In this Media Owner of the Month profile, we chatted with Chris Polos, Vice President of Taxi Media at Curb. The last time you took a taxi, did you notice the screens inside, or did your car happen to have a digital display on the roof? Then you’ve already encountered this rapidly growing digital signage operator. Below is our Q&A with Chris where we got to know more about Curb and how this nationwide network is taking the transportation media by storm.
Could you describe your business – the types of screens in your inventory, where you can find Curb screens, regions in which you operate, etc. – and what your network offers brands?
"Curb Media is the largest mobility media company in the United States. Nationally, we have over 22,000 digital TaxiTV screens, 15,000 traditional two-sided taxi top displays, 1,200 Digital Taxi Top screens in New York City (200 today, expanding to 1,200 later this year), and access to over 5,000 rideshare vehicles in the New York market. To date, half of our TaxiTV network and all our Digital Taxi Top network is programmatically enabled with Vistar.
Each of our platforms has a strong value proposition for our brand partners. We have a long history of delivering high levels of service, as well as a positive return on investment. This is why we have an incredibly high renewal rate and clients look to us for innovative ideas to maximize impact in a market, like this award winning execution we are running for United Airlines.
We’ve made a big investment in our Digital Taxi Top network because we believe the level of opportunities for marketers are endless. Please see our recent press release for more on Digital Taxi Tops."
Some Quick Facts About Curb
TaxiTV offers...
- Fully guaranteed impressions with a 100% viewable, fraud-less environment. TaxiTV screens only play ads when a passenger is in the taxi. Additionally, Curb’s NBC partnership provides a fully brand-safe environment, with content of the highest quality.
- Targeting options to reach precise audiences. Curb’s geolocation or trigger targeting features can find and target those hard-to-reach, or very specific audiences. Whether a brand is trying to reach an audience traveling to and from the airport, or in a certain part of the city, or during a particular day or time of the week, Curb can accommodate as this is a regular part of their workflow.
- Mobile data integration. While there is no perfect audience attribution for digital out-of-home yet, Curb can provide a unique set of first party mobile data, with the ability to tie it to ad exposure on TaxiTV.
- Dynamic placement. Similar to TaxiTV, advertisers can specify which neighborhoods or zip codes, or time of day when they want their creative to play.
- Audience, Audience, Audience: While Curb can’t go into too much detail today, they are building a robust set of tools for our partners that will allow for a smarter spend of ad dollars across the digital out of home ecosystem through the Digital Taxi Top network.
Where do you see the digital out-of-home industry moving in the next 12 months?
"The digital out of home ecosystem is growing significantly. In fact, global spending on digital out-of- home advertising is expected to grow 10% each year between 2018 and 2021. It’s a really exciting time to be in this space for everyone.
In the next 12 months, I think we’re going to see a couple of key things happen: First, as other media platforms continue to fragment, the growth momentum into the digital out of home industry will continue as it will be seen as a trusted space for brands. Second, the investments in technologies and data for planning, targeting, measurement and attribution of DOOH media will continue to evolve at a fast pace which will shed a bright light on the value these platforms contribute to an overall media plan.
Lastly, the next 12 months will be the period remembered for programmatic growth in the DOOH space kicking into gear."
What has been Vistar’s most valuable contribution to your business?
"As most people know, Vistar has been the pioneer and thought leader in enabling programmatic for digital out of home. For us here at Curb, their leadership and investments have been integral in increasing Curb’s programmatic efforts. We’ve seen strong year over year growth working with Vistar and all signs point for that to continue."
What Vistar software capabilities do you find most useful?
"Vistar’s sell-side platform is simple and intuitive, and we’ve been happy with the ability to pull the majority of reporting that we need through their dashboard."
What is the one thing that you wish more digital buyers knew about out-of-home?
"I think LL Cool J sums it up best with these lyrics: “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.” Out-of-home is the oldest form of advertising and will keep steadily growing in importance as data and measurement tools continue to reveal the value OOH has in the overall media mix. Every day out of home media creates strong brand connections for consumers and you see this when people post photos and comment on out of home creative on social media. Have you ever seen anyone take a photo of a banner ad and share it?"
Ready to find out how you can buy premium inventory from networks like Curb?
Or do you want to learn more about how Vistar can support your digital signage network?
Click here to read our other Media Owner of the Month posts.
