Grown Up Thinking

Well, well, well.  NYC is finally moving forward with a $200 million project to bring Wi-Fi to the underworld in the next 2-6 years.  This project has been approved since 2007, but (as with other NYC undertakings) did not have funding until recently.  Transit Wireless and Broadcast Australia get credit for fronting the cash; the question is do we thank them or not?

There are many reasons I am glad I do not have service in the Subway:

1.    Convenient excuse to end a phone conversation
2.    I read more books that way
3.    Time spent disconnected from the world – which they say is good for you
4.    People are irritating when they don’t pay attention to where they are going, and this would expose them to the dangers of texting while walking

There are also times I wish I had service on the Subway:

1.    When I forget which stop I want
2.    When I am late(r than usual) and need to call my blind internet date… er… friends
3.    When someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer
4.    When I think of something brilliant to Google
5.    when I open Facebook on my phone just to be reminded that I cannot

On the whole, it is an attractive and practical idea that will result in more meaningful, engaging advertising content.  It’s surprising it took this long to come to fruition, really.

Can you imagine being able to meet friends on a specific train car or play live online trivia with the plasma TVs that will definitely be installed by then? Cross your fingers the world doesn’t end in 2012 because I definitely want to be here for this.

What does the future of marketing on subway cars look like to you?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 10:44 am and is filed under Interactive Marketing, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.