Advertising: TANK is doing it right
I was in the airport last night on a late flight from DC and behold: What do I see greeting me unavoidably on my way down the escalator toward baggage claim? A giant sign telling me I can take transit to downtown for only $2.00.
It changed to another advertisement before I could calm my trembling heart and reach for the camera phone but I hung around for another minute and caught a picture of this:
A few steps further found me walking below this sign:
And to my right, a kiosk toward which I quickly scampered
The kiosk is basically a big fancy machine that shows you a PDF of the 2X schedule. Normally I don’t approve of such complicated things, favouring instead a simple rack of paper schedules, but I have to say that this thing was really attractive, easy to use, and perfectly informative.
It gave you the times, the prices, the route map; it gave you everything you would need to just go outside and take transit right now.
That is perfectly informative.
But where exactly, you might ask, should you “just go outside?” Can it be that easy? Boom! The stop is right out that door. Go. Now. Just do it. You’re so close!
This applause might sound pretty obvious, but many of the most important routes in the city lack this sort of pointed, direct, this-is-what-transit-does kind of advertising. I’d like to see more of this, particularly for routes that aren’t aimed narrowly at tourists(which is to say: almost all of them).
TANK wins 3 points for clear and effective communication and pulls into the lead.
This is exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you for providing pictures and details of how to find the TANK bus stop at the airport.