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Of course travelers, already bombarded with airport advertising, may roll their eyes at the thought of yet another marketing moment.

Cameron Abdallah, about to go through a TSA checkpoint, questioned the effectiveness. “I mean, there’s ads everywhere and I don’t always buy everything that I see,” she said.

And Charlie Fleckenstein,  another passenger said he’d even avoid buying a product just because it was placed on the bin.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think they’ve got enough advertisements out there for us,” he said.

But the right slogan, or clever sales pitch,  says Ambrefe, can also help ease what’s often a tense time for travelers.

“In the course of your day at the checkpoint, if the advertiser can put a smile on your face,” he said, “you know, that’s better than staring down at the bottom of a blank unit.”

SecurityPoint Media’s first ad campaign at TIA will be online shoe company Zappos.com.

Look for it to start around the end of the month.

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St. Petersburg-based SecurityPoint Media is partnering with Boston-based Raptor Accelerator to boost its sales and marketing reach.

SecurityPoint provides equipment and setup for security checkpoints at no cost to the Transportation Security Administration in exchange for selling advertising on the plastic bins travelers use at the checkpoints.

The company now has a roster of 30 airports, most recently adding Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport.

SecurityPoint is trying to reach a deal with Tampa International Airport. “We are still a couple of steps away,” said SecurityPoint Founder and Chief Executive Joseph T. Ambrefe Jr. “We are confident things are moving in the right direction.”

An airport spokeswoman confirmed the negotiations, but added the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board would have to approve any deal.

“We look forward to leveraging the sales, branding and operations expertise of the Raptor Accelerator team,” Ambrefe said.

He declined to disclose financial details of what he described as “a long-term relationship.”

Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents show SecurityPoint closed a $4 million share sale with Raptor.

Raptor Accelerator is a majority-owned subsidiary of Raptor Group, a diversified financial services firm.

Ambrefe estimated his company could triple to 30 workers over the next year, with most of new jobs based in St. Petersburg. Some of the sales and operations positions could pay six figures.

“We are really pleased to be growing,” Ambrefe said.

Mark Holan’s beats include commercial real estate, transportation and ports, and economic development.

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Bios from SecuritvPoint site:

Joseph T. Ambrefe, Jr.
CEO and Founder

The SecureTray System is the brainchild of Mr. Ambrefe, a sales, marketing and operations professional with more than 20 years of experience in strategic business planning, contract management, sales force effectiveness and strategic alliance formation. He is responsible for federal government relations, new product development, licensing and strategic alliances.

Prior to co- founding SecurityPoint Media, Mr. Ambrefe spent time in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries where he successfully built start-up ventures into world- class, highly- profitable business units. A graduate of Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Conn.), he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Hospital Administration, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and atvarious national conferences.

Douglas J. Linehan
Vice President & Co-Founder

Mr. Linehan manages SecurityPoint Media’s manufacturing and supply chain operations and maximizes the enterprise-wide effectiveness of the SecureTray System. He also oversees the company’s sales initiatives and commercial commitments.

Prior to co-founding SecurityPoint Media, Mr. Linehan served nearly 20 years developing his expertise in sa les, marketing and contracting. A graduate of the University of Maine, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Lisa Smithson
Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Smithson brings more than 30 years of accounting, tax and advisory experience to her role as SecurityPoint Media’s CFO.

Prior to joining the company, she served six years as CFO of Doctor’s Walk-in Clinics Inc., where she focused on financing andmerger and acquisition strategies. Her efforts there led to significant revenue growth for the company which was ultimatelyacquired in a multi-million dollar transaction .

A Certified Financial Planner licensed by the CFP Board of Standards (Denver, Colo.), Ms. Smithson is a member of the AmericanInstitute of Certified Publ ic Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She also serves on severalprofessional, private company and civic organization boards of directors and was a finalist for the Ernst & Young/St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce 2006 Business Woman of the Year award

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SecurityPoint Media founder and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Ambrefe Jr., said he hopes the partnership will help his company expand to 30 new airports in the next 12 months, including airports in Canada and Europe.

“This is an opportunity to really build out our media network,” he said.

Airline travelers are a valued target for advertisers because they are more likely to have an annual household income of $50,000 or more and are likely to shop for designer clothes, luxury cars and high-tech digital devices, according to a study by Arbitron Inc.

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Next time you’re inching your way through the line at the airport security checkpoint, take a look around.

Do the plastic bins where people plop their laptops, carry-on bags and shoes look worn and industrial gray or do they look crisp, white and new?

At the majority of the more than 400 U.S. airports, the checkpoints are stocked with the generic, government-issued gray bins. They’re boring, yes, but they do what the TSA needs them to do: contain your stuff as it sits on the belt that passes through the x-ray machine.

But the checkpoints at more than two-dozen airports have those crisp, white bins. In those airports the bins do not only what the TSA needs them to do, they also save the TSA time and money. And because there are advertisements inside these bins, they generate income for the airports.

Not bad for a bunch of recyclable plastic.

Post-9/11 need

The advertisement-bearing bins are the brainchild of Joe Ambrefe, CEO of Security Point Media (SPM), who came up with the idea not long after 9/11 while standing in a long line at an airport security checkpoint.

He realized everyone had to grab a bin and that an advertisement inside each bin was a sure-fire way for a company to reach the desirable demographic of business and leisure travelers.

Ambrefe worked up a plan to provide free bins (and cards to move those bins around) in exchange for the right to see advertisements on the bins. He chose white bins because “color is an emotive issue and white is a happier color than industrial gray.” He also promised to replace the bins every 90 days with brand new units so that “the components are opening-day fresh all the time.”

Testing began in 2007 and now the Bin Advertising Program is in operation at Orlando, San Diego, Seattle-Tacoma, JFK, LaGuardia and 21 other airports nationwide and is approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for all airports.

The TSA likes the program because it saves the agency money: The free bins represent an overall savings of between $200,000 and $700,000 on the costs of replacing bins. And TSA spokesperson Greg Soule said the program also “reduced injuries associated with lifting bins and improved durability and aesthetics of the checkpoint equipment.”

Airports like the program because it generates a bit of extra money and helps improve the checkpoint experience for passengers.

At Los Angeles International Airport, one of the program’s first test sites, spokesperson Nancy Castles says ad revenues helped purchase “the long tables, seating, floor mats, wheeled bin carriers, stanchions and other equipment that helps streamline the TSA passenger security screening process.”

Caption: Rosie Steward, a security team member at the airport in Price Rupert, B.C.,
where checkpoint bins are cleaned after every flight.

The airport also gets to place its own advertising in some of the bins and is currently promoting its LAX FlyAway bus service.

At Nashville International, an early test airport which officially signed up with the program in 2010, spokesperson Emily Richard said, “We have experienced significant and consistent improvement of the appearance of the checkpoint since SPM started managing the process.” She added that the year-to-date income from the program is $7,500.

And in Houston, where the Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental airports joined the program in June, Houston Airport System’s concessions manager Randy Goodman described the benefits as “bright new bins and a streamlined process,” and a share of the advertising income that should net the airport about $26,000 for the first six months.

Even better bins?

Ambrefe hopes to expand the bin advertising program to other airports and continues to tweak the system. He said that while the company has not considered providing separate bins for shoes – a suggestion put forth by some groups concerned about checkpoint health risks – “antimicrobial products for use at the checkpoints are in research.”

In the meantime, both Ambrefe and the TSA might make note of the checkpoint procedures in place at Canada’s Prince Rupert Airport, in northern British Columbia. The airport has color-coded bins for boots and shoes and, for the past 18 years, the security team has cleaned all the bins after each of the six daily flights.

“It’s nice to know that when you lay down your suit jacket or coat that the bin has not previously contained any dirty boots or other contaminated item,” said airport manager Richard Reed.

“The bins are cleaned to protect the health of the screening agents and the traveling public,” said team leader Virginia Toro. “We treat the checkpoint as we do our home: clean is the rule of the day.”

Airports currently in the Bin Advertising Program

1. Jacksonville International Airport
2. Orange County John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana, Calif.
3. Lafayette Regional Airport, Lafayette, La.
4. Los Angeles International Airport
5. Lovell Field Airport, Chattanooga, Tenn.
6. McGhee Tyson Airport, Knoxville, Tenn.
7. Nashville International Airport
8. Ontario International Airport, Ontario, Calif.
9. Reno/Tahoe International Airport
10. Richmond International Airport, Richmond, Va.
11. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
12. Tulsa International Airport
13. Wichita Mid-Continent Airport
14. Charlotte Douglas International Airport
15. Denver International Airport
16. Newark Liberty International Airport
17. New York John F. Kennedy International Airport
18. New York LaGuardia Airport
19. Orlando International Airport
20. Chicago Midway International Airport
21. Chicago O’Hare International Airport
22. San Diego International Airport
23. McGhee Tyson Airport, Louisville, Tenn.
24. Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport
25. Houston Hobby Airport
26. Miami International Airport

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HOUSTON — In addition to collecting your shoes, belts and watches, those plastic bins at airport security now are trying to catch your eye.

The Houston Airport System is selling space on the bottom of the trays to advertisers. Officials hope to get a little extra revenue, and the Transportation Security Administration will get free replacement trays as part of the deal.

Passengers began seeing the new bins at Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports in mid-June. So far, online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos is the only advertiser.

Advertising agency JCDecaux sold the space, and the Airport System collects a percentage of the ad revenue. The advertisements are expected to generate $356,000 a year, with the airport’s share about $53,400.

“We believe in being innovative when it comes to enhancing customer service and finding new sources of revenue,” said Randy Goodman, concessions manager for the Airport System. “With our new airport bin advertising program, we won’t tap into our passengers’ or airlines’ pockets, and we’ll have clean, new bins every 90 days.”

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Security Point Media makes the clear plastic bins and replaces them when they are damaged.

At many airports, the TSA is responsible for providing and maintaining the bins, which can add thousands of dollars to the agency’s operating costs, according to the Airport System.

Nearly two dozen U.S. airports now use the advertising bins, according to the website for Security Point Media, which could not be reached for comment. No other Texas airports were listed.

Advertisements also will appear on the tables located near screening machines and new carts used to transport the bins at Houston’s airports.

The idea could appeal to advertisers because it delivers a captive audience, said Betsy Gelb, a marketing professor at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business.

“From the point of view of the advertiser, you are trapped. You aren’t going anywhere except forward slowly with that bin,” Gelb said.

And despite criticism of security delays, body scans and pat-downs, Gelb doesn’t believe

passengers will associate bin advertising with their general dislike of security check-ins.

“I don’t think people associate a plastic container with any negative or anything positive,” she said.

“It’s one of the more neutral objects.”

Jenalia Moreno
jenalia.moreno@chron.com

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