Impact of Minibus Taxi Commuters’ Motivation, Opportunity and Ability on Recall of Digital Billboard Advertising

Studies on the effectiveness of transit advertising media remain limited and may no longer fully reflect the contemporary digitalised transit advertising environment, as many earlier studies focused primarily on traditional non-digital transit advertising formats such as posters, billboards, taxi advertising, airport advertising and exterior bus advertising in developed markets. In South Africa, transit advertising, an emerging out-of-home platform, has also received limited academic attention, with existing studies largely overlooking the role of digital advertising in transit environments. This gap highlights the need for further research. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of digital boards at minibus taxi ranks in South Africa, using brand recall as a measure of the medium’s effectiveness, guided by the Message Response Involvement framework. The study contributes to the academic field by applying the Message Response Involvement framework to digital transit advertising within a unique South African context. Through purposive quota sampling, 350 minibus taxi commuters were selected and interviewed by trained fieldworkers at a large transport interchange minibus taxi rank. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. The findings revealed that brand recall is higher when commuters have greater opportunities and abilities to process advertising, while motivation to process the advertising was only moderate and did not play a significant role. Taxi ranks, with fast-paced environments, constant traffic and a bustling crowd of pedestrians, require practitioners to plan campaigns that ensure ample opportunity and the ability to view content displayed on digital boards. Therefore, it is recommended that content displayed on digital boards at minibus taxi ranks features brands familiar and relevant to South African minibus taxi commuters. It is also advisable to use concise messages with minimal text, avoid content repetition within a single advertising loop and ensure optimal placement.