Transit venues are a great place to reach consumers on the go. They are also one of the first DOOH areas our agencies have expressed interest in exploring.
Marketers are familiar with the successful campaigns associated with targeting traditional commuter audiences and see digital as a way to pump it up-a-notch, making their message more dynamic and exciting. Each venue is unique in audience and scope and offers its own targeting advantages. Here are a few of the most interesting opportunities for DOOH in transit venues (after the jump):
Airports
JCDecaux is mixing it up a bit. Applying the results of their recent Eyetracker research JCDecaux has installed “The Runway” which consists of twenty 57″ screens along Heathrow terminal five luxury retail row. The study detailed the way people visually scan the airport environment. Instead of brands running singular consecutive content along the full length, the network suggests refreshing the content in blocks to amplify the impression along the corridor.
Airports also provide new commerce opportunities. As defined in our 2009 trends – fully connected branded vending machines are expanding branded retail footprints into new venues. Apple, Sony, Best Buy, and Rosetta Stone have each utilized ZoomSystems high tech retail systems that include interactive touch-screens that product information that can easily be updated. Other e-commerce kiosks such as iTunes everywhere will be installed in airports to make it easier for on the go people to purchase music, movies, TV shows and podcasts.
Bus Shelters
Interactive bus shelters are often one-offs or short run installations, but some have involved ambitious creative schemes. My two favorites have been Cadbury’s Cream Egg interactive touch-screen game and Amnesty International’s campaign against domestic violence utilizing face recognition.
Now, Clear Channel is turning bus shelters in San Francisco into Wi-Fi hotspots. Brand sponsor urls will be the first thing they see on the Wi-Fi homepage which will give brands a chance to offer longer form content through videos or other content on their website. According to JiWire Mobile Audience insights Wi-Fi mobile use is on the rise with the number of devices inceasing 79% in the first half of 2009. As this number rises there will be more installations and ways to reach larger scale audiences.
MIT released concept designs of what a fully interactive bus shelter could communicate in the future, but you don’t have to look too far ahead, many of the technologies are in use now, like San Francisco’s Wi-Fi hotspots and Sweden’s searchable route installations. The key is bringing all of the technology to one location and providing information in multiple forms for people to choose the way they interact while facilitating a sense of community.
Buses and Taxis
There are growing roll outs to enable more buses and taxis with GPS (Global Positioning System) technology that allows advertising messages to be served based on the exact location of the message vehicle. Geo-targeting messaging using GPS technology is a very powerful tool. Marketers only pay for the specific areas of town where target customers are concentrated, and can change the message to reflect the local environment. LCD screens on the outside of the bus are available in London, NYC, Chicago, and Vancouver is ramping up for 2010 Olympic Games. The news is looking up for onboard bus networks with GPS as well, with TransitTV back in business and again live in Los Angeles. Even the New York Taxi commission is planning to upgrade their current serves to offer even more customizable experiences for their travelers.
Rail/ Subway
The research out of home ad agency Kinetic did with Titan Outdoor in a London rail station to compare the effectiveness of static backlit posters to digital posters was enlightening. Using TruMedia’s face recognition system to measure the audience response to messaging, they cited, “ on average twice as many people looked at the digital panel than the ’static’ one and for an average of 60% longer.†Hopefully these and the other insights into effective creative will be applied to other digital poster in transit venues with similar pedestrian heavy audiences as well.
For more information about traditional out of home goes digital and other DOOH opportunities download our Series POV, “New Media Channel: Digital Out of Home.â€
