Stations are located along high-profile locations on the Las Vegas Strip, including the MGM Grand; and the convention center.
Each digital display is expected to generate at least four times more revenue than the static ads they replace and significantly expand Metro’s digital advertising network.
First Transit is teaming up with CommuteStream to push more relevant and targeted monthly advertisements to the mobile devices of riders on public transit.
Every time a bus passes an advertiser’s location of choice, a 15-second audio spot plays through onboard speakers. To reinforce the audio message, a visual text message is displayed simultaneously on the same bus marquee that also provides passengers with route information.
The company, Commuter Ads patented a way to send 15-second audio and digital text-scroll commercials wirelessly to bus riders.
Some Metro board members sounded less than enthusiastic about the idea, saying that selling food in stations will invite people to eat on trains and platforms, the report said.
Other cash-strapped California transit agencies, facing rising operating costs, are watching the potentially lucrative test run with interest, as current state law restricts digital signage on buses to route and service information.
Across the country, limited capital budgets are forcing transit agencies to find creative ways generate revenue to address their perpetually growing list of needs. Every dollar counts. Selling naming rights for properties (and routes, like Cleveland’s HealthLine) is one option for generating new income. In Philadelphia, SEPTA just announced its second station renaming — Jefferson Station, which serves SEPTA’s Regional (commuter) Rail in downtown Philadelphia.
The two-year trial program would culminate in a report examining whether the ads brought in enough money to make them worth the state’s effort.
