Lake Tahoe license plate program trying new ideas to spur sales

The Lake Tahoe license plate has been around for 25 years in California, one of 12 special interest plates people can choose from when registering their vehicles.

Funds collected from sales are allocated to the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC) who is required to support “preservation and restoration projects in the Lake Tahoe area” and for “establishing and improving trails, pathways, and public access for nonmotorized traffic.”

Several campaigns and marketing efforts support these goals. The most successful campaign, the annual “Plates for Powder” promotion, began in December 2011. This campaign occurs in partnership with the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association and Tahoe Fund and provides two free lift tickets for every new License Plate purchased from November to April.

In the last five years, the CTC has received $5,452,000 from the sales of the Lake Tahoe plates, but with a decline in revenue, a new plan is in the works to put the back on an upward trend. Increased competition with other specialty plans is also responsible for few Tahoe plate sales. The new "retro" plate far outnumbers sales of all other specialty plates.

SDBX Studio, LLC was given a two-year contract to provide marketing and promotion of the specialty plates, and on March 16 they updated the CTC Board of Directors with their new campaign whose goal is to increase sluggish sales. Current sales are high during winter months when the "Plates for Powder" program is in place, but very low during the summer months.

The new plan is the "Plates for Projects" campaign which will promote the sale of new license plates by partnering with one or more local organizations to fund environmental projects and promote both the project(s) and license plate sales. In turn, CTC will issue small grants of approximately $7,000 to $20,000 per project to the organizations that they have partnered with.

Summertime marketing materials will promote the campaign by highlighting the
project(s), the partner organizations, and the benefits of owning a License Plate. In addition to supporting environmental projects on the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, if successful this year, Conservancy staff intends to make the "Plates for Projects" campaign an annual summertime effort.