Commuter Advertising Helps Sustain Transit with $1 Million

May 28, 2013
Small business delivers big returns through digital advertising program, revenue sharing.

Commuter Advertising has generated $1 million for transit agencies across the nation through its digital onboard advertising program.

CA partners with transit providers to manage and sell onboard advertising; it then pays its partners revenue shares, which total more than $1,000,000 to date.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, every dollar communities invest in public transit generates $4 in economic returns, which means CA isn’t just helping to sustain transit. It’s helping to sustain communities.

“Commuter Advertising was founded five years ago by commuters who wanted to provide the transit industry with revenue solutions to alleviate the need for fare and tax hikes,” said Katie Hill, founder and CEO of Commuter Advertising. “One million dollars later, there’s no doubt we’re on our way to making a long-lasting impact in an industry that keeps our country moving.”

The company’s proprietary media, onboard location-based digital advertising, generates waste-free revenue. The program leverages existing technology onboard transit vehicles and is operated electronically, leaving behind no physical waste and needing no additional equipment or hardware.

Commuter Advertising’s media program taps into onboard GPS and enunciation systems on buses and trains to broadcast digital messages to riders at exact times or specific stop locations. The company sells those spots to advertisers who want to reach a targeted and captive audience.

While the company was founded as the exclusive provider of onboard digital messaging, for which 29 patents are pending, its media portfolio has grown to include video, in-hub, Internet, text messaging and more non-traditional digital media.

Hundreds of advertisers around the nation have used CA’s exclusive media; the company’s client list includes big media players such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Walmart, the YMCA, the University of Illinois and Cricket Wireless, just to name a few.

Commuter Advertising currently reaches 180 million rides annually and operates under contract in Champaign and Chicago; Jacksonville and Tampa; Kansas City, Mo.; Rockland County, NY; Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo; and Pittsburgh, Pa. Company strategists work daily to enter more markets, with the hopes of extending its reach to 300 million annual rides by the end of 2013.