The SCREENS.tv Blog
A captive - but happy - audience on the buses in Kuala Lumpur (8)
When digital signage first started to really take off around three years ago - driven by falling technology costs, advances in LCD panels and controlling software - most experts thought the signage industry
would revolve around retail.
In Kuala Lumpur, Asia Media, a local multimedia firm with around 50 employees, is busy proving that theorem wrong.
With a total of 1,055 buses equipped with twin 19-inch LCD screens, several hundred thousand travellers every day are entertained by a mix of advertisements, advertorials, news, sport and comedy content.
You could argue they are captive viewers, which they are, but research by the company on the Transnet network, as it is known, claim that the predominantly young and single travellers on the buses enjoy watching the output.
Asia Media is lucky, of course, that Kuala Lumpur has an advanced and high network penetration 3G network, which can move data around at speeds of 10 Mbps.
This is mobile broadband at its best, and new content can be continuously streamed to each bus or group of buses, in the six zones concerned.
This gives local businesses a good crack of the whip on the advertising front, with 500 buses covering the city area, and the same number again covering the densely-populated suburbs.
On top of this, the head of Asia Media is an ex-senior cop, with strong contacts with his former employers. That's why the company is working on a Crime Watch program for travellers, as well as the usual array of sports, news and comedy.
The real key, of course, is that the company can update content throughout the day, so the daily commuters on the bus service get to see fresh content on their way in to work - and way out - and, of course, when they trot (and back) out in the evening.
The rapidly changing content is a lesson in narrowcasting that many signage networks here in the West should look to. After all 3G cellular networks are fully operational across Europe, so why not have a similar `bus channel' for European cities?
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Post your Comment
Skip to comments
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.