Starting this month, the Abu Dhabi taxis will greet their passengers with interactive touch screens, reported the National last month. The screens will show ads that are location and time-relevant since the Taxi Media system uses a GPS system that tracks the vehicle.
“For example, McDonalds can advertise breakfast in the morning, changing the advertising at lunchtime. Subway can advertise their sandwich of the day and change the creative promotion every day,” stated the paper.
The trial period of the initiative took place last December, where 20 taxis featured test screens. According to Taxi Media, 1,020 screens will be installed this month and 4,220 by the end of this year.
As taxis that are five years old are replaced, Taxi Media will be constantly installing screens in new vehicles. It expects most of the fleet of 7,346 taxis to have screens by 2015 or 2016. Dubai and the Northern Emirates are to follow the new advertising scheme within the next 18 months.
China was the first to introduce the interactive screens in 2005; Canada was second in 2010 and Hong Kong third in 2011.
