Fueling With Digital Signage

Digital signage is gaining popularity in almost every market where people walk, wait or work. Now you have ads and entertainment while you are fueling. VST International was the first company to mass-produce a pump-top signage solution in 2005 in 2006 Pumptop TV and Gas Station TV started their first large deployment. Currently this market is shared between 8 companies which hold less than 2% of the gas station market.

The annual stations count decreased slightly in the last year down to 167,768 gas stations in the US market. Although current market changes and challenges such as the unstable gasoline prices and inflation, are negatively impacting gas stations profits and sales.  2009 economy may show more impact. The two major oil companies topping the gas stations count in 2008 remain. Shell has the No. 1 spot with 14,000 gas stations, with increase by about 600 gas stations per year. BP increased its amount of stations to 13,000+ in 2008.

Total Gasoline Sales

ExxonMobil has the No. 1 position in total gasoline sales in the United States. ExxonMobil reported that it sold over 24.5 billion gallons of gasoline. ConocoPhillips has the No. 2 spot, with almost 19.1 billion gallons in sales. BP has the No. 3 spot, with its sales of 16.1 billion gallons of gasoline, and Shell has the No. 4 spot, reporting 13 billion gallons.

The 8 companies targeting gas station digital signage are:

Gas Station TV with 1000+ Gas stations

Pumptop TV with over 750+ Gas stations

Fuel Cast with over 600+ Gas stations

Petro TV with over 175+ Gas Stations

Pump Media with over 155+ Locations

FUEL VIEW with over 13+ location

FILLNTHRILL with over 10+ Gas Stations

The combined number of Gas stations deployed by all these companies, are only around 3000 gas stations nationwide which provide larger space for other companies to grow.

Digital out-of-home media at Gas stations provide localized advertising for media buyers to reach consumers at a much lower CPM than any other traditional media, with control of the location time and impression of each ad. Most gas Stations digital signage are installed in high profile gas stations with traffic over 30,000 motorists a month. They rely on the statistics that more than 65% of Americans spend at least 3-6 min per week in a gas station. The challenge with this market is the proof of concept. Selling digital signage ads in this economic time, is no easy task, especially when this venue carries one of the highest costs per location, running around $15,000 -$20,000 per location.

We already know “content is king” and it becomes very crucial in gas station digital signage.  High Broadcast quality is really expectation. You have to entertain the customer. The days of static banners and pictures are fading. The new century customers are tough. You will lose if they see a high-end display with boring and outdated content. Within budget, you’ve got to go high-end with your content. The contents needs to be relevant, informative and not a strictly sales tool. There are several elements that go into producing striking digital signage content, but the most important element is making it relevant to your audience.

The best approach in creating attractive digital signage content is partnering with a content provider. I think this is one of the key successes of Gas Station TV and Outcast, when they partner with major content provider like NBC and CBS for content and news.