Show Me The Way To Go Home, On The Jukebox

September 15, 2016 by Dave Haynes

transittouchtunes

If you were at a bar, and decided it was time to pull the eject lever and head home, would you whip out your smartphone to see the subway or Uber availability situation, or consult a jukebox screen?

The hope, and I guess expectation, is that patrons in bars across 14 US markets will keep their beloved phones in their pockets and head to the big LCD screens on TouchTunes’ digital jukeboxes to get the lowdown.

The NY-based company, which makes money out of music plays but supplements that with Digital OOH ad money off its user screens, has done a deal with DC-area tech and content firm TransitScreen, to run local, real-time transit and Uber/Lyft information on 200 of their jukeboxes.

TouchTunes touts how it has a footprint in 75,000 bars and restaurants (yeah, 75,000), so 200 looks very much like a test. In this case, the content is running parallel to “drink responsibly” messaging from the giant liquor brand Pernod Ricard (Absolut, Jameson, etc).

 

“This is an exciting platform for marketers to deliver brand messages alongside real-time, contextually-relevant, local transit information on a single screen,” says Susan Danaher, Head of Advertising, Marketing and Sales for TouchTunes Media (formerly of the DPAA and Adspace). “TouchTunes offers the unique ability to deliver measurable, high impact campaigns to a vast audience.”

I like live data. I like TouchTunes. I like what TransitScreen offers, in the right context. Just not convinced this is what bar-goers will use for their “how they get home” decisions.

What would be waaaay more interesting is live data associated with content – maybe pointing out there’s still two hours until the last F train heads to Brooklyn, or something that drives Uber or Lyft usage more overtly with messages that say in big letters, instead of an arrival and departures-style screen, that a car could grab you in about four minutes.

Then again, this looks like a test, and maybe the set-up as done will work like gangbusters.

 

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