Launched in 2010 and expanded in 2018, the ever-growing MyCiTi Bus service was recently allocated R5.2bn for an expansion project – Phase 2A. Phase 2A, planned to roll out over the next three years, is the largest ever public transport infrastructure project in the Western Cape, and MyCiTi is the primary focus of Cape Town's new public transport plan.
Once Phase 2A is complete, MyCiTi will service Mitchell’s Plain, Lentegeur, Khayelitsha, Nolungile, Gugulethu, Crossroads, Manenberg, Hanover Park, Philippi, Nyanga, Ottery, Strandfontein, Claremont, Wynberg, Constantia and Hout Bay, delivering fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility with dedicated right-of-way infrastructure in the city. The buses will cover nine main routes, 12 direct routes (also called feeder routes) and service over 350 stations and stops along the way.
For over a decade, working alongside MyCiTi and the City of Cape Town, Provantage and IRT Media have in turn, continuously expanded their service offering to advertisers seeking to engage and communicate with targeted audiences within the city.
Provantage maintains an impressive outdoor media footprint in the City of Cape Town, with a reach of approximately eight million (Source: Lightstone 2022), and the award secures rights across the MyCiTi media infrastructure. This comprehensive package includes municipal and MyCiTi bus shelters, bus exteriors and interiors, and bus stations.
Shamy Naidu, director of IRT Media, emphasises the value of the MyCiTi network for outdoor advertising. “The network offers highly impactful, visible and geographically targeted sites that provide exceptional visibility for brands looking to stand out in the city.
"It is an honour to have been re-awarded the MyCiTi media rights, a testament to our abilities within and understanding of the out-of-home media and transit environment. We will continue to provide advertisers with the most innovative and impactful outdoor advertising opportunities Cape Town has to offer. We look forward to maintaining and building on our successful partnership with the City of Cape Town and serving the community and advertisers during our tenure."
Offering high impact and frequency alongside exceptional uncluttered visibility, bus shelter and bus advertising deliver a combined reach of over 3.5 million Capetonians weekly, approximately 80% of whom influence household purchasing decisions. MyCiTi advertising extends not only to bus commuters but also people who travel by other means.
Naidu adds, “The unmissable premium formats offered to brands provide a highly effective way to create a city-wide presence. We are able to deliver brand messaging in a traditionally limited out-of-home advertising environment. At the same time, enhancing out-of-home campaigns via geotargeting means brands can achieve concentrated and impactful reach.”
The MyCiTi buses transport over four million passengers per month. And according to research from ProFusion data, 45% of people surveyed who notice out-of-home advertising, recall advertising on a bus. This positions MyCiTi platforms ideally to connect with people daily as they commute to work, school, leisure and other purposes, making it an invaluable platform for brand exposure and messaging.
On average, a bus shelter in the Western Cape yields over 1,6 million likely monthly impacts among audiences known to be affluent, hard-to-reach and in close proximity to desirable suburbs and streets.
Additionally, Provantage is adding a new dimension to outdoor advertising by introducing digitisation, adding strategically located digital OOH screens in stations and buses. Naidu explains, “Our ownership of static and digital high-impact transit media and street furniture formats in Cape Town will allow us to offer advertisers an unparalleled outdoor media footprint, reaching a vast audience with unmatched visibility, impact and frequency.”
As an innovator in outdoor advertising, Provantage continues to shape the future of OOH advertising in Cape Town and throughout South Africa.
To learn more about Provantage’s full-service marketing, audience measurement and Out-of-Home services, visit https://provantage.co.za/
