Advertisers Sign Up To Talking Petrol Pumps
A range of high profile brands have signed up to advertise on talking petrol pumps, the latest ambient innovation designed to reach elusive consumers.
Insurance company More Th>n, Royal And Sun Alliance and Transport For London are to begin advertising on the pumps next month, while Nestle and the Central Office Of Communication (COI) is set to sign up to the service in the spring.
The ‘fueling talker’, from DirectCast Network, works through a compact device that sits on top of fuel nozzles at service stations and delivers advertiser’s messages in a two to three minute cycle, which includes trivia questions and sports news.
The devices will be installed across 300 UK petrol stations next month, rising to 500 in March and 1,000 by the summer.
According to Chip Rimmer, marketing director of DirectCast Network, the device will deliver individual messages on a one-to-one basis and consumers will even be able to adjust the volume of the ads.
More Th>n will run a month-long campaign against car crime, which will remind consumers to lock-up their cars and motoring group’s the AA and the RAC are also believed to be considering the service.
Although the medium appears well-suited to motoring products, DirectCast also believes that it is the ideal vehicle to promote fast moving consumer goods. In the US, where ‘fueling talkers’ have become a fixture of many petrol stations they have been successfully employed to promote local goods and services. In the UK DirectCast is concentrating on national brands and campaigns, but have not ruled out opportunities for local advertisers in the future.
This is not the first time that petrol stations have been recognised as a potentially underused area for advertisers. Forecourt TV, the company that introduced looped television ads to service station forecourts, suspended trading late last year (see Forecourt TV Suspends Trading Following Strategic Review).
However, Rimmer is confident the new venture can succeed, claiming: “Unlike Forecourt TV we are offering advertisers exact accountability, we can record each time consumers activate the pump and hear advertisers messages. Therefore we can offer media owners a level of accountability that is virtually unheard of in ambient media.”
Greg Grimmer, managing partner at Optimedia, added: “This innovative measurement technique puts the system way ahead of its longer and more established rivals in other forms of outdoor media.”
DirectCast Network: 08700 777 575 www.directcastnetwork.com
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