Advertising, Travel & the Blockchain

Adverts… the bane of our lives when trying to watch our favorite show or movie on TV. Intrusive, distracting and rapidly declining in value for advertising companies due to our aversion to them. The average show or movie on TV punishes us with between 15 to 25 minutes of ads per hour (depending on what country you are in). I mean, how many of us watch terrestrial TV these days and if we do, we use devices like Tivos which can identify when adverts start and stop and filter them out for us. Options like Netflix and Amazon and other paid subscriptions offer us a new method to watch without spamming our viewing, not to mention those who illegally download content which is ad-free. We are all familiar with rushing to the cinema before the movie starts only to be bombarded with irrelevant ads about local products and services or upcoming movies that we have no interest in for at least 20 minutes. Over the years companies have been forced to look at other methods to influence us including subliminal ads, product placement, pop-up ads on web pages, and host of others.  Whilst some believe that these methods are still valid and provide good returns, most of us are not so gullible these days and after many years of being exposed to these shady tactics, their effectiveness is wearing thin. Advertisers need to find new ways to reach out to their audience and we as consumers need an incentive to actually take note and view or interact with them. The blockchain and tokenization have created new incentives for many new and existing sectors and technologies which can entice us with a new level of interaction for marketing and advertising. We are already seeing decentralized platforms offering incentives and passive earnings through marketing, with Howdoo, an emerging social media platform among them. It offers its users the option to either block all adverts or display ads from certain categories earning tokens in return. Then there’s Adbank which removes the middleman and adds transparency ensuring that advertisers are reaching their intended audience instead of online bots. There are other emerging projects and technologies taking advantage of tokenization and the transparency of the blockchain. An area I have been looking into is travel. In my view, an ideal time to target a consenting audience is when they are traveling. Sitting in a taxi, on a train or plane; why not incentivize travelers to interact with ads and reward them with tokens? This ensures that the advertising company has the consumers attention and the consumer is rewarded with tokens that can be either held, traded or used to pay for travel or entertainment. The choice to watch and participate in advertising will be in the hands of the consumer and rightly so. A project I have discovered are planning to provide just this. Tachain is creating a comprehensive travel ecosystem which allows travelers to plan their journeys and book transportation with taxis, public transport and airlines. As well as providing a helpful planning and management tool, Tachain offers the opportunity for Travelers to earn TCHN tokens by interacting with advertising. TCHN tokens can be used to pay for travel or to enjoy the entertainment on offer within the Tachain platform. Using smart contracts, Tachain is creating an ecosystem which includes the following components:

• TRANSPORTAL: the app used by the consumers and travel companies to book and manage travel. Travelers will have the added advantage of reviewing services.

• TMARQ: the exchange where all parties can buy/sell TCHN tokens. This includes consumers, drivers, advertisers, transportation agents and Tachain themselves

• ADNET: the platform that consumers use to view and interact with advertisements, take part in marketing events and lotteries and where advertisers will publish their adverts and marketing content.

Starting October 2018, Tachain are introducing their platform in Manila, Philippines with 3,000 taxis, thus proving they have a working product available. It is still not clear if Tachain plan to work with the likes of Uber or compete against them and what impact or influence they can have on the market, but the mere fact that they are bringing the blockchain and tokenization to travel is sure to start the debate and further provide real world use-case for blockchain technology. For more information, you can visit their website at https://tachain.io or join their Telegram Group. Disclaimer: This article is based purely on my opinion. I do not endorse any of the companies or branding that I write about. I use them for demonstration purposes only, to make a point or as an example. This is not financial or any other form of advice. Always do your own research.