Picture yourself at the train station, on your way to work. Count the minutes spent in line to the ticket booth, the long walk to the platform, the wait for the train—and if it’s full, the wait for the next one. You step onboard and squeeze in, like sardines. So, in the next 20, jampacked minutes of your life, what would you like?
Poetry, perhaps?
In the recent survey, Nielsen said that while Coke, Unilab, and Wyeth are the top advertisers in the MRT, and while LRT line 2’s top spenders are Kotex and PCSO (also no. 1 for LRT 1), the one that excited commuters most is a campaign from none of these brands.
In the research, passengers referred to the campaign of the Spanish cultural center Instituto Cervantes, called “Berso sa Metro (Verses in the Metro)”.
Instituto Cervantes Director José Rodríguez says of the campaign’s success: “I noticed that with the advent of the Internet in our high-tech driven society and coupled with our busy lifestyle, the reading of books is relegated to the sidelines. More and more people rush everyday or are glued to their computers, surfing the Internet, while less and less people read books, even among students. The “Berso sa Metro” campaign is like offering a catchphrase, to entice people to read the entire poem from books or the complete works of a particular poet.”
Through the Filipino translation of the Spanish verses by famous poets—even Jose Rizal could be counted among them—the Filipino commuters reconnected with their colonial heritage and yes, their love for reading.
Advertising professor Carlito Viriña says that "a commuter’s eye gets hungry inside a train. How many times will he have to re-read that slogan and look at a product? That’s why most commuters just close their eyes. There’s nothing more to read, nothing more to see.”
Random interviews among the Metro Manila commuters revealed that many of them truly want something educational and informative. People who ride the MRT and the LRT suffer from some stress, especially at night, and they want an escape from the usual TV, radio, and “billboard gazing”.
Experts suggest postcards. Passengers do not want to see just plain product shots. They want to read trivia, health tips, courtesy and etiquette reminders; foreign words translated to Filipino, and the like, printed on beautifully designed cards. Something worth keeping long after they disembark.
Advocacy campaigns are also recommended. Transit media can be a great venue for enlightenment. In addition, commuters enjoy ads that make them look forward to a “sequel” in the next station and consequently, make them forget their problems.
Wouldn’t that be something? A trainload of consumers, waiting for advertisers to take them away. That is, if they know how.
