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Trash bins hold dollar signs Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Francisco Vallarta, left, and Don Allen hope to capitalize on a new niche advertising market - trash receptacles. Two Rogue Valley men have big plans for the special, locally made cans that carry ads By GREG STILES Mail Tribune One man's trash can is another's cash machine. It's the idle moments people spend filling up with gas or walking into a store that Don Allen and Francisco Vallarta hope to capitalize on by placing advertising on well-placed trash receptacles. "I'm always looking for advertising space to put to use, looking for a new place to hang a sign," Allen says. "I really like large outdoor advertising, but with the billboard's demise it's hard to find available space. I've been looking for another source." There are few places any more to escape from ads Land, sea and air, high-tech, low-tech, flashing, passive and annoying. It's on Little League uniforms, big-league ballparks and body parts. No matter where you go, you can't escape the long reach of the fertile advertising mind. The Russians once launched a 30-foot Pizza Hut logo into space. "The craziest one I've seen is an advertisement over the urinal at a Pilot Truck Stop," says Don Allen, of Key Outdoor Media. "A lot of rest rooms have them over the stalls as well." Apparently, Procter & Gamble is test-marketing ads for Noxema in women's rest rooms in upscale restaurants and nightclubs. Southern Oregon University marketing Professor Chuck Jaeger, who just returned from Japan, says he saw a variety of interesting ads. He noted Visa and bank ads were prominently displayed on the backs of seats on a bullet train he rode. "Obviously, you've got a captive audience for a couple hours just looking at the back of the seat." In the end, someone will always be looking for a better way to get a message across. "You're looking for something different, so your message is not lost in the clutter. People are bombarded from everywhere," Allen says. "There is a fight for brand-name recognition and consumer market share that is just fierce." He found it while shopping at a grocery store in Brooksville, Fla. "Immediately a light bulb came on," Allen says. "What I saw was a smaller version, but I immediately thought about a larger receptacle and larger ad." Allen, 50, has sold advertising and trained others how to sell for three decades. He sold Yellow Pages advertising and was later a field trainer and corporate training manager for US West, now Qwest. He launched what he claims is "the newest, most unique, most cost-effective advertising medium to be introduced in decades" in April, negotiating three-year deals for receptacle placement and has already advanced five-year pacts at gas stations, grocery stores and fast-food outlets. The past eight months have been something of a dry run, but Allen projects what could be astronomical numbers. Largely without a sales staff, Web site or distribution outside Southern Oregon, Key Outdoor Media has produced monthly sales of $10,000. That's all soon to change. "If some of the contracts we have been negotiating come to fruition," Allen says, "in the year 2002, we realistically could have (annual) sales of $1.5 million." Allen has lined up deals with nine Saars Markets and five Top Food & Drug outlets in Seattle. The trash cans are owned by Key Outdoor, while the businesses supply the location and empty the trash. Some contracts call for the stores to receive a percentage from Key Outdoor. Allen anticipates having 10 to 12 employees in sales a year from now and three or four production employees designing and producing ads that will be affixed to Plexiglas or foam cores before they're laminated. Once deals with regional or national chains are completed, Allen plans to combine the company's keyoutdoormedia.com Web site with telemarketing. The standard advertising rate is $594 for six months and $1,068 annually. Design and production of panels is $159. Panel changes, including redesign and installation, is $179. Prepayment gets a 15 percent discount. Mills Engineering of White City produces the trash cans, used by Disney and other theme parks throughout the world as well as fast-food outlets. "A trash receptacle is a good outdoor advertising opportunity," says Chuck Jaeger, a marketing professor at the Southern Oregon University business school. "If they get contracts in place and ramped up before they get competition, they've got a fairly good opportunity." A couple of dozen local firms - from an Internet provider to a coin and jewelry store - have signed on. Line-X, a franchised spray-on pickup truck bedliner business, has advertised at three Bi-Mor service stations and a Shell in Central Point and Medford. Manager Chad Mast says Line-X has advertised on billboards, radio and television since arriving in the area in the mid-1990s and decided to try the cans a month ago. "Outdoor advertising has been a pretty good way of doing advertising, at least according to our numbers," Mast says. "You get a lot of exposure time when people end up sitting there for four or five minutes." Vallarta, who moved to the Rogue Valley from Alaska in 1994, has a broad sales background, most recently selling office and janitorial supplies. He snapped up distributorships for Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties and has sold $10,000 worth of ads in little more than a month. "It's near the end of the year and the money reserved for advertising is kind of gone. Still, (advertisers have) managed to find some dollars for this." Vallarta's great-grandfather was Ignacio Luis Vallarta, for whom Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was named in 1918. He says it takes about 10 minutes to install a receptacle and the Plexiglas panel. "Gas stations have proven to be one of the best locations," Vallarta says. "You're right there three feet away from a panel for five or 10 minutes. In advertising, if you get someone's attention for six seconds, that's just wonderful. Vallarta can be reached at 821-1948. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.