Billboard License Plates

A number of years ago I owned a blue F-355 Ferrari Spider convertible.  It was a very beautiful car that got a lot of attention-- whether being driven or just parked.  I came up with the idea to put the license plate “up for sale.”   A corporation could pay me to have their company name as a vanity plate on my car.  Crain’s Chicago wrote a story about my plan, including contact information for me.  Guess how many people contacted me?  Zero!  My car was a Ferrari, not a beat up clunker, and no ad agency or company cared to even find out what the cost would be.  An idea that failed.  Illinois State Sen. John Mulroe, D-Chicago, has an advertising license plate plan of his own, that I think will also be left at the gate.

This past February Mulroe proposed legislation to create corporate-sponsored license plates that motorists could buy at a discount.  He said his proposal would bring down the cost of the plate from about $99 to $84 because corporations would pay the $15 difference plus a fee to the state for the right to advertise on the plate.  Mulroe did not say what fee he thought that companies would pay.

Let’s put some advertising numbers in perspective:

(1)  Oakbrook, Illinois based McDonald’s Corporation is one of the world’s largest spenders on advertising with a world-wide advertising budget of about $2 billion.  The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the world’s population on June 14^th was 6,924,809,801.  That puts their ad spending at about 34 cents for every person on the planet.

(2) Illinois has a population of 12,830,632  so that means McDonald’s spends about $4,362,414.88 (34 cents a person) to advertise in Illinois.

(3) There are approximately 9 million motor vehicle license plates in Illinois.  Senator Mulroe thinks corporations would pay $15 plus a fee to advertise on plates.  I will pretend that the processing fee is $5.00 for a total charge of $20 per license plate.  That comes to a cost of $180,000,000 if McDonald’s wanted their logo on all plates in the state.

(4)  In conclusion, I understand that the corporate-sponsored license plates would be an “opt-in” by the consumer if they wanted to save money on their plate, so no corporation would be paying for all 9 million plates.  But at any number of plates, it makes no economic sense.

The state of Texas is selling corporate sponsored plates. How many have been bought by motorists since they launched the plan in November 2009?  Only 489!

There is also the problem of a state deciding if they are going to block certain categories of companies from having sponsored plates.  Would a liquor company be allowed?  The is also the negative PR that a company could receive if the media shoots footage of a fiery truck crash and a “Big Mac”  is clearly seen on the license plate.  Could a company say they only want their sponsored plates bought by people with pristine driving records?  Other states who have studied this revenue idea have voted against it.

 Illinois lawmakers passed a measure instructing the Illinois Secretary of State’s office to conduct a study to see if the plan would work and how much revenue could be generated.  The office has until January 1^st to produce a report.

I think this blog might have just saved that office six months of busy work and a lot of money on consultants and accountants.  I will send a copy to Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and tell him to show my calculations to Senator Mulroe.  Then maybe lawmakers can work on legislation that will actually produce money for the state coffers. What a novel idea.