Every day, more than a million riders on the Los Angeles Metro Bus System are held captive during their 30- to 90-minute commute…and they love it!
That's because they're traveling on the 2,100 buses in the Greater Los Angeles Area equipped to receive, all day long, what's called Transit-TV. It's a new—and highly effective—type of out-of-home advertising or outdoor media.
Each bus has two TV monitors—one upfront, the other about halfway back—delivering content videos, with sound, that passengers can watch and listen to as they travel.
"It's a lot more interesting than just staring out the window," riders typically comment, "and they give away great stuff, too!"
Thanks to Maurice Vanegas, CEO of the local firm that provides the TV Service, passengers (18 or older) can enter the firm's ongoing giveaways or trivia contests to receive free tickets to concerts, sports events, Museum Passes and movie tickets. To enter, they can tweet their requests or answers—using their cell phone to send a text message via Twitter to the firm—while traveling on the bus. Or, at other times, they can e-mail their requests or entries.
Recently, at the bus TV shows, Maurice Vanegas has offered 200 free tickets to the Tim Burton Exhibit at the LACMA to the first 100 riders who respond to the tweet aboard the buses. Two tickets for each rider… 200 free tickets that cost 40 a piece. It was promoted as “Spectacular $8,000 Giveaway!!”
The point for Maurice Vanegas is not attracting new customers for his advertisers but being genuinely caring about the "captive audience" and what we can do to make their commute and their life more pleasurable.
It's no wonder that LA bus riders pay close attention to TV on the Bus as they make their daily commute to and from work, or travel to other destinations. They don't want to miss out on any of the valuable giveaways or prizes. They really like the content and variety of the programs, too.
It's this close relation and rapport with the viewers that helps to get more advertisers. Either way, you can't go wrong with a captive audience!
Everett Lopez is Account Executive at Transit TV. Previously, Lopez founded Western Beauty Institute in 1995. Lopez was also profiled in La Opinion, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.
