MEDIA: Media choice - MTR in-train panels

This might seem like an obvious one, but what with all the fancy 3-D creative shapes and stickers that are spreading across our trains, stations and bus shelters these days, it still baffles me that you seldom see a good quality bit of creative thinking applied to a space that surely must have one of the most captive of audiences.

by | 02/27/2004

Now when did you ever last see a good ad inside an MTR train?

I don't mean the most creative use of the train doors or windows, I'm talking about a simple, outstanding, well-written and art directed piece of creativity with an idea.

People argue that nobody reads copy these days, especially in Hong Kong.

Well, there is some truth in the idea, but there are both reasons and exceptions.

In an environment like a newspaper or magazine, people already have something to read, and your ad is an interruption of that. It has to be extremely powerful to grab and hold their attention.

But inside an MTR train, you could plaster the user instructions for a pneumatic drill on the wall and people would stop to take it in.

Why? Because they have nothing else to look at, apart from the dandruff-ridden greasy head of the delivery man in front of them. For a simple, informative ad with a bit of copy, there's probably no better space to be.