Itsme

Gee, this is the 6th or 7th company to try this....none of the previous ones successful. I wonder what will happen to this one???

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Video Ads to Play From Gas Station Pumps

Startup GSTV Targets Consumers Filling Their Tanks
By Jean Halliday

Published: June 05, 2006

DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Rather than watch the numbers spin higher and higher as they fill their gas tanks, drivers now have the distraction of TV spots at the pump.

A new company, Gas Station TV, plans to install video advertising systems on pumps in 100 gas stations by fall.

Startup Gas Station TV is offering national and local content with 15-second ads on 20-inch, pump-mounted digital TV screens, confirming the notion that just about no place is safe from advertising. GSTV, Oak Park, Mich., is expanding a test program run at six stations in Dallas last December with a planned 100 stations in Atlanta and Houston by fall.

The company, which is privately held with financial backing from private equity firms led by DHW Capital, expects to reach the top 10 markets by January with 400 gas stations, CEO David Leider said.

"The key is this audience is mobile and basically tethered at the pump for an average of four to four-and-a-half minutes," Mr. Leider said. GSTV's measurement is more accurate than in-home TV, he said, because data are based on the number of transactions at the pumps. "It's a captive audience."

Petrol partnerships
GSTV has contracted with Murphy Oil USA, which owns 1,000-plus gas stations in Wal-Mart parking lots, to put the system in 900-plus stations in 21 states.

GSTV also has partnered with the new-media sales arm of ABC, which provides national and local news, sports, weather, traffic content and advertising. GSTV takes ABC's content, inserts ads from its own advertisers and creates four-minute loops with 15-second commercials. The same audio and video air simultaneously on all screens at each station.

GSTV's revenue comes from the ads it sells. The company did not release numbers but said pricing is comparable to a spot cable buy.

The advertisers in the Dallas program are Chevrolet, Pepsi, Allstate, Goodyear, Wal-Mart, Ditech and Skoal. Publicis Groupe's Starcom is handling GSTV's national ad deals, which are still in the works.

Pump-side pitches aren't new. In 2000, Dallas-based BillBoard Video ran spots along with wireless news content on 12-inch screens at gas stations, but it stopped in 2003.

"There's a significant difference between the pioneers and the settlers," GSTV President Adam Bleibtreu said. Predecessors have failed for reasons including expensive technology and resistance from advertisers and consumers.

"To us, GSTV is a network," Mr. Bleibtreu said. "We've taken the television set from your living room and put it at the gas station."

Airencracken

I have these things at a shell station near my house. I hate them SO much. They're obnoxious and loud, not to mention annoying as hell when you're just trying to pump your fourty bucks of gas (stupid expensive gas) and just get the hell out of there. As if we're not bombarded by ads enough. Ugh. I specifically avoid that station because it has these things.

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DarkFury

Honestly, I'm not all that bothered by those at the Shell stations... Sometimes, they actually show a good news tidbit during my fill up.

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Airencracken

Half the time those things are blaring in my ear I'm trying to listen to NPR from the car and I can't hear a damn word of it because of the annoying ads.

DarkFury

Well, since the car is supposed to be "off" at a gas station... I don't keep the radio playing in mine. But hey.. I guess for some folks it works and others it doesn't.

BTW.. on the pumps near me, there is a volume control on the pump so that you can turn it down.

Airencracken

See the volume control thing would make it almost acceptable for me, but nope the ones by me are on 11 all the time 24/7. My car is off when I'm at the station, it's the accessories setting.

Cubsfan

How about interactive ads? Maybe like a little game or quiz or something. Maybe you get some amount off on your gas for playing (i..e complete 2 ads/games, get a $0.03/gallon reduction)

DarkFury

yeah... I realize that the car is in the ACC position... however electricity is still moving through the speakers.... and gas fumes can travel through the air.

Electric spark + gas fumes = BOOM (and not in a good speaker "BOOM" way. )

Just better "safe" than "sorry" I'd say...

Airencracken

Dude, I'm sure it'll be the self important twit in the lexus talking on his cell phone next to me that will be the end of me if I die in a gas station accident.. Not to mention that the speakers of those mother****ing TV's are exposed (they have to be to work) so aren't those a liablility as well? Probably not, I'd say it's very very very very very very unlikely that anything will happen.

DarkFury

I'm sure that the gas pump electrics are properly shielded... if not, then they would be in for one heck of a lawsuit...

As far as your own... well... you take your chances.

BTW... Mythbusters already busted the cell phone myth... the cell phone doesn't generate enough current to ignite gasoline, however static from your vehicle and/or 12v current from your active battery can be strong enough to ignite the gasoline.

Itsme

Having ads at the pump has a similar problem with thosae TVs put in the food courts of malls. The same companies tried that. Almost all have been taken out over time. My company was involved in the telecom aspects of both the mall TVs and the gas pump TVs.

If you put the volume up loud enough to hear, then it is annoying to people who are trying to eat and talk to their tablemate.

If the volume is lower as to not annoy people, then the ad loses most of its effectiveness because people can't hear it.

Houdini

Heh...I nearly got blown up on my graduation day a couple of years ago. I had stopped to gas up my car, and the hose was cut (didn't notice until...wellll) b/w the pump and the handle at the ground. So, when I hit the dispense button on the pump, gallons of gas sprayed all over me, my car, the street, etc. I tried to hit the button, slam back the nozzle, etc., trying to shut it off. THen I ran to the cashier to yell (ask) where the hell the shutoff button was. She didn't undersetand. I said again, "gas-emergency-shutoff-where?" She finally figured it out and hit the button. Meanwhile, I'm standing in and covered with 91 octane. Decided my exhaust was pretty damn hot, and I needed to move the car. So I started pushing it (After slapping it into neutral), which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that the ground and my shoes were lubed with gas by this time. So it was slippery. I finally got it moving away from the huge puddle, while warding off some idiot with a lit cigarette hanging from his moronic lips. I really thought I was going to spend the rest of my graduation day in a burn unit, and I really wasn't ready to self-immolate that day. I was pretty damn lucky. THen the bastards at the station wanted to charge me (already on my swiped card) for all the gas that I and the ground had absorbed. It took forever to straighten that one out. "You did buy the gas!" "But none of it went into my car because you HOSE was CUT!" "That doesn't matter, it's still on your card..." "WTF are you talking about?" etc.

Chgoman

They have little LCD TV's running adds at most of the grocery stores by my house now in the check out lanes. It's really annoying so I'm sure the gas station ones will be as well.

They are also starting to replace the poster size advertizements in shopping malls with LCD or plasma displays to run advertizing. The ad companies are trying anything to make up for people skipping comerices via Tivo & other recording devices. Unfortunatly is pushing advertizing from our home to everywhere else in our lives.

Houdini

I did see some active TV monitors in SoCal last month. It was pretty cool catching a news update while filling up my car, but I could see how it would be annoying with commercials, etc. Still, if you're bored, as you usually are when filling up your car, it gives you something to watch. Even moreso, it takes your mind off of how m uch $$ you are spending.

SnowSurfer

if my gas is getting cheaper because of these ad's then yes they are great, if they are just there to piss me off....screw 'em....i'm already pissed off enough putting 50 dollars in my tank

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