Obie Media Corp., the Eugene, Ore.-based company that earlier this year went on a wall mural painting spree in and around downtown Spokane, has been selected by Spokane Transit Authority to provide transit advertising services here.


Obie says it expects to enter into a five-year contract with STA shortly. The agreement will give the company, which calls itself an out-of-home advertising provider, the exclusive right to sell interior and exterior advertising space on 133 vehicles in STAs fleet beginning Jan. 1. Obie says its Spokane office, which currently sells billboard displays and urban wallscapes, will manage the program.


STA spokeswoman Teresa Stueckle says Obie guaranteed STA at least $2.5 million in revenue over the life of the contract. New York City-based TDI Inc., which holds the current STA transit advertising contract and also was vying for the new pact, offered a $1.6 million guarantee in its proposal, she says.


Although financial return was only one of the criteria considered by STA in evaluating the two submitted proposals, representing a maximum 40 points in a 100-point scoring formula, it was the deciding factor in this case, Stueckle says.


Obies selection is significant in that its the first time the STA transit-advertising contract has been awarded to a different company in 30 years, Stueckle says. She says Seattle-based Washington Transit Advertising, which TDI acquired recently, held the contract throughout that period.


In addition to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, Obie has operations in nine other states, as distant as Florida and Connecticut, and also in British Columbia. The company sells, designs, produces, and installs transit posters, billboards, urban wallscapes, and bus-shelter and -bench displays. The firms transit-advertising division serves more than 30 transit authorities in North America, including those in Portland, Sacramento, Dallas, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Fort Lauderdale, and Vancouver, British Columbia.


In a promotion that captured considerable local attention, Obie this summer hired professional pictorial artists known as wall dogs to paint 20 large murals on the outside walls of conspicuously located buildings around downtown Spokane.


The colorful wallscapes painted here, ranging in size from around 300 square feet to more than 1,000 square feet, depict historical scenes, natural panoramas, and local landmarks. Obie said it planned to offer local businesses the opportunity to sponsor murals or advertise their products and services on some of the walls. It claimed that such wallscapes are becoming a popular advertising medium in other Pacific Northwest cities.