New York-based technology and design consultancy, Control Group [1], is aiming to create the next phase of advertising by turning the New York City subway system into an underground mall.
[2]
Starting today, Nov. 24/14, the MTA ‘On the Go’ digital information kiosks [3] that simplify wayfinding, built by Control Group in association with NYC Transit , will run interactive, transactional ads from Amazon.com [4]. It adds a new point of purchase for Amazon shoppers, with a campaign that will run up to Christmas to help consumers with easy holiday shopping.
The digital kiosks will greet subway commuters with curated products from Amazon’s Consumer Electronics Holiday Gift Guide in which consumer electronic brands from Belkin, Bose, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, SONOS, and Sony will showcase their products direct to 1.2 million people per day.
[5]While most display kiosks only offer advertisers traditional DOOH, Control Group now can deal with programmatic, TV/video and transactional advertising as well, which will be piloted during the program with Amazon. There is also the potential to customize content for different uses in the future, which will allow further customization of advertising content depending on demographic information collected over time.
“This is a new type of ‘pop-up store’ with huge reach,” says Damian Gutierrez, associate partner at Control Group. “Consumers will be able to get the wayfinding information at any time on the screens, but can also do holiday shopping. There are 92 units in 12 stations covering four boroughs (none in Staten Island) where riders number 60 million per month.”
It’s a nice deal for the MTA, as well. It gets a share of the advertising dollars from Amazon and other affiliate programs.