i-level Media to deploy 1,000 screens in Beijing

China may have 1.3 billion people, but if the country's newfound capitalist tendencies continue, they'll have that number of digital signs in no time as well. On top of massive deployments from Focus Media, Digital Media Group and Enjoy Media, i-level Media has announced that they're entering the market with an in-taxi signage network. From their press release:

i-level Media Group Inc., China's premier digital taxi media company, today announced the successful completion of testing of its in-taxi digital media platform with Beijing Northern Taxi Co. Ltd., its primary distribution partner in China's capital city. The company had tested in Beijing Northern's taxi vehicles for a period of six weeks and the reaction from taxi passengers and drivers has been positive. The trial period has enabled the two companies to adequately refine the operating and maintenance procedures needed to ensure the reliable operation of the media network.

With the testing phase complete, i-level intends to deploy 1,000 of its digital screens in Beijing Northern's fleet in the coming weeks. Adding to its 4,000-screen advertising network in Shanghai, the company will now be able to offer its clients the additional exposure of 1,000 screens in Beijing beginning in October. Starting in November i-level's management plans to outfit the remainder of Beijing Northern's Taxis with media screens and expects to have 4,000 screens operating in Beijing by the end of the year.

Deploying that many screens on such a tight schedule is going to be challenging to say the least, but the Olympics does give them a hard deadline and a very good reason to have the system up, running, and fully vetted before the first wave of wealthy visitors hit the streets looking for a cab. I just hope their project goes a little smoother than Clear Channel's Taxi TV in New York :)

Tags: i-media, digital signage, taxi tv

Adfreak not impressed with Taxi TV

I came across this hilarious AdFreak post via Brand Experience Labs, who notes that, "if we keep talking about the consumer being in control, why did we insist on creating things like this that the consumer can't control?" AdRant's Brian Morrissey recounts:

During a 15-minute trip, I saw one commercial for a Panasonic laptop a half dozen times and another for some cut-rate brokerage called Zecco.com several more. The menu has “channels” that don’t actually work: Switching from NBC news highlights to “sports” yields yet another Panasonic ad, followed by more of the same news clips. Ads can’t be muted. After my experience, I think I’ll go back to looking out the window. Drivers hate the system because of the GPS tracking, but they also have to put up with the nonstop racket. My driver told me he despises Panasonic after being subjected to the ads hundreds of times a day. He predicts “only tourists” will use Taxi TV after regular riders try it once. “It’s a scam,” he said. “The ad companies and the city are the only ones getting the cheese.”

Several commenters have since noted that there is in fact a mute button that passengers can use, but still, if the quantity of ads-to-content is really accurate, Taxi TV isn't living up to its original billing as a source of information and entertainment. As I originally speculated, though, it was probably just another service that Verifone could offer once fitting all of the cabs with credit card readers (the real essential service in my opinion), and maybe even offset the costs of doing so.

An even bigger problem than pissing off customers, if you can imagine, is making the taxi drivers crazy. These people drive New Yorkers and tourists around all day long, every day, through smog, traffic jams and a million other annoyances. Is it really a good idea to make them any less stable than they already are? Why didn't Clear Channel or Veriphone opt for directional speakers that might shield the driver from some of the noise? Haven't they ever heard of employee fatigue before? This stuff isn't new, it's digital signage 101.

What do you think, will Taxi-TV last? Will we see it change (either in form or function) in the near future? Or will Clear Channel just not care because they're raking in piles of money? My guess so far is that it won't be the latter, since Morrissey seems to indicate that aside from Panasonic, there are only a few other third-rate advertisers, suggesting that sales of screen time haven't gone too well so far.

Tags: Taxi TV, Clear Channel, digital signage