Commentary

News On The Tube: Digital Outdoor At Its Best

What a great idea. Digital outdoor is fab -- we all know that -- and everyone likes keeping up with the news. We know that also. However, everyone's life goes "dark" when they descend to a tube platform and leave Wi-Fi and 4G behind. The solution? The news beamed onto sixty HD screens in fifteen tube stations.

It's such an obvious step, it's a wonder it hasn't been done before. But we're now hearing Euronews and TfL have signed the deal that will make it happen. I remember a few years ago there was a botched attempt to get projectors launched at major tube stations. The idea was that they would provide live advertising in place of posters. It soon disappeared, but I reckon this plan is a great idea that will last.

The reason? It has provided something people want and then advertising against it -- not just replacing a printed poster with a live, digital poster. Exterion Media, the outdoor company launching the scheme, claims that nearly three in four young people -- the number surprisingly drops a tad for older age groups -- reported back that they are interested in following the news while travelling. As any underground commuter from any city will know, you quite literally drop out of circulation once you're on the escalator until the journey is done and you're back in the land of having an Evening Standard thrust in your hand.

So, in the land of the poster with chewing gum mysteriously placed on models' noses -- anyone know who does this? -- you're left staring at still images before getting on a train and reading those letterbox, text-heavy formats that take advantage of the fact that we're all trying to have something to do with our eyes that doesn't involve making eye contact with another Londoner.

That's what makes this so impressive. Advertisers want to bring live, moving ads to commuters and those people on the move want to catch up with the news where there's no or limited broadband. Put the two together and we have the ideal scenario. 

It's ideal because it fills a need and accepts the very obvious fact that if you want someone's attention on a screen, you've got to give them something they are interested in. Just beaming a digital picture of an ad next to a printed one was never really going to cut it. You've got to give people a reason to look. 

All in all, this is one of the most exciting digital outdoor developments in the London that I can remember -- it deserves to be applauded.

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