New Form Of Transit Advertising Debuts

Transit advertising venues include bus shelters, subway stations and buses, trains and subways themselves. But Rob Walker has his own ideas.

The CEO of SideTrack Technologies, a Winnipeg, Canada firm, owns E-Caps, the firm that launched taxi hubcap advertising a couple of months ago. Yesterday, he announced his latest venture -- motion picture advertising on subway walls.

Imagine riding in a subway, looking out the window while passing through a tunnel and seeing a fast paced series of images that look like a live action commercial. That's the idea behind Walker's venture, which he plans on launching in September in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Yes, there are subways there and it's the first place Walker has found to employ his new advertising. There's a client there, too, Canon, which makes digital imaging products. "As a company known for bringing firsts to the marketplace, this was an opportunity we couldn't refuse," says Liew Sip Chon, Canon's senior general manager of system products.

Canon was actually lured into the game by Dentsu, its Japanese ad agency, which decided to try the new advertising in the Malaysian market.

Walker says he's trying to introduce the advertising in North America. All major cities have subway systems and many have agencies that handle subway advertising. Walker has been in contact with the Los Angeles Metro Transit Authority and similar agencies in other cities, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

To play the advertising, Sidetrack will install light boxes on the subway walls. Trains pass by sensors as they go through the tunnels that are triggered to play the ads. Twenty-five still images per second are shown, which creates a live action display similar to a TV commercial.

The Canon ad will use 375 images and play for 15 seconds, Walker says.

Rates for the advertising will vary by city, according to their transit ad rates, but Walker says this kind of advertising will be "one of the most expensive," costing about $35,000 per month.

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