Taxi technology delivers captive ad audience
globeandmail.ca
POSTED AT 12:03 PM EDT Wednesday, July 10
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
There's nothing an advertiser likes more than a captive audience. And a new Toronto company is promising to deliver them in the millions.
ToMarket Inc., a company started by six Torontonians, has developed a thin touchscreen that can be mounted in taxis and provide a number of services, including music, news and ads, to riders.
The screens, mounted on the back of the front passenger seat, are controlled by a small computer located in the trunk. They use the car's sound system to play MP3 music recorded (legally) by local radio stations.
The screens will also display listings of events and attractions going on in the city, including sports schedules.
But the heart of the system is a sophisticated combination of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can locate a taxi to within five metres on a map displayed on the screen, and ads that appear automatically on the map when the cab approaches the advertiser's area.
"It's a pretty cool service, especially if you're a tourist," said Adam O'Byrne, one of toMarket's founders.
Cab drivers are enthusiastic about it, Mr. O'Byrne said. A prototype version has been installed in 25 cars belonging to Beck Taxi, and "all are saying they have five or six buddies who want the system in their cars too," he said.
So far, cabs must report to a local car-radio installation company to update their programs every two weeks, and toMarket is paying the cabs "a generous amount" to do this. But after Oct. 1, when the finished product is expected to be installed in 250 cabs belonging to Beck Taxi, Mr. O'Byrne said that content — ads as well as music — will be sent to the cabs wirelessly.
The system is activated only when the cab's meter is on, and the passengers can select whichever stream of music they wish by touching the appropriate spots on a rugged brass-bevelled screen. Ads for various establishments — night clubs, restaurants — will pop up in a corner of the screen while the advertiser's logo appears at the appropriate place on the map as the cab approaches the advertisers' locations.
The passengers can also turn the system off if they like.
One of the benefits of toMarket, Mr. O'Byrne said, is the GPS system, which passengers can use to make sure the cab doesn't take the scenic route instead of a more direct one.
But drivers who do this should not be concerned, Mr. O'Byrne said; the cabs receive revenue from the system whether they take the shortest route or not.
The system is expected to be run entirely on advertising, Mr. O'Byrne said. ToMarket has contracted 35 sales people.
There are 3,477 cabs in Toronto, the company's advertising pitch says, accounting for 57 million fares each year. Each cab averages 16,388 riders per year. So even if the system finds it way into only 500 cabs, toMarket figures it will reach almost 8.2 million people.
ToMarket is run by seven people, one silent partner and six young men, all of whom met at Upper Canada College in Toronto. All are either recent graduates (of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, University of Toronto, Queen's and Duke) or are still going to school — the company CEO, Justin Belobaba, is an undergraduate economics major at Harvard. The eldest is 23.
They got the idea for the cab ads after a brainstorming weekend at a summer cottage, when one of them mentioned the effectiveness of ads some restaurants have placed over urinals in their washrooms. The idea of a captive audience grew from there to cabs.
Mr. O'Byrne said the system is attractive "because you're influencing the behaviour of the customer right at the point of sale."
But, he admitted, it may take a little bit of getting used to.
"It's a little creepy at first," he said, "but after a while, it's pretty cool." |
