NRMCA producer member Titan America has begun a media campaign throughout the state of Florida aimed at educating residents on the choices, costs and ramifications of concrete vs. asphalt paving. Statistics show that more than 95% of highways in Florida are paved – and frequently repaired and repaved – with asphalt. 

"We are trying to create some general awareness in the marketplace with the concept of a long-term solution in concrete paving using Florida-based materials and companies as an investment in our infrastructure," explains Titan Senior Vice President of Cement and Aggregates Tim Kuebler. "It keeps the local tax dollars that fund these projects in the state of Florida and then recirculates them back into the local economy."

Kuebler said that virtually no one in Florida knows that the state does not contain any petroleum refineries, so much of the tax dollars spent on asphalt paving leaves the Florida economy and goes to other states or even other countries. Beyond that, asphalt companies are using a "disposable material that doesn’t last, forcing taxpayers to keep spending the same money over and over again to maintain the roads in lieu of spending it on other things like new roads, road expansions, education, police, fire, community parks, youth sports, etc."

Titan’s media campaign started when the company created a 3-person advocacy team in late 2011 that was charged with taking the concrete’s durability and economic message to the industry, the market, the state Department of Transportation and the elected officials as well as anyone "outside the industry fence that would listen," Kuebler said. "We started raising some public awareness about the issue so that when we talk to people, they have already started hearing bits and pieces. If we can make it matter to the voters, we can make it matter to the elected officials and they can enact change."

So far, Titan has scheduled a series of radio interviews (in one interview, NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Jon Hansen was interviewed on concrete vs. asphalt paving – click here to listen to the interview, which begins at about the 21/45 mark) that are scheduled to air 2-3 times per until the end of the year. The company also has a number of 30-second advertisements that play each month on an all-business news channel that reaches about one million listeners in the Southeast Florida market. In 2013, Titan plans to do at least 12 interviews and continue driving home the same message with even more advertising, Kuebler said.