RMG adds to footprint with taxi screens

September 28, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Reach Media Group has added another 5,000 screens to its available inventory, and like in other recent deals without eating all the capex costs,  by working a deal with Taxi Magic, which has advertising bundled with its fare payment system in cabs.

Says a release:

RMG will provide a localized video entertainment solution that will provide advertisers with targeted reach within the largest cities in the US. Taxi Magic will be deploying a robust onboard technology that includes HD screens, speaker system, touch screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability and 3G connectivity. Taxi Magic currently operates a popular taxi booking iPhone application.

“We view the new partnership with Taxi Magic as an amazing opportunity for advertisers to reach high value passengers at a moment of maximum influence,” said Luke Zaientz, Vice President, RMG. “This new offering will be a perfect complement to RMG’s existing audience networks, providing another ideal combination of an immersive audience touch-point, long dwell times and proximity in the taxi experience.”

Taxi Magic’s Passenger Information Monitor (PIM) enables passengers to pay for their taxi ride in mere seconds, thanks to an interactive touch screen TV. The interface will also entertain and inform the passenger throughout their ride, a benefit to large taxi fleets that wish to differentiate themselves by offering a rich entertainment experience to their passengers. The first 5,000 Taxi Magic PIMs are currently being installed with major taxi fleets in the Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Denver MSAs.

I’ve never been a huge fan of screens in taxis because a lot of what I have seen would either just irritate people, or kill backseat passengers in a hard collision (big hard piece of plastic and metal instead of soft-ish headrest).

But that all changes when you have a screen that is actually useful for things like payment and, apparently, wifi. It’s mapped to a payment processing system so that means there is a high-speed connection, which in turn means the screen could provide location-based information and targeted ads.

Right now the company is primarily an online booking service that allows users to book taxi or limo rides via desktop or a smart phone, pay for it, and track the status of the car coming to get you.

The taxi deal puts RMG up to about 125,000 screens.