Tourists, shoppers and regular UAE residents will soon be able to surf for deals and discounts from the cosy confines of their taxi, thanks to a new in-cab digital advertising campaign set to be launched later in the month by a UAE-based company.
Taxi Media Middle East, which was founded earlier this year in March 2013, has said it will “soft launch” its new state-of-the-art touchscreen technology for taxi advertising later this month.
The digital nature of the medium will mean that the advertising will be much more direct and much more targeted, unlike the usual one-size-fits-all outdoor advertising that we are currently exposed to.
The advertising platform will be targeted based on the time of the day (breakfast @ McDonald’s, anyone?) and on location (the Jacky’s Electronics store within your 3-km radius is offering free coupons for a coffee and baked goods from Tim Horton’s or ice cream from Cold Stone). It will also include real-time updates, allowing advertisers full control of their content – which means that advertisers will be able to switch their advertising as and when they want.
Taxi media ME is the brainchild of entrepreneur and business owner, Brett Pearson, who identified a gap in the market for utilising an advertising platform with this uniquely active and captive audience in the UAE’s taxis.
After preliminary research and refinement of the product, Taxi Media ME partnered with several entities to develop the screens for the Middle Eastern market.
The company has secured exclusive rights to the Middle East for the world’s largest taxi media platform. Currently operating in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Canada, with further expansion to Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, France and Germany planned in 2014, the units are heavily patented and have won many awards for their advances in technology.
The November soft launch will roll out across 7,146 taxis in the Abu Dhabi Emirate involving Emirates Taxis, Cars Taxis, Arabia Taxis, National Taxis, Tawasul and Al Ghazal Taxis.
The official launch is set for January 2014, with expansion into other emirates and countries within the region planned later in 2014.