When you talk about transit advertising, it is a form of advertising that reaches people, who use public transport. It includes advertisements, placed on buses, as well as on the other vehicles, which can be seen in transit stations. Transit advertising can be subdivided into several types - inside cards or interior cards (they are placed above seats or in luggage areas), outside posters (which are placed on the sides and called king and queen signs), roofs or backs (so-called tail signs) of trains, busses, taxis, etc.), and station, terminal, platform posters (here come floor displays, electric signs, posters, and island showcases).

This kind of advertising has become popular due to the number of its positive sides. One of the advantages of transit advertising is its exposure. A target audience is exposed to a single advertisement for a long period of time, especially if you choose an interior card. Moreover, outside posters can be noticed by larger audiences if to take into consideration people in their cars, stopped behind a bus or those, waiting until a bus starts moving. Secondly, it picks up the speed due to the frequency (the amount of times potential consumers may see your ad), which can be rather high with daily commuters, who use the same transport on a regular basis. Timeliness is also among the advantages of transit advertising, as advertisements essentially appear, when people are likely to go shopping. Then, a geographical selectivity is something that makes advertisers decide in favor of public transport advertising. They know for sure that their customers are taking a certain buss at a particular time. Finally, economy can be definitely named among the above mentioned advantages of transit advertising, since this method is known for a quite low absolute and relative cost.

Certainly, alongside with the advantages of transit advertising, you can find several drawbacks, as in all other methods of advertising. First, its major disadvantage is the mood of the audience, who is likely to be in low spirits due to the transit situation itself. People on transit may not even notice such advertisements, simply because they became used to transit advertising. Moreover, many of those people may not be interested in you and your product at all; hence, transit ads are not easy to target despite the high level of reach. Furthermore, if you choose only this method, you will not be able to reach those would-be customers, who never use transit. Design limitations are unavoidable, as the format you will have to work with limits a copy and creative options. Finally, the whole transit situation may spoil the image of the product you sell.

If you have already weighed all pros and cons of transit advertising and you are inclined to test it, try to learn several basic rules of creating transit ads. They have to be eye-catchy and of bright colors. Do not try to improve your literary writing skills: the ideas should be simple and expressed in a few words. To maximize the reach of your target audience, ask for a full list of bus routes. If you plan to use this method more than one year - create an always timely generic advertisement.