Taxi advertising company launches measurable ROI

The company, a gateway financer of minibus taxis, uses technology to select a target audience scientifically and then measure precisely what the ROI is on media campaigns based on adverts placed inside and outside of minibus taxis.

Target audience

"We provide a technological ability for brands to segment their national consumer markets all the way down to an individual taxi and its route - from a pool of 23,000 taxis," says Bonisile Makubalo, director of corporate affairs at SA Taxi.

"Therefore, brands can target their campaigns accurately around the GPS co-ordinates of their branch network or commuter hubs that have particular relevance to them. This level of geographic segmentation has never been possible in the taxi advertising industry before.

"For media campaigns, the company works with premium taxi operators. These are established black-owned small businesses that are financially stable, whose taxis have high mileage, whose ethics and safety records gain their customers respect and with whom the company has regular, direct communication.

"So, brands are assured of receiving optimal coverage on the road from a captive audience.

"By providing operators with access to finance, we are financing black entrepreneurs and their small businesses. It was an organic next step to position SA Taxi Media as an enterprise development solution, focused on developing financial opportunities for taxi operators through media exposure. As a result, the advertiser's investment can be allocated to its enterprise development targets."

High costs

The initial impetus behind the establishment of the company, however, was that fact that operators often struggle to make their taxi businesses successful.

"It costs operators a great deal of money to keep their vehicles safe and operational. But, because commuters are feeling the financial squeeze, operators cannot simply increase their fares to cover their own escalating costs.

"As a consequence, we constantly apply our financial expertise in search of revenue generation opportunities that will keep our SMME customers sustainable. In this case, the opportunity lay in our extremely detailed and accurate data about where each vehicle is at what times. Establishing the company as the conduit between advertisers and operators helps us help our operators," he concludes.