If your business has a respectable budget and appeals to a broad demographic, transit ads allow you to reach many diverse customers at once. Transit advertisements place your advertising in, on or even over the entire exterior of vehicles, including buses and trucks. Transit ads can also help you place your advertising message in train, subway and bus stations.

Transit advertising on the exterior of vehicles brings your ad to drivers and pedestrians. Transit ads inside of buses and other forms of transit can help you target passengers. Advertising in train, subway and bus stations can also help you target a broad audience, since both transit employees and passengers will see your message.

If you think vehicle advertising transit ads might be right for your business, consider:

1. Checking that your customer base is sufficiently broad for this type of advertising.

2. Choosing where to place your transit ads.

3. Working with a good transit advertising agency to create an eye-catching message.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Target both passengers and drivers with bus transit advertisements

Bus ads allow you to target public transit passengers as well as pedestrians and drivers. When selecting bus ads, select King Kong ads -- wall-sized ads that fit on the side of a bus -- or smaller and less expensive ads appropriate for the sides or the back of the bus. You can also choose highly visible wrap advertisements, which involves shrink wrapping an entire bus or half a bus with an ad.

I recommend: Roadmark, Inc. specializes in mobile media advertising and can help your business create great transit ads for buses. Houck Transit Advertising is a full-service transit advertising company known for many types of bus ads.

Turn company trucks and vehicles into transit advertising

You can convert company cars or trucks into a visible advertising message with transit print ads or with vehicle wrap advertising. A transit advertising agency can help you design an ad and place it over your business fleet so that the vehicles act as marketing tools whenever they're on the road. This form of vehicle advertising is especially effective if your company cars or trucks travel frequently in high-visibility areas.

I recommend: Skinzwraps specializes in wrapping vehicles, including company vehicles and trucks. Wrap Vehicles allows you to create a moving advertisement for any type of vehicle.

Select interior ads in bus, train and subway stations for more customer interaction

Station signs are mainly for passengers who ride transit systems such as the bus, subway or train. These forms of ads are ideal, because commuters increasingly rely on public transportation. Transit advertising production services can even help you create interactive shelter and station ads that provide customers with company literature or coupons.

I recommend: CBS Outdoor and EMC offer a variety of transit advertising production options, with an emphasis on subway and rail station advertising. Their products include platform posters, terminal dioramas and station domination advertising.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Take steps to improve the visibility and effectiveness of your transit ads. For example, select your vehicle ads carefully for maximum coverage. You might also want to coordinate your efforts by placing the same ads on several types of vehicles to increase exposure.