SHANGHAI, Nov. 1, 2013/PRNewswire/ -- At Touchmedia's Annual Party held recently at the Ritz Carlton Pudong, to say thank you to clients, Executive Chairman Micky Fung and Co-CEO Bernie Auyang made a number of announcements on the company’s recent performance and on plans for 2014.
Mr Auyang, reviewed 2013. "This year we have passed the 50,000 unit mark, reaching, says the audit data from CTR, almost 70 million passengers each month. And those passengers continue to be more affluent than the average, with better educations and occupations, because that’s who regularly travels in taxis. They are adult and they earn more, spend more, travel more, shop more and dine out more. In 2013, we had them for on average 22.5 minutes, the length of the average taxi ride, slightly longer than in the past as traffic gets just a little worse in most Chinese cities, and as a result recall of the advertising and the use of the screens also actually rose just a fraction. "
Going on to consider the market environment, Mr. Auyang noted that it had been a relatively challenging year for the advertising and media industry as a whole, but noted that, "At Touchmedia it has been a record year across the board and I would like to especially compliment Guangzhou and Shenzhen who were up 30 % year on year, Hong Kong which rose 80 % and Beijing up a remarkable 130 %. That terrific overall result reflects not only added business from more than three quarters of our existing clients, but also the contributions of 120 new clients – the best new business result in our history. "
Micky Fung, Founder and Executive Chairman of Touchmedia elaborated that now, more than 6 years after the launch in Shanghai, Touchmedia is a national media, with frequency and recall levels ahead of virtually all other media for its precisely targeted and highly desirable audience. "Over the last 3 years more than 20 clients have done awareness recall and effectiveness research with independent studies. Clients include P&G and L’Oreal, Ford and Roche, retail clients and those from service industries. We have consistently been the most cost effective media for results in all those studies, "Mr. Fung explained.
Mr. Auyang then took a look into the future. "In 2013 we launched our eCommerce and ticketing business on screen. As just one example, for the Pitbull concert, around 5,000 tickets, nearly half of all those sold in Shanghai, went through Touchmedia. In 2014, we plan further upgrades to the functions available to consumers and advertisers. We will also be doing our 6th major hardware upgrade in 7 years, introducing the latest state of the art technology such as Android 4, with direct WIFI and better interaction with mobile devices. We see this opportunity of interaction with Smartphones as being huge, extending what we have already done with downloads, coupons, sampling and e-Commerce through the passenger’s phone and constantly making it more usable and worthwhile. A corollary of this has been the interaction with passenger engagement programs which have been astonishingly successful. "
Bernie also announced that the company would be continuing their expansion, with Chengdu, Nanjing and Wuhan joining the China network plus 4 cities in the Middle East, as well as Australia and 3 other international markets.
Mr. Fung closed by saying that Touchmedia was, "Hugely grateful to you, our friends and partners in this business, and thank you from the depth of our hearts. I think you should also know that you have helped us help the community as well, with more than 20 public service and charity programs. Mr. and Ms. WOW this year for example, 2011 to present, the WOW videos have now reached over 650 million taxi passengers in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Qingdao and Hong Kong. Based on responses from an in-taxi survey conducted via Touchmedia’s screens in May 2013, of 488,319 passenger respondents, 64.4% had been influenced by WOW in a good way. "
"But the most powerful has been Touch Your Heart, Donate for Love. Together with the Shanghai Blood Management Office, the Shanghai Blood Center in 1 year more than 80,000 people have successfully registered on the taxi screens to donate blood in Beijing and Shanghai - in many cases those donations have saved a life. That’s a thank you like no other. "
