Brand News: Tuesday, November 08, 2005
A Square Deal
by Boyd Erman of The Globe and Mail
Fancy a night skating at Toronto-Dominion Bank Square? Or maybe you`d like to catch a concert on the outdoor stage at Tim Hortons Plaza?
It could happen. Councillor Doug Holyday, head of Toronto City Council`s audit committee, broached the idea this week of selling the naming rights to Nathan Phillips Square to cover a $40-million maintenance tab.So how much is it worth to hang a corporate shingle on Toronto`s most central civic space? Perhaps $10-million for a decade, says Elise Neils of Milwaukee-based AbsoluteBrand, a brand valuation consultant.
"That`s my gut feeling," she says, given the square`s prime Bay Street location. "It would interest a financial company or a consumer company or maybe a philanthropist with a big ego."
Public spaces are the next frontier of naming-rights deals. New York is exploring the idea of selling rights to tunnels, bridges and subway stations, and Lake Forest, Calif., has christened Etnies Park for $100,000 (U.S.) from the shoe company.
The problem with a square, as one brand consultant pointed out, is: Where do you hang the sign? "There are ways to do it tastefully and still brand it to death," Ms. Neils says. "Put the name into the sidewalk or pavement. . . . Use a piece of art as a focal point to draw people and then put the name there."
Nathan Phillips Square, named for the mayor who led the building of Toronto`s new City Hall, may end up becoming the answer to a trivia question -- like New York`s Longacre Square, another victim of branding. In 1905, The New York Times moved in, and it`s been Times Square ever since.
This article can be found here: www.theglobeandmail.com/
If you would like to understand the value of your brand, please contact
AbsoluteBrand at 
.