, we will solicit businesses and officially get feedback as far as who would be interested," he said. "This is similar feedback to what we were kind of expecting. We expected them to defer it to another committee."
Meanwhile, Ald. Joe Mauro was among the few council members who felt the concept merited a closer look by administration.
"I think we haven't given it a fair chance. I feel council is making a decision without having all the facts," he told his fellow council members.
He also asked council to consider waiving the business licence fee for the company, an idea that didn't sit well with some members of council, including Mauro.
"We did get some support out of it, and it's very, very encouraging to see that," Day said.
Day isn't based in Lethbridge, but he said his company has established a home-based office in the city.
