Practical Measures to Increase Transit Advertising Revenues (2009)

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C-1 July 2, 2007 • How do you explain the current growth in transit advertis- ing sales? • Is it more attributable to growth from national advertisers or from local advertisers or both? • Which group is responsible for driving the largest $volume of transit ad purchasing by advertisers: – The media divisions of the giant media companies? – Independent media planning & buying agencies? – The direct sales activities of the ad sales contractors? • How do you/your sales force get customers excited about transit? • How much do you agree/disagree that each of the follow- ing is an obstacle to greater transit ad sales: 1. Lack of media effectiveness measures 2. Lack of attention/aggressiveness on part of TA to: – Try new things – Put a high ranking person in charge so decisions can be made – Have a commercial mindset in all decisions (e.g., bus design) 3. Inconsistency of product from 1 market to another – Bus vs. bus + train – Primary audiences of the routes – Clean vs. poorly maintained 4. Selling tools falling short – No circulation numbers – No all-route visual – Guides explaining all the products, showings, etc. not good enough (it’s a technical sell) 5. Sales effort sometimes not completely and exclusively focused on transit 6. Poor quality of display venues/environments 7. Lack of understanding of medium among media planners 8. Lack of product news, excitement 9. High minimum guarantees in contracts that preclude additional sales people, capital investment 10. (RESULT of WEAK DEMAND) price points hard to maintain for transit, especially since it is often bundled with other media just to move it 11. Lack of relationship between sales contractor and TA 12. Advertiser perceptions (or expected perceptions on the part of the media planner) that transit media is seen only by the (downscale) riders of public transportation A P P E N D I X C Advertising Sales Contractor Interview Guide