Micromobility Start-up Taps Broadsign To Drive Media Side Of Its Business

July 15, 2021 by Dave Haynes

Admittedly, I had to look up micromobility when I got a press announcement regarding a tie-up between the ad-focused CMS software shop Broadsign and a company called Swiftmile, billed as “the pioneer in micromobility charging infrastructure and technology.”

The deal sees Broadsign’s platform driving the digital posters at specialized charging hubs around downtown Miami that function as docking stations for pay-as-you-go e-scooters and e-bikes.

Swiftmile is working with the public sector, real-estate developers, and mobility operators, the PR says, to roll out charging hubs for micromobility vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters across the globe. Media buyers looking to reach audiences on-the-go can now access Swiftmile’s signage inventory via more than 30 omni-channel and OOH specialty demand-side-platforms (DSPs) integrated with Broadsign’s programmatic supply-side-platform (SSP) for OOH, Broadsign Reach.

In June, Swiftmile deployed its latest network of charging hubs throughout downtown Miami, which will eventually scale to 100+ locations in high-visibility sites managed by the Miami Parking Authority. Swiftmile’s charging hubs are also present in cities like Washington, DC, Pittsburgh and Berlin, Germany, with additional deployments to be announced this summer.

Swiftmile’s network of displays also show transit information and public service announcements, as well as promotions from local businesses in the vicinity.

“Swiftmile is helping cities embrace sustainable micromobility options like e-bikes and e-scooters with fewer pain points by charging and organizing vehicles at our universal hubs. At the same time, we’re helping local governments and businesses tap into new ad-supported revenue,” says Joel Martin, VP DOOH at Swiftmile. “Broadsign Reach, and the full stack of Broadsign solutions, are crucial to achieving our mission of advancing sustainable mobility, and we look forward to working together to benefit cities, travelers and media buyers alike.”

We’re seeing more and more of this sort of thing – city infrastructure going in with a media model that supplements (or more than supplements) the returns from bike and scooter sharing fees. It’s a variation on how many media companies have produced infrastructure, like transit shelters or “smart city” totems, to get media rights and planning permissions. In this case it looks like the parking authority gets a piece of the action.

I like these tidy docks a hell of a lot more than the leave them wherever approach adopted by dockless scooter and bike, which in some cases just leads to messes along walkways and roadways.

This was downtown San Jose, Spring 2019.