Blue Bite puts NFC ads into 5,000 US taxis

Taxi ad network Creative Mobile Technologies has agreed a deal with NFC marketing specialist Blue Bite to use its mTag platform for advertising in 5,000 US cabs.

mTag NFC in a taxi
TAXI NFC: Cab riders can tap for more information while they watch ads

Passengers see video or static messages on CMT’s media screens and can then either tap a tag or scan a QR code on the mTag panel attached to the frame around the display to access promotional information, maps and coupons.

The mTag platform will be available in taxicabs across New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Anaheim by September 2013. CMT then plans to expand the service to all of its 20,000 cabs in sixty US cities.

“We have a great relationship with our taxis and we believe that this will go over well. We have research that shows that 89% of customers leave the screens playing when they are in our taxis,” says CMT’s Tom Hammond.

“With an average ride of 10 minutes (San Francisco) to 14 minutes (New York), this will give customers time to really engage with our content providers (ABC Networks and the City of New York) and our advertisers,” Hammond adds.

Blue Bite, which recently added mTag to 140 advertising screens in US shopping malls, is “thrilled with its first foray into the taxi market and the opportunity to integrate with the dynamic CMT platform that will give users instantaneous access to multifaceted and relevant content during their taxi ride,” says CEO and co-founder Mikhail Damiani.

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