But is transit still the best place to launch a direct-to-consumer brand?If youre a New Yorker, one of the easiest ways to keep up-to-date on the latest consumer products furniture, beauty products, mobile apps, you name it is to hop on the subway.Even before you board, you may find yourself walking through a station filled with colorful startup ads.
And once youre actually on the train, you may find yourself surrounded by even more of those of ads.It felt very different when I first moved to New York in 2013, back when the only companies that seemed to buy subway ads were local colleges, law firms and sketchy-sounding surgeons.
Over the next few years, I noticed that the companies I wrote about in TechCrunch were starting to show up on the subway walls.These ads are managed by Outfront Media, which has an exclusive contract with the MTA and says its worked with more than 150 startups and direct-to-consumer brands since 2018.Startups and DTC brands, now more than ever before, are looking for ways to raise awareness and gain market share among a heavy competitor set, said Outfronts chief product experience officer Jason Kuperman via email.
For these brands, it is all about testing and learning, and leveraging out-of-home (OOH) [advertising] and advertising on the subway allows them to do just that.Kuperman added that when they launch their subway campaigns, many of these startups are unknown, so they find value in a permanent place to advertise that people pass through every day.From out-of-home to in transitJohn Laramie, CEO of out-of-home advertising agency Project X, agreed that theres been a big shift over the past few years.He and I first spoke in 2011 about startups buying billboard ads alongside Silicon Valleys main highway, Route 101.More recently, he told me, Fast forward to the last four years, and who cares about the 101? Its all about the New York City subway.