Ten Massiv TV fitted vehicles will assist with the transport of delegates in and around Margate. “We have loaded reels of award winning ads both local and international as the content that will be flighted on the taxis,” promises Greg Bruwer, Massiv TV's sales director.
“In addition all delegates traveling on the Mango chartered flight will receive a Massiv TV survival kit which we hope they will find useful over the weekend,” says Bruwer.
Massiv TV has spent four years developing its state-of-the-art technology in consultation with leading groups in the informal minibus-taxi industry. At least 150 000 of these vehicles carry up to 70% of the country's daily commuter workforce between their homes and their jobs - a passenger load on a par with the audiences of the SABC and e.tv combined.
“Taxi viewership is an untapped market that all the TV channels want to reach,” says Tiff Willemse, MD of Massiv TV. “The commuters mostly watch SABC1 and e.tv when they are at home. They are also the target of DStv's mid-priced subscriber campaign. Massiv TV is the gateway to that audience on the road en route to work and home and on its shopping trips.”
Massiv TV's advantage for the advertising industry is its closely-monitored consumer viewership twice a day and effective compliance reports to advertisers, says Willemse. “Our technology allows us to target the taxi routes they want to reach - in a city or a region or nationally.
The commercials on the TV screen and the taxi's bums-on-seats count is monitored every six seconds. This gives advertising agencies precise feedback about millions of salaried commuters in the LSM 3 - 7 (low to middle income) consumer bracket.
“This TV audience has enormous potential spending power,” adds Willemse. “Keeping the customer entertained is only one function of our technology. In several other ways it is empowering and growing the taxi industry by transforming every vehicle on our network into a mobile data-centre. In the near future Taxis with Massiv TV will facilitate user-friendly payments via swipe cards and cellphones. Online access means cashless payments, giving taxi passengers far more security.”
Massiv TV has just completed its pilot project with 110 vehicles. Top Six CEO Babu Maharaj anticipates that 20% of the taxi industry's vehicles countrywide will be fitted with Massiv TV by 2010.
“It's an exciting innovation but realistically the take-up will be limited in its early stages by the available ad-spend,” says Maharaj. “We cannot launch a huge new daytime TV audience overnight. The advertising industry and its clients have already allocated their budgets to the traditional TV channels. They will study the results of our pilot programme in late 2008 and develop strategies for this new commercial market on the results.”
Loeries revelers will be pleased to know that the Massiv TV taxis will be operating round-the-clock in Margate. “Look out for what is ‘More than just a mom's taxi',” says Bruwer.
