Five Star Parking & Pacific Park Management tap Dreamentia to help bring parkers back to Oakland International Airport.

OAKLAND & LOS ANGELES –Thanks to the struggling economy, times are tough for every industry. And air travel is no exception. If there are empty seats 30,000 feet above sea level, you can bet there are empty spots in every airport parking lot. Which is a problem Oakland International Airport (OAK) has been looking to solve.

But is it even possible to solve that problem with the current state of our economy?

Five Star Parking and Pacific Park Management (PPM) think so. As does LA-based advertising agency Dreamentia Creative Laboratories, who, along with Five Star and PPM, had a few tricks up their respective sleeves when pitching creative ways to bring cars back into the airport’s parking lots.

The Five Star/PPM joint venture began when Five Star Parking, 1/5 of the L&R Group of Companies’ parking divisions, which includes System Parking, Inc., WallyPark, Joe’s Auto Parks and Network Parking, was looking to re-pitch Oakland International Airport, a parking entity they had previously operated. But due to their Los Angeles headquarters, Five Star believed they could elevate their pitch by teaming up with local parking company PPM.

PPM, an innovative, emerging regional leader of parking services in the San Francisco Bay Area, operates a variety of facilities and has provided services to San Francisco International Airport, The Department of Parking and Traffic of San Francisco, and The Port Authority of San Francisco.

The parking tandem has enlisted the services of Dreamentia to help conceive and craft a marketing strategy and creative solution for Oakland International.

For the past 4 years, Dreamentia has designed and conceptualized everything from TV spots to billboards to websites to brochures for each of L&R’s parking divisions. So when it came to giving tackling OAK’s parking lot and airport, well, let’s just say they were ready to go and inspired by the positive impact Oakland International has had on the Bay Area.

For more than 80 years, Oakland International has been an important force in aviation history and a contributor to the economic well being of the San Francisco Bay Area. Past economic impact reports show the airport was responsible for infusing $4.5 billion annually into the local economy and is responsible for generating 5,500 induced jobs such as those that provide service for visitor/tourism jobs, such as hotel staff, taxi and charter bus drivers and tour guides. The airport complex and other OAK-related aviation businesses employ approximately 8,000 people, of which roughly one-third work in jobs related to cargo.

One of three international airports in the San Francisco Bay Area, OAK’s airlines provide service to numerous destinations in the United States and Mexico, proving to be a popular alternative to San Francisco International (SFO). Historically, Oakland International also has a high, on-time arrival percentage (of total flights inbound), despite many days of rainy and foggy weather for some months in each city. And, for the first quarter of 2009, was credited with the highest on-time arrival percentage in the nation.

With that kind of success, it’s no wonder Oakland International is popular with low cost airlines. In recent years, it’s been one of the nation’s fastest growing airports, which led to a $300 million expansion and renovation project that was completed in spring 2008. The project included the addition of five gates to Terminal 2; enhanced food, beverage and retail concessions; a new baggage claim area; expanded areas for ticketing and security screening; and significant improvements to the roadways, curbsides and parking lots.Terminal 1 is currently undergoing a $200 million upgrade, but will be renovated and seismically retrofitted over the next few years. Future improvements include larger restrooms; new airline ticketing and check-in areas; food, beverage and retail concession updates; and improved universal access and overall comfort and convenience enhancements.

Now, by combining these facts and renovations with the creative solutions Five Star Parking and Dreamentia have come up with to solve OAK’s parking challenges, it’s obvious that something special is on the way.

 The research for both Five Star and Dreamentia began with a trip to Oakland and a VIP tour of their prospective canvas. Then, after sizing up the variety of transportation commuters used while getting to and from their flight, the teams came to the conclusion that proximity was the airport’s greatest asset. Parking-wise.

Because when you think about it, the equation is really quite simple: Public transportation equates to waiting and hoping that shuttles, trolleys or trains show up on time. Which is the same kind of waiting that occurs when you ask for a ride from a friend or co-worker. But when it comes to driving yourself, you can arrive at your leisure and depart the second you’re off the plane, since you’re in charge and your car’s already waiting for you.

With that logic, Dreamentia began to build a creative campaign around the tag line “Footsteps From Your Flight.”

Conceptualizing everything from billboards targeting off-airport competition to indoor galleries paying tribute to famous feet, Dreamentia created an atmosphere that applauded the art of walking, rather than the easy-way-out of waiting on others.

The hard work paid off, as Five Star Parking and Dreamentia received high praise from the airport. Now, Five Star will be tasked with overseeing the process while Dreamentia begins to execute their concepts. But while Dreamentia is fond of what they’ve created, the creative agency expects their designs to evolve throughout the execution process.

“That’s how it works,” said Jim Olen, Dreamentia’s Chief Creative Officer, “as so much of this business is about partnership and process in order to ensure we’re delivering the best, most well-thought-out solutions for our clients. When pitching new business, agencies like ours are given a set amount of time – usually very short – to get ourselves up to speed regarding the client’s business, and then present to them ideas based on the limited contact we’ve been given to both the client and their resources. So once we’ve been awarded their business, it only makes sense that we’d continue to tweak, finesse and further develop the creative based on additional learning and more in-depth contact with everyone on the client’s side of business. For us to assume otherwise would be arrogant and foolish. We are proud of the partnerships we create with our clients, and in the end, that trust and open communication builds strong, long-lasting bonds between us all.”

The lot’s new look is currently going through revisions and modifications, and should be moved into production shortly.