Tube Car
Panels
Advertise on Tube Car Panels
With extreme coverage and frequency, popping on top of passengers, tube car panels are a classic advertising format that people gaze at during their journey.
Tube car panels provide direct advertising opportunities, capturing attention during each journey when passengers have extended dwell time. Viewers perceive immersive, attention-grabbing promotions as a form of entertainment during the average 47-minute commute, much of which is spent sitting or standing in a carriage.
In a close traveller’s view, these ads can be great to drive strong call-to-action or simply effective brand awareness as commuters will see these on their daily travels.
What are Tube Car Panels?
Tube car panels sit at an ideal position along the upper edge of each carriage – in the direct eye line of all standing passengers and accessible to each seated person. Advertising panels are also adjacent to the tube maps displayed in all London tubes, making them impossible to ignore.
Located on the interior of the carriage, this familiar advertising format ensures that each display is visible even in crowded conditions during peak travel times, providing extended exposure to allow brands to communicate messages or share strong calls to action.
Ads displayed within the TFL network have shown to be among the most effective advertising formats in London and provide the unique advantage of placing information in front of a diverse audience in a captive setting, offering brands prolonged exposure and enough time to create a long-lasting impression.
How One Day Can Help
One Day is a fully integrated agency that collaborates with brands looking to implement high-profile advertising and promotions, reaching consumers with creative content, clear brand messaging and appealing visuals that prompt action. Our expert marketing teams develop successful campaigns, working with brands across sectors and industries.
We can facilitate multi-placement campaigns, using strategic advertising throughout the TFL network, combining tube car panels with escalators and in-station advertisements of all sizes.
As specialists in OOH advertising, our senior consultants provide a wealth of expertise, from media planning to campaign design, intelligent tech-based tracking, and end-to-end campaign management and analysis.
You are welcome to get in touch to arrange a convenient time to talk, browse our creative and digital project galleries, or review our advertising tech solutions to learn more about One Day and the success we have achieved through TFL ad campaigns.
Other Formats
Cross Track 16 Sheet
Tube cross-track sheets are the most iconic and photographed formats across the entire TfL (Transport for London) network. When fully displayed, they thoroughly dominate the platform and make use of passenger dwell time. As a result, consumers absorb your marketing message to a high degree.
Escalator Panels
Print or digital, known as LEPs (Large Format Posters) and DEPs (Digital Escalator Panels) respectively, are prominently displayed for commuters as they enter or exit platforms and stations. They can be targeted by location, making them excellent for general brand awareness and especially effective for location-based businesses. In digital form, escalator panels are eye-catching and dynamic, with some allowing full-motion video.
6 Sheet
On the London Underground, 6-sheet ads are strategically placed in high-visibility areas, such as on platforms and within station concourses. These posters are designed to capture the attention of commuters as they move through the station, waiting for trains, or walking along platforms. Due to their relatively compact size, 6-sheet ads are often used for quick, impactful messages, such as brand awareness campaigns, product launches, or promotions.
Cross Track 96 Sheet
Cross-track 96-sheet ads are considered impactful due to their large size and prominent placement. The "cross-track" aspect indicates that these large posters are positioned across the tracks, typically on the opposite side of the platform. This placement allows for maximum visibility as passengers on one side of the platform can easily see the ad on the other side while waiting for their train.
12 Sheet
Similar to the 6 Sheet and 4 Sheet formats, 12 Sheet billboards are strategically positioned in high-traffic areas and tube stations. However, their larger size provides brands with increased exposure and recognition. When combined, tube advertising effectively reaches 4.8 million passenger journeys throughout the underground network each day.
Cross Track 48 Sheet
The significant advantage of the 48 Sheet, in contrast to its smaller counterpart, the 16 Sheet, is evident in its complete stand-alone nature, as illustrated in the image above. Your advertisement occupies a singular ad space, ensuring a clutter-free and noise-free environment. In addition to the previously mentioned benefits, the 48 Sheet allows your ad to make a more substantial presence and take over the platform.
4 Sheet
The 4-sheets, usually positioned in access areas and tunnels of the tube, provide a cost-effective format to target millions of people. This format also grants you the flexibility to scale up or down based on your brief and budget.
Frequently Asked Questions.
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London tube lines have standardised panels, which are consistent across all lines and Tramlink public transport networks. Each panel provides a display size of 24 cm tall by 56 cm wide, offering the space to share core messaging, themes, visuals and offers. Brands can also incorporate calls to action and interactive features such as QR codes to boost engagement.
Businesses can invest in a high-profile campaign across several major tube lines, with placements in all carriages for an extended period. More targeted and localised campaigns can be structured around specific lines or comprise full carriage displays for optimal visibility along routes most used by the target audience.
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Leveraging the promotional opportunity of tube car panels delivers compelling advantages to businesses based within London and nationwide companies looking to maximise their reach and brand awareness.
Businesses can also select lines and routes that align with their target market, such as establishing tube ad placements along the Circle Line to reach business people commuting into the City of London or opting for promotions along the Waterloo Line, focusing on visitors, families and tourists travelling to the London Eye, the Shard and The London Dungeons.
Some of the many benefits of tube car panel advertising include:
Excellent brand exposure with positive engagement: commuters and regular tube users welcome the distraction from their daily journeys and consume advertised content in a captive setting.
Advertising to diverse demographics: millions of people use the tube, from students and tourists to professionals and people of all ages. Advertisers can reach a vast spectrum of viewers through one promotion.
High repetition for augmented brand recognition: consumer buying decisions normally follow several instances of exposure to a brand. Tube car panels are seen countless times every day, ensuring messages are reinforced and lead to instant brand recall.
Tube car panels can generate superb returns, providing far higher impressions than many conventional or transient forms of advertising, and are used by a broad range of brands, from innovative start-ups to global household names.
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Exact impressions may depend on the number of tube car panels used within your campaign and whether you select specific lines within the TFL network to display your branding. However, the opportunity is vast, with the latest statistics showing that:
The TFL network holds 40% of all outdoor advertising space within London and 20% of the advertising capacity nationwide.
Annual passenger numbers reached 3.15 million per day in early 2023, with an annual ridership of 1.026 billion people during 2022/23.
The newest line, the Elizabeth Line, opened in May 2015 and now serves over 204 million people per year – attracting further audiences and viewers.
Hand-selecting placements is a tactical way to maximise engagements, whereas high-profile TFL campaigns may generate greater impressions. Speak to One Day to explore the options and to ensure your tube car panel promotions generate the outcomes you anticipate.
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