Harlingen to share bridge promotion costs

HARLINGEN — The city is bank-rolling its share of the first marketing campaign in years aimed at promoting the $40 million Free Trade Bridge more than 25 years after it opened.

Earlier this week, city commissioners approved spending $15,253 to launch the marketing campaign that will target 50 percent of its efforts to boost crossings at the Los Indios bridge, where toll revenues have significantly lagged behind other Cameron County bridges.

“The goal is to increase traffic — to reach commercial and other customers that we’re not reaching,” City Manager Dan Serna said yesterday.

The advertising campaign will use half of the money to boost crossings and promote a new $500,000 cold storage facility aiming to lure north-bound produce trucks.

The campaign marks the first time in years the bridge’s partners teamed up to pump money into the span’s promotion, County Administrator David Garcia said. The campaign will promote the bridge’s advantages including its proximity to the Port of Brownsville and significantly shorter waiting periods.

“We feel that bridge is under-utilized so we’re trying to get more traffic in the upper Valley to start using that bridge,” Javier Villarreal, the county’s deputy county administrator, said. “We’re opening the cold storage facility so we need to promote that bridge right away.”

Serna said the campaign’s target market includes produce companies.

As part of a joint project between the city, San Benito and Cameron County, the cold storage unit will allow northbound trucks to store their produce as they wait to pass inspection to enter the United States.

Under an agreement, the cities of Harlingen and San Benito are each funding $134,121 of the project cost, while Cameron County will pay $268,243.

While the marketing campaign will focus 50 percent of its efforts to market the Los Indios bridge, it will aim 25 percent each to promote the Brownsville-area bridges — Veterans International Bridge and Gateway International Bridge.

About two years ago, the bridge was estimated to be operating at about 20 percent of its capacity.

However, in the past few years, the bridge has seen a boost in crossings, county Administrator David Garcia said.

Since 2013, the bridge’s number of crossings is rising, with tolls climbing from $1.7 million to $2.4 million last year.

“We’ve grown a little bit there,” Garcia said. “We know the bridge has not been fully taken advantage of. We still have a long way to go until that bridge is at its full capacity.”

Harlingen, San Benito, Brownsville and Cameron County are working with Entravision Communications to launch the marketing plan.

As part of the plan, the cities of Harlingen, San Benito and Brownsville will each pay $15,253 while Cameron County will pay $30,516.

In Harlingen, the city plans to tap into its bridge revenues estimated at about $562,000 to fund its share of the program.

Serna said the advertising campaign will reach as far south as Monterrey.

“We are trying to get a lot of truck traffic from Mexico,” Serna said.

As part of the marketing campaign, Entravision, the Rio Grande Valley’s top media group, will advertise on TV networks Univision and UniMas as well as the FM radio stations La Tricolor 99.5 and La Suavesita 101.1.

The plan will use Spanish-language television and radio broadcasts to reach a projected 94 percent of adults 18 years and older, targeting 20 percent of consumers and 80 percent commercial truck traffic.

The company will run 1,470 television broadcasts and 2,856 radio broadcasts.