TROUBLE AT TRADE GROUP Intelli-moniker & firing create tensions

TROUBLE AT ITSA

Intelli-moniker & firing create tensions at lobby

The president of ITS (Intelligent Transportation Society of) America James Costantino is under pressure to step down in the midst of serious dissatisfaction over his handling of his former deputy Hal Kassoff and a “National Awareness Campaign.” At the annual ITSA meeting in Washington DC early this month there was fierce contention over the awareness campaign, described as a multi-year, multi-million dollar marketing exercise designed to increase public acceptance of high-tech transport products of which electronic toll systems are the most conspicuous example to date. The campaign using a new logo “IntelliTrans” and the heading “Look for the Sign of Intelligent Life” appeared in fullpage advertisements in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, US NEWS, and other national publications. But many influential industry and state people think the campaign unintelligent and are annoyed at what they regard as the use of strongarm tactics to generate support for it. They do not see the necessity for spending big money on an industry logo. Meanwhile there is an undercurrent of anger at Costantino’s treatment of his former deputy Hal Kassoff, once seen as a successor to Costantino after an orderly transition (TR#14, Apr 97 p11).

Kassoff only took up his #2 position as Executive VP at ITS America in November and his appointment was greeted as a major event in the trade association’s official news-sheet, featuring front page news, a big interview and pictures. Kassoff, who was chief of the Maryland State Highway Administration for 12 years and a leader among state highway administrators in ITS. He is respected and liked in the industry. He will not comment on his short tenure, but was placed on “administrative leave” by Costantino in late March barely 4 months after starting, and late May separated formally from ITSA. Many in the industry had said that the board of ITSA created the position of Exec VP specially for Kassoff with a view to having him succeed Costantino when they expected him to retire some time late this year or early in 1998. Asked about his own plans Costantino told me in an interview in his office May 8 he expected to remain “about two years more” adding “two years is certainly the outside” but said he serves “at the pleasure of the board.” The pleasure seems to be dissipating.

Popping up? By the end of the annual meeting June 5 Costantino was under strong pressure to go, with dissatisfaction simmering over his management of the national awareness campaign. Major state chapters Virginia and California were furious, and a variety of members said that the campaign had been launched without proper presentation and approval by the board. The full page ads in the national press late May started: “Soon you’ll see a new sign popping up on highways, in cars, on buses, trains, trucks and neighborhood streets.” But the new “sign” (the IntelliTrans logo) which is trade-marked will only pop up to the extent that private and public agencies that run the highways, or the car companies and neighborhood streets choose to adopt and support it. None of the car companies like it. Several states are critical. The whole campaign is based on selling use of the logo for royalties and critics are easier to find than enthusiasts — with royalty-payers as yet undiscovered.

Lynda South Webster director of communications at the Virginia Department of Transportation told us: “I don’t agree with IntelliTrans. It is not a word. People won’t understand it. We will not be using it.” By contrast, says Webster, people understand the Smart prefix. Therefore Virginians will soon be getting smart roads, smart traffic centers, smart tolling, smart signals, SmarTraveler, smarTrucking, SmarTag etc. California representatives concur. Like Virginia they are using the phrase “Smart Travel” as their umbrella term for ITS services and variants of the smart prefix. One said the IntelliTrans logo will just “create confusion.” A member at the state chapters council called the whole awareness project “just a very bad idea.” Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Larry Yermack, chairman of the state chapters council, said public agencies would never pay royalties for use of the logo.

Some board members were angry at Costantino for foisting the campaign on the industry. He said in one letter dated May 27 that at the annual meeting “we plan a major market test” of the awareness campaign and logo, yet he said at the meeting itself in response to criticism that the identity of the campaign is now established and could not be changed and that the board had approved it, something board members contest. A “Business Plan” dated April 1 shows $750,000 of expenditure for 1997 and $1m in 1998 for the awareness campaign calling it a “multi-year effort,” but the board at the annual meeting only approved $500,000 expenditure. One observer said this “capped” the program at about what has already been spent, and that it is “dead.”

Packet war: Costantino tried to suppress and deprecate the rival Virginia “Smart Travel” awareness campaign at the ITSA annual meeting. He wrote David Gehr the Virginia DOT Commissioner and an ITSA board member asking him not to promote the “Smart Travel” program at the annual meeting and to refrain from making a “call to adopt your logo (Smart Travel) nationwide.” Then ITSA staff toiled until the early hours of the June 2 to remove Virginia’s blue and green “Smart Travel” promotional materials from 3,000 annual meeting delegate packets, apparently on direct orders from Costantino. Virginia officials distributed the packets at the meeting all the same. Meanwhile ITSA materials have been reporting that consumers regard “Smart” as flippant, lacking meaning, and otherwise having negative connotations. Costantino told me that “smart” is associated in consumers’ minds with the term “smart ass.” Is all this stuff IntelliGent? (IntelliContacts: Gerry Bastarache ITSA 202 484 4581, Smart Contacts: Lynda South Webster VDOT 804 786 2715)