Put your client on the train platform

Put your client on
the train platform

Commuters make great targets going to and fro

By Kathy Prentice

    With upscale consumers spending more hours commuting and less time absorbing television ads, marketers are looking more to putting their messages in front of consumers along their daily routes.
    One strategic placement is screens that broadcast news, weather and financial updates, interspersed with ads, in commuter rail stations.
    People in the northeast corridor–specifically those using New Jersey and New York rails–are the first to see the screens.
    To find out how to get your client on deck at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stations, 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 interspersed with real-time content, displayed on screens on train platforms.

Who
    Nassau Media Partners, headquartered in Princeton, N.J., delivers advertising and content through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

How it works
    Static, animated and full-motion video ads are interspersed with real-time content on screens positioned on train platforms. In New York and New Jersey the program is called PATHVision.
    Screens are positioned on platforms where commuters wait for their trains. “The majority of screens are strategically placed where the majority of traffic flows,” says Mike Panebianco, PATHVision sales director.
    All real-time content, train information, public service announcements and advertisements are 10 seconds long.
    Content includes PATH train information, headline news, weather, technical news, financial and business updates, sports, science and health news, and entertainment. Additionally, lottery, ski, traffic, and entertainment news are updated regularly. News sources include ABC, Traffic.com and Ticketmaster for event news.
    Train departures and arrivals are incorporated into content.
    Content and ad loops are 15 minutes, with content interspersed with ads, Panebianco says.
    Due to Port Authority safety regulations, ads don’t include sound.
    Advertisers can run promotions. For instance, Ticketmaster offers special discounts to PATH riders that are announced through PATHVision ads. Discounted tickets are also offered for Broadway shows and sporting events.
    Advertisers often include a web site address and tie a promotion into visiting the site.
    Directions are often included in local ads. “The ad might simply be a picture of the front of a business with text or copy to give instructions on getting there,” Panebianco says.
    Creative should stick to the basic out-of-home rule of presenting an easy-to-read, straightforward message, Panebianco says. “Flash and movement can be incorporated.” And with the absence of sound, color can grab attention, he says.
    “For a lot of advertisers it comes down to posing a question and answering it,” Panebianco says. “Say it’s 100 degrees outside, the copy might say ‘Hot day? Come in and have a cool beer and some sushi.’”
    Creative is sometimes tied into the train station theme. “CyberStaff focuses on the commute,” Panebianco says. “Like, ‘There are great jobs in New Jersey, right where you live.’”
    PATHVision can videotape an ad onsite. For instance, it can tape a chef or owner in a restaurant and play that for the 10-second ad. “They love to hear it when customers come in and say ‘I saw you in that ad.’ We make people celebrities,” Panebianco says.
    Creative can be updated as often as every 15 minutes to tie into promotions or specials an advertiser wants to announce or to changes in a service.
    “Job listings are added to sites at CyberStaff; every million the New Jersey lottery goes up is added,” Panebianco says. “If a bank’s percentage rates change or a restaurant wants to list its dinner special, that can be directly uploaded.”
    “Updating can be done almost instantaneously all day and all night,” says Bob Minogue, PATHVision IT director.
    Advertisers can supply their own creative or work with PATHVision’s creative staff. Often advertisers submit existing creative that can be modified for PATH screens. “The New Jersey Lottery hands us a storyboard and we put it into flash,” Panebianco says. “They design and we produce.”
   “We picture ourselves as an idea shop,” says vice president Dan Henrickson. “Our strength is in helping style a message to reach a certain segment of our ridership.”
    Screen sizes vary with location, with the majority being 32 inches or larger. New 42-inch plasma screens are being installed in some stations, while 15- to 19-inch screens are the best fit on some platforms. “Screen size and location is as much an art as a science,” Henrickson says. “Smaller screens work very well for areas with a low overhang.”
    Exclusivity is available. For instance, the New Jersey Lottery ads can’t cross the river into New York, Panebianco says.
    Products within a category are routinely separated so they don’t run next to one another.
    The balance of national ads to local has changed dramatically since Sept. 11, Panebianco says, with many national and regional advertisers waiting on the sidelines while PATH staff actively sought local advertisers.
    “We have retained our ridership and have been able to regroup and sustain our advertising. Right now the balance is about 70 percent local to 30 percent national.”
    Those categories can blur, Henrickson says. “Franchises and car dealerships often buy on a regional level.”
    There are some seasonal shifts in advertising, with New Jersey amusements and beaches predominating in the entertainment category in the summer, and a shift to New York when the weather turns colder.
    PATH ads are most often used to accelerate an already established media mix, Panebianco says.

Markets
    Within the New York/New Jersey market there are 227 screens at 11 stations including 33rd, Christopher, 9th, 14th and 23rd streets in New York and Pavonia Newport, Hoboken, Grove St., Journal Square, Harrison and Newark in New Jersey.

Numbers
    Daily commuters exposed to PATHVision number 250,000.
    An average wait for a train is 13 minutes. “During rush hour trains run every five minutes, but you might have to wait two or three trains to get on,” Panebianco says. “Off-peak they run every 10 to 20 minutes.”

How measured?
    Basic ridership numbers are used as a base for measurement.
    CPMs are available.
    Station and screen breakdowns:
    Pavonia Newport, N.J., has 24 screens, 20,000 commuters each weekday and 20,000 each weekend, for a total of 120,000 weekly.
    Grove Street, N.J., has 18 screens with 25,000 commuters each weekday and 15,000 on weekends, for a total of 140,000.
    Journal Square, N.J., has 58 screens with 30,000 commuters each weekday and 20,000 on weekends, for a week’s total of 170,000.
    Hoboken, N.J., has 40 screens with 35,000 daily commuters and 30,000 on weekends, for 205,000 total each week.
    Newark, N.J., has 18 screens, 35,000 daily commuters, and 25,000 on weekends, for a total of 200,000 each week.
    Harrison, N.J., has nine screens, 5,000 daily commuters, 5,000 on weekends and 30,000 total weekly commuters.
    In New York, 9th St. has eight screens, 14,000 weekday commuters and 15,000 weekend commuters, for a total of 85,000 each week.
    At 14th St. there are five screens, 16,000 weekday commuters, 10,000 weekend commuters and 90,000 total commuters.
    At 23rd St. there are seven screens for 10,000 weekday commuters and 10,000 on weekends, for 60,000 total.
    At 33rd St. there are 36 screens, 50,000 commuters each weekday, 40,000 on weekends, and 290,000 total each week.
   Christopher St. in New York has four screens for 10,000 weekday and 10,000 weekend commuters, totaling 60,000 each week.

Research

What product categories do well?
   Business-to-business, communications, electronics, entertainment, retail and restaurants.

Demographics
    Gender breakdown is 55 percent male and 45 percent female, with 77 percent 25 to 54 years old; 19 percent who are 18 to 24 years old; and 4 percent who are 55 and older. Source: Port Authority, spring 2001
    Annual income for 57 percent of commuters exceeds $50,000, with 28 percent earning in excess of $100,000, 29 percent in the $50,000 to $100,000 bracket, 19 percent earning $35,000 to $50,000 and 15 percent earning $25,000 to $35,000. Job titles include 25 percent at the president and chief operating officer level.
    Additionally, 70 percent are in professional occupations, 23 percent are in technology, and 20 percent are in financial services. Fifteen percent are office managers and clerical, 9 percent are in sales, 9 percent are in media and advertising, 9 percent are students, 4 percent are in retail, 8 percent are miscellaneous, and 4 percent are unemployed. Source: Port Authority
    Owners of handheld computers or PDAs account for 23 percent, while 76 percent own cellular phones; 46 percent own computers; and 22 percent own two computers. Those owning two or more cars number 44 percent, and gym members number 66 percent.
    Commuting to and from work accounts for 77 percent of travel, with the remaining 23 percent for entertainment, shopping and school.
    Commuters’ origins, in order of volume, are Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Mercer and Monmouth counties, accounting for 76 percent of traffic; and the remaining 24 percent originating from Somerset, Morris, Ocean, Union, Manhattan and Nassau counties.
    One to four vacations or business trips are taken annually by 74 percent, while 12 percent take five to nine trips. Source: Port Authority
    Specific demographics can be targeted. “An advertiser can tell us a specific group it wants to reach and we’ll customize a package to fit its needs,” Panebianco says.

Making the buy
    Lead time is generally two to four days, with creative in hand. Ten days is an adequate cushion for new clients.
    Contracts generally run 13, 26 or 52 weeks, but can run two to four weeks for special events like trade shows.
    Advertisers can buy all screens in the system or cherry-pick locations.
    A standard package includes running an ad a minimum of four times per hour.
    Factors that affect pricing include the number of screens, choice of stations, frequency of the ads and length of showing. “Inventory drives pricing,” Panebianco says.
    Prices can run, ballpark, from $500 a week for one station for a local advertiser to $2,000 for the entire network, or anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 a month for one main rotation, Panebianco says.
    Long-term and multistation discounts are available, as well as custom packages.

Who’s already on PATHVison?
    New Jersey Lottery, Ticketmaster, Newport Limo, Broadwing, CyberStaff, Traffic.com, Internet Publishing Expo, Mall at Short Hills, iTec, Newport Centre, Komegashi, Paul’s Motors, Oddfellows Rest, Bucks County Coffee, Sushi Lounge, Qdoba, New Jersey Broadcasters Association, Don Julio, Line 56, Grand Banks Café, Cosmetic World, Karma Kafe, Laicos, Bangkok City and Sales Strategies Inc.

Web site info
http://www.nassauvision.com

Etc.
    Nassau is working on expanding beyond New York and New Jersey to other major transit hubs over the next two years.

-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.

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