Huntington Beach approves agreement for lifeguard tower advertisements

Advertisements are a step closer to appearing on the back of each lifeguard tower on Huntington City Beach.

The City Council Tuesday night approved a three-year agreement with a Huntington Beach-based company, Rio Media, to implement the program.

Five council members approved the agreement, including Mayor Pat Burns and Mayor Pro Tem Casey McKeon. Councilman Butch Twining recused himself, as he said he was friends with one of the bidders, while Councilman Andrew Gruel was absent.

“This is a great revenue generating opportunity, getting creative,” McKeon said. “This is done very tastefully, and it’s a good public service.”

City officials first unveiled a design for the back of 24 towers on Huntington City Beach last November, an opportunity identified by the Huntington Beach Fire Department. In addition to the advertisements, the design includes beach safety information and a QR code to access safebeachday.com.

Rio estimated that the tower advertisements could generate at least $1 million annually, 70% of which would go to the city and 30% of which would go to the vendor. High-traffic towers are expected to generate about half of that total.

A request for proposals process brought two of the bidders, and the city went with Rio.

Huntington Beach Fire Chief Eric McCoy said during Tuesday night’s meeting that a local company would also be doing the wraps for the towers.

“We’ll have two H.B. companies involved in the process, which is something we’re really excited about,” McCoy said.