After two walkouts by drivers, the long-awaited taxi screens mandated by the city of New York are appearing on streets, and now, alongside fare and info on local weather and events, advertisers can place their messages in front of passengers as they ride about the city.

To find out how to get your client’s message in front of New Yorkers and tourists, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Ads on video screens in New York City taxis.

Who
There are four officially sanctioned companies offering screen ads in New York City taxis. For this article Media Life spoke with TaxiTech of Englewood, N.J.

How it works
The touch screens placed in the back seats of New York’s fleet of 13,000 taxis feature ads along with interactive content and a credit card swipe that allows passengers to charge their fares.

TaxiTech calls their program eTaxi.

Ads and content are displayed on 17-inch touch screens mounted flush with the partition between the front and back seats. Ad options include flash banners, full-motion 15-second video or audio commercials, tower ads, leaderboard ads and micro sites.

Side-panel tower ads are 15 seconds long and run in a continuous loop on the right-hand frame of all screens. The tower measures 332 x 609 pixels and can be full-motion video, flash or a static image. At the bottom of each ad is a “touch here for more info” button that links to special offers or directions to stores. The format can be full-motion audio and video, a TV commercial, full-motion flash banner or a static image.

Passengers who choose to look at a map of their trip  see advertiser logo buttons appear as the map feature comes up.

Leaderboard ads appear horizontally below the central content frame as static images measuring 633 x 70 pixels and also run in a continuous loop.

Ad space is also available on payment screens that appear at the conclusion of the cab ride.

Ads can be rotated by the day of the week, time of day and even according to the weather.

Using the touch screen, passengers can pull up content on sporting and cultural events, restaurants, movie trailers, news, weather and information on New York history.

Additionally, passengers can use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate advertisers’ retail locations.

Content and ads can target business travelers on rides to and from airports.

 Numbers
The eTaxi network includes 2,200 cabs. The average cab has 57 passengers per day and the average ride in New York is 12.5 minutes, according to Bruce Schaller Research, a New York research firm.

How it is measured
Data provided to advertisers includes the number of passengers for each ride, which ads are shown, how many time an ad rotates, the click-through rate and how much time is spent on a particular micro site in the event passenger acccesses one.

Research
A Taxi Limousine Commission passenger survey in November 2006 reported that 76 percent or riders gave TaxiTech screens an excellent rating and 22 percent rated them satisfactory.

What product categories do well
Financial services, city attractions and events, entertainment, retail, liquor, automotive, electronics and health care are top categories.

Demographics
The average taxi rider in New York is an upper-income professional or a tourist.

More specifically, according to Schaller Research:
-40 percent are ages 18-34
-56 percent are female
-43 percent earn $75,000 or more annually

Making the buy
Lead time is one week. Advertisers buy the network.

Who’s already on taxi screens
City Bank, Verizon Wireless and British Airways are current advertisers.

What they’re saying
“Advertisers can buy an hour on a specific day or a time of day. We can make it weather-dependent like a cruise line on a snowy day or soup on rainy days.” – Dean Ross, vice president of marketing and sales for TaxiTech

Web site info
TaxiTech at www.taxitechnology.com

 Etc.
 The other companies offering screen ads in New York taxis are:
-VeriFone Transportation Systems
-Creative Mobile Technologies
-Digital Dispatch Systems