MBTA considers location-based ads on buses

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is considering a proposal for location-based audio advertising on its buses. As buses drive by a particular business, the vehicle’s GPS system would trigger a brief advertisement that would play over the loudspeaker. The proposal comes from Commuter Advertising, which has introduced similar systems in Ohio and Illinois. To minimize the potential passenger-annoyance factor, the ads would be brief (29-39 words) and limited to a few minutes per hour. “We carried 10.5 million riders last year and had probably about 25 complaints, total,’’ said Jan Kijowski, marketing director for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (IL), which uses the system. Link to full story in The Boston Globe.

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