The Maryland Transit Administration said yesterday that it plans to award a three-year marketing and advertising contract that could be worth up to $4.5 million to the Campbell Group Inc. of Baltimore.
The contract, which the MTA can extend for up to two years, is awaiting final approval from the Maryland Board of Public Works. The MTA is hoping to gain that approval by the end of the year.
If the deal goes through, the Campbell Group's responsibilities will include research, strategic planning, media planning, creative development and public relations for the MTA's existing and new services.
"Not only are we going to be working on giving people greater access to information ... we'll also be promoting new line extensions," said Andy Dumaine, a partner and creative director of the Campbell Group.
The Campbell Group is an advertising and public relations agency with more than $30 million in annual billings.
MTA spokeswoman Suzanne Bond said the local agency won the account over a "significant number" of other firms - though she would not release the number of firms competing until the deal receives final approval.
"It's the Fourth of July and Christmas all rolled into one," Dumaine said. "We're very pleased. There were a lot of agencies, very capable, agencies that were vying for this account ... and we're pleased that we were chosen."
For about the past year, the MTA has been without a steady advertising agency. It has done some work in-house and has had work done by several local agencies, Bond said.
The MTA's goal is to double ridership by 2020, Bond said. About 355,000 people currently use MTA services in the Baltimore area.
"We feel the MTA has a good, solid product here, and we'd like more people to know about it ... and advertising and marketing with a firm as experienced as the Campbell Group will be a way for us to achieve that goal," Bond said.
The deal has a certain amount of visibility and credibility for the Campbell Group because it is a state account, said Lynda M. Maddox, a professor of marketing and advertising at George Washington University.
"There needs to be creative ways of getting this message out and of getting the media to pick up the material, and it has to make an impact," Maddox said.