New revenue for transit — spoken ads targeted to the stop

A Chicago-based company offers a new revenue stream for transit agencies: selling neighborhood-specific spoken ads to bus riders broadcast on the bus speakers that read out the names of the stops.

This New York Times article profiles the young company called Commuter Advertising.

If you’re looking to bring some new revenue to your agency, check out Commuter Advertising. And if you do use them, I’d suggest promoting route-specific marketing campaigns on your lines (like Champaign-Urbana’s Go Green Every 15) to turn your riders into recruiters to get even more riders.

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January 3rd, 2009

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Raffi Vartian

Dan,

I’ve heard some good things about this company’s ideas. The biggest issue for any in-car advertising is the balance between informing the riders and interrupting them.

For static – or even video – advertising, it’s easy to tune the ads out. The rider simply walks away. Audio however provides an inescapable message and has the chance to really get under the rider’s skin. It’s good that the founders of the company are talking about the “tolerance factor” and I would love to learn more.

Thanks for posting this!

Raffi

January 3, 2009 11:26 pm


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