Play Taxi Media On Target To Be ‘Everything Taxi’

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

When we were writing the article about Mad Jack this week, we realized that we hadn’t talked to Play Taxi Media in a long time, so had a chat with Christina Williams, the company’s director of sales, marketing and communications

logo playtaximediaPlay Taxi Media is a Canadian-based media company that has operated since 2008, offering interactive and measurable digital media solutions for Out-of-Home and Mobile advertising. Launched initially in Vancouver by Zac Killam, president and CEO, and Steve Lowry, CFO, with screens in 25 taxi cabs, it is now operating in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, with a total of 1,100 taxis in total.

“We are now offering screens, taxi tops, taxi wraps, a a downloadable mobile app – one taxi.ca – and our newest product is a charging bar where riders can charge their cell phones and tablets,” says Williams. “Our aim is to be ‘everything taxi’. We don’t yet offer all products everywhere, in part because of local laws. There are no wraps or taxi tops in Vancouver, for example. And the charging bars are just being installed. With an average ride of 15 minutes, riders can get a quick charge of their devices.”

Williams says that, while Play Taxi doesn’t offer geo-targeting, advertisers can choose the areas they want covered and the times of day that they want their ads to run.

“We handle both national and local advertising,” she says. “Advertisers can takes the whole network or parcel it out. And while a normal buy is at least four weeks, we’ll sometimes let a new advertiser try us out with a shorter term two-week trial.”

Play Taxi claims that, by combining the best elements of OOH, Online/Digital Advertising and Experiential marketing, Play’s platform delivers direct campaign ROI results with the ability to track every consumer interaction on the network. Its network of touch screens broadcasts entertaining content, news and advertising to a hard-to-reach, affluent and active consumer base 24 hours a day.

Next cities on the company’s expansion list are Montreal, Edmonton and Ottawa.


Leave a Reply