Have you ever gotten stuck in traffic and seen an eye-catcher plastered on a bus, subway, or taxi? You probably have already encountered transit media advertising. Such ads catch your attention in high-traffic areas and brand the product in front of commuters daily.

This article will go into detailed coverage of transit media advertising, examine why it is among the top choices for many brands, and give you ten thrilling reasons to consider it for your business in 2024.

What Do You Mean By Transit Media Advertising?

On transit media, advertisements are attached to public transport vehicles, within buses and subways, and even at transportation terminals. Such types of outdoor media are based on the mass appeal and accessibility of public transport, hence reaching broader audiences. Whether it is a side-plastered bus or a subway car advertisement, these ads capture people’s attention while commuting, sightseeing, or walking.

Key Features of Transit Media Advertising

• Visibility: Transit advertisements can quickly reach a broad audience of commuters and pedestrians.
• Mass Exposure: These ads reach people from all walks of life who travel or cross by public transport.
• Frequency: Commuters view these ads several times during the day, thus reinforcing the brand message.
• Cost-effective: Transit advertisements provide high exposure with minimal price tags in comparison with other modes of advertising.

Transit media advertising is quite effective in bustling cities. So many people pass through public transportation – like bus stations and routes – daily. Thus, besides other advantages, it’s easy to contact enormous crowds of commuters with transit media advertising.

Key Benefits:

• Captive Audience: Unlike other media, captive audiences look at all the advertisements on transit media. People in the waiting category are also more likely to view these ads.
• Strategic Placement: Under transit advertising, the placement can be very flexible to the brands. Brands can target specific neighborhoods and routes and even a particular demographic segment.
• Creative Options: Large formats and dramatic large designs can be used across buses and trains and even on the platforms of stations.

Leading Brands Opting for Transit Media Advertising

Many top brands have discovered the power of transit media advertising. Whether a small business is looking to expand its local wing or an international brand making a powerful statement, sticking to transit media usually brings about consequential results. Amongst others are always Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Apple, but not only big players; many local businesses, startups, and nonprofits are also tapping into transit media.

Why Brands Prefer Transit Media:

• Reach Multi-Billion-Dollar Audiences: People traveling through public transport belong to all classes of society, making this a great way to reach out to many different groups.
• Increase Brand Awareness: Passengers traveling by public transport often are exposed to the ads several times, thus giving a greater chance of a customer recalling the brand name.
• Cost-Effective: Transit advertising is a marketing move that allows significant income generation even with minimum expenditure. Transit media is cost-friendly for a business, be it large or small.

Some of the great campaigns are as follows:

• McDonald’s Bus Wraps: McDonald’s uses bus wraps to promote its new menu items. Bright colors and strong graphics ensured the ad was noticed in traffic, making the brand immediately visible.
• Apple’s iPhone Ad: Apple used subway ads to communicate its newest camera features with the iPhone. The perfect target crowd for this ad is the technologically astute commuter who uses public transportation frequently.
• Starbucks’ Transit Ads: Starbucks has used transit ads to promote seasonal drinks. The image of hot coffee during cold winter mornings is the perfect fit for morning commuters who desire a hot drink.

10 Top Reasons for Transit Media Advertising 2024

Now that you know what transit media advertising is, let’s dive into the 10 top reasons why it’s a must-try strategy in 2024.

 More Time Exposure

One spends their fair share of time commuting on public transport. Research suggests that the average commuter travels on public transport for about 45 minutes daily. The higher the exposure, the higher the chances of an ad being seen multiple times in a commute cycle, thereby making the ad memorable.

Why It Matters:

• The more time a person is exposed to the ad, the greater the possibility of their remembering it.
• The same advertisement a commuter sees every day reflects that there will be a repetition of brand recall.
• As time progresses with further exposure, more people will eventually interact because of familiarizing themselves with the brand.

Effective Geographical Coverage

One of the key advantages of using transit media advertising is that it encompasses a large geographic area. Unlike a static billboard, which stands in one place for a long time, transit ads move across various neighborhoods and districts, thus exposing your brand to many people.

Benefits of Geographical Coverage:

• Reach a Large Number of People: You can reach people spread all over the city by taking up transit advertisements.
• Localized Advertising: You can target specific routes to suit your desired audience based on their daily commute pattern.
• Many Points of Impressions: The same billboard is seen by the same consumer in different city locations, creating top-of-the-mind brand awareness.

 Cost-Effectiveness

Transit advertising is highly cost-efficient compared to other OOH ad forms, such as hoardings or television commercials. This factor makes it economical for business entities with small budgets.

Why Transit Ads Are Cost-Effective:

• Value for Money: Transit ads offer the highest exposure at a fraction of what other media charges.
• Extreme ROI for the level of exposure: For small businesses, it is very ROI-friendly.
• Scalable: Start with a small campaign on a few buses and scale up as you need more.

Targeted Marketing

Transit media advertising is perfect if your goal is to reach a particular audience. You can advertise specific routes targeting commuters based on which part of town they live, how much money they make, or their specific interests.

Benefits of Targeted Marketing:

• Demographic Targeting: You can target the ad to students, professionals, or families.
• Route-Based Advertisement: Target the ad specifically on routes, especially along which the transit passes through residential areas of targeted customers or by working places.
• Localized Message: Create messages that talk to and respond to the needs of people in a given location.

Flexibility in Advertising

Transit media marketing offers a much more significant scope for the advertising campaign’s size, location, and time frame. You can execute a whole bus wrap, put posters in stations, advertise in digital form inside the vehicles, or small ads on taxi rooftops.

Why Transit Ads Are Flexible:

• Format Options: They come in all shapes and sizes – from big bus wraps to small posters inside subway cars.
• Creative Freedom: The canvas for creative experiments with graphics, Text, and colours.
• Flexible Campaigns: Transit ads can turn quickly or be changed to suit the changing nature of the market or new product launches.

 Inescapable for Commuters

Transit ads must be noticed. Unlike other media where users might skip or fast-forward an ad, the transit ad cannot be evaded. Commuters tend to look for something to concentrate on, thus engaging with the ad.

Critical Points of Captive Audience:

• Captive Audience: The commuters with very little distraction will likely notice the ad.
• High Attention Rates: Studies show that the attention rates in transit ads are higher than recorded for digital ads.
• Repeated Exposure: Commuters are exposed to the same ads daily through their daily routines.

Creative Freedom

Transit ads give complete creative freedom to brands. Brands can opt for innovative designs, bright colors, and attractive content to attract the attention of commuters. The more an ad is appealing, the more it will remind commuters.

Why Creative Freedom Matters:

• Creative Pliability: Transit ads allow brands and marketers to imagine out of the box and create visually scintillating campaigns.
• Movement, Color, and Innovative Layouts: Execute movement, colorful, and innovative layouts to attract attention.
• Memorable Messages: Creative transit ads can remain engraved in commuters’ minds long after reaching their destination.

Lasting Impressions

Transit ads take time to be seen, which allows businesses to make a long-lasting impression. Since commuters travel a lot, transit ads can build better brand recall.

Lasting Impressions Benefits:

• Constant Brand Presence: Ads stay long enough to build lasting impressions among travelers.
• Higher Recall Rates: Due to the repetition of exposure, there is always higher brand recall from transit ads.
• Saturation with Regularity: The more a person views the same ad on a daily commute, the higher the rate at which they will ultimately act on the advert.

Social Proof for Branding

When people see ads on public transportation, there’s a specific validation that comes from it. For example, ads on taxis, buses, and train stations make the product appear legitimate and reliable.

Social Proof Branding Benefits:

• Trust Factor: If a brand is visible at multiple points in the city, it strengthens trust in commuters’ minds.
• Create Popularity: Seeing the product displayed in multiple spots reflects that the brand is well-known and widely appreciated.
• Strengthen Branding: It provides recognition and strengthens the company’s overall image.

Versatile Audience

Transit ads can target multiple groups of people at the same time, reaching every demographic through comprehensive commuter coverage.

Benefits of Targeting Versatile Audiences:

• Broad Audience Reach: Reaches every segment of society regardless of age, profession, or lifestyle.
• From Youngsters to Elders: Transit media appeals to everyone, including children, adults, students, professionals, and retirees.
• Multi-Demographic Campaigns: This allows the brand to create campaigns targeting various demographics.

Final Thoughts

Transit media marketing is a major tool for ensuring brand visibility in 2024. As a marketer, utilizing such a vast spectrum can make your brand stand out while providing a cost-effective solution to grow your business. Try transit media marketing today if you’re considering expanding your advertising reach.

Key Takeaways:

• High Exposure: Transit ads get a lot of eyes due to their positioning in public spaces.
• Cost-Effective: With low costs compared to other mediums, transit media offers value.
• Targeted Campaigns: Advertisers can reach specific demographics through route targeting.
• Lasting Impressions: These ads leave a strong recall due to repetition and audience engagement.
• Versatile Reach: Transit ads appeal to a wide variety of people, making them ideal for broad campaigns.

The post 10 Thrilling Reasons for You to Try Transit Media Marketing first appeared on Ginger Media Group.

What is outdoor and transit media branding?

Outdoor media is a form of media advertising which takes place outside the homes of people. That is, it is displayed in the form of billboards at flyovers, kiosks, digital billboards, hoardings, and signals near the road at the pedestrian path, the outdoors to be viewed by a mass population.

On the other hand, transit media branding also advertises outside, but it places advertisements on vehicles or transits which is why it is called transit media advertising. It is one of the prevalent ways of advertising for brands today. 

Outdoor advertising differs from transit media advertising

1. Billboard Advertising

It is found that around 83% of people do remember the OOH advertisements they view 30 mins before shopping. Billboard advertising is on a rise. We view it as constantly evolving and changing advertising. In a highly digital world, hoarding advertising is done to provide a more realistic, immersive, and engaging brand experience to consumers. Billboard advertisements are stationary whereas transit advertisements like bus ads, auto rickshaw ads, or metro ads are non-stationary.

2. Street furniture

Street furniture is another popular form of OOH advertising that targets public-use furniture. For example, covering the sides of benches or a telephone booth. It is located in proximity to places where the brand’s target audience is present and gives customers an eye-level marketing experience. Street furniture advertising which is a form of guerilla marketing is restricted to specific places or residences. Whereas, transit ads are constantly moving in and around the city, traveling to the deepest corners of it.

3. DOOH Advertising

Looking at the emergence of digitalization in India, digital billboards are slowly making space for themselves in the Indian OOH industry and are allowing space for advertising that is even more striking and offers more space for innovation and creativity to brands. DOOH billboards have instilled customer engagement and interactivity over time. They display real-life graphics in simple yet super-engaging ways that connect with the human emotions of the average consumer. DOOH ads can be dynamic and can even be placed on transit vehicles. However, the majority of DOOH ads in India currently are non-transit ads and mainly cater to billboards, kiosks, or digital online ads.

Explore more outdoor advertising options you can invest in today

Types of transit media branding

1. Auto branding

Auto branding is a transit media branding done on auto-rickshaws. The brand is covered in the form of a printed flex around the auto-rickshaw. Auto branding advertisements are also called auto-hood advertisements. An average auto rickshaw in India runs 150 km and records more than 10,000 impressions a day making it one of the ideal choices of advertising for emerging brands and businesses. Vehicle advertising is shown to boost your brand name by 15 times as compared to other OOH advertising media

2. Metro branding

Metro and train advertising is a public transit branding method that involves advertising that is done in and outside metros or onto metro station assets. Metro station branding, metro full-wrap branding, and inside metro branding are great ways to target a more urbanized population. Commuters who regularly travel in metros and even trains for commutation purposes, tend to notice the vehicle’s outside branding wrapping. Be it while waiting at the platform or while looking around, metro and train branding is an effective way to catch your target audience’s attention and build a strong top-of-the-mind brand recall.

Metro branding is one of the forms of transit media advertising. If you wish to target even more commuters or corporate, working crowds, you can consider station branding as well. 

3. Bus branding

Bus branding is another kind of advertising wherein private and public buses aid in promoting the brand throughout the city or country. Bus branding is done through branded bus posters, bus wraps, backlit panel advertisements, advertising on bus sides, and bus seats. Also, a digital screen could be fitted inside the bus to engage even more consumers. An average urban bus travels around 150 to 300 kilometers per day covering 50K to 60K miles a year. The advertising mileage buses have proven to give is one of the main reasons why you will mostly see large-sized brands such as LIC, HDFC, Sony TV, or even top FMCG companies like Nestle, Hindustan Unilever doing regular bus branding campaigns to reach their target market. 

4. Cab branding

Cab branding is a way of advertising your brand through cabs such as Uber or OLA or taxis. Cabs can act as mobile billboards, helping you target a more corporate audience. Cab branding is done by wrapping a poster or flex at the back, side panels, front or whole body of the cab. It increases brand visibility and helps in creating a better and stronger brand identity. Cab advertisements such as Uber or OLA ads are relatively less costly as compared to other transit media branding options such as metro branding or train advertising.

Advantages or benefits of Transit Media Branding

1.  Transit media branding has a geographical plus point

Transit advertising is a wiser and smarter choice when it comes to local branding. Brands can make  more out of their marketing budget by doing local branding to reach their target market. 

 They can select the market portion they desire to target and then place their ads on buses or trains in that specific region. Transit advertising is one of the highly classified mediums of advertising which is powerful for targeting the local consumer of a region. When a business decides to place transit advertisements in a select location, it is actively reaching out to people of a select demographic characteristic and background. For instance, a local restaurant advertises special offers on a bus stand that the customers often visit to reach that locality. This would help them be aware of the offers and products the place offers. This would in turn increase the customer footfall. 

2.  Transit media branding is cost-effective

Transit media advertising is like a large blanket spreading over a larger proportion of potential customers. It allows greater customer activation and acquisition at a lower cost. Therefore, transit media branding is one of the highly chosen methods of advertising for brands and businesses of all sizes. Unlike billboard advertising, you don’t need lakhs of rupees of budget to get started. 

3. Provides you with long brand exposure time

While traveling in a bus or a plane, it is observed that people spend time noticing the brand around. For example, if you are on a seven hours flight and you see a brand wrap on the front seat, then you are likely to give it your attention both consciously and subconsciously. This is how it works. Even if it is a bus stand or a metro ride that displays your brand and that people use every day for traveling to work or other commutes, it aids in granting a longer exposure period. This would in turn make people refer to and choose your brand the next time they go shopping. Train advertising with full wraps is highly beneficial for brands. People following the same path would get your brand inside their minds without any effort, simply because it is displayed every day.

4. The coverage area is large in transit outdoor branding

Be it a bus or a cab, it is used by people for traveling almost all the time of the year. So when they enter or travel different streets or follow a particular route each day, so does your brand and that helps build a strong mind recall among your target audience. Transit media advertising facilitates effective brand activation through vehicles. For example, a bus with full wraps would display the brand in large size making it almost impossible to unsee for your target customers. Also, transit vehicles in India travel an average of 40 to 60 KM a day giving thousands of impressions. Transit media branding can help you spread your brand  across a large geographical horizon repeatedly to build a good brand recall

Disadvantages or Cons of Transit media branding

1. Transit media branding depends on the public’s state of mind

We are humans and thus a collection of emotions. It is quite possible that at one point, an individual may not be in the mood to reflect upon and look around an advertisement. For example, a person sits on the bus and goes on to read a novel or take a nap. In this case, the purpose of transit media could remain quite defeated.

2. Routes may change overtime

A mode of public transport may not always take one way. According to the needs of the current times, the path of public transport is likely to change. During this time, it may not be able to cover a particular segment of the population.

3. Limitation on the creative front

Transit media cannot be highly customized and that is a disadvantage if we look the other way around. It is quite possible that at times the people who view the transit media advertising may not have a certain perception, need, or behavior of purchasing the particular product. For example, if a sports products ad is displayed to old-aged people, then they would never have the lifestyle of playing a sport actively at the age of 80. This is where there lies a boundary. 

Conclusion

From the above key points, we can infer that while transit media advertising brings with it certain disadvantages, it is still quite effective in the long run. And today, various brands as discussed above are taking the help of transit media advertising to make their brand known to both local and non-local audiences. Transit media is not restricted to reaching one segment of the population but spreads the message throughout. Also, the cost involved is less compared to other advertising methods. Transit media acts as a moving brand billboard and it cannot be switched just like a television ad or even a digital online ad. It is seamless and offers brand visibility and brand activation in many ways!

Ginger Media Group is an established marketing agency that has done offline marketing for giant companies like OYO, Uber, Gillette, Unilet, & a lot more

Our agency focuses on a 360 degrees marketing approach that is customized to fit the requirements of our customers.

Checkout our transit media branding services

CONTACT

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The post What is transit media branding? Everything you need to know first appeared on Ginger Media Group.