Committee tells staff to pursue full‑wrap trolley advertising and better contract terms

Outfront Media representatives told the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee that only about 11 of 30 trolleys (roughly 35%) currently carry exterior advertising and that the program suffered a revenue decline in 2025 in part after the city's ban on alcohol advertising removed roughly 30% of previous ad categories.

Lonnie Ferro, Outfront’s vice president of government affairs, said the company has been benchmarking international best practices and that full vehicle wraps and expanded formats attract additional interest from national and luxury brands. Ferro explained the alcohol restriction was a substantial contributor to the dip and that flexible ad formats could help recover and grow revenue.

A representative for Outfront said the current revenue split was approximately 52.5% to the city under the existing arrangement and that the city’s shelter and digital investments also changed advertiser behavior. Commissioners pressed for a better city share and for clearer procurement and contract language to allow full wraps if the commission desired.

The committee directed staff to pursue amendments to the existing advertising agreement to allow full trolley wraps in the short term and to develop specific recommendations for the go‑forward contract for commission approval. Staff also said the next trolley fleet is expected to begin arriving in 2027, which will affect the procurement timeline.