Transport and Telecommunication Vol. 15, no. 3, 2014 215 Transport and Telecommunication, 2014, volume 15, no. 3, 215–226 Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Lomonosova 1, Riga, LV-1019, Latvia DOI 10.2478/ttj-2014-0019 DIGITAL ADVERTISING SYSTEM IN URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF ŽILINA TOWN Radovan Madleňák 1 , Lucia Madleňáková 2 The Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications University of Zilina Univerzitná 1, 01026, Zilina, Slovakia 1 Phone: ++421/41/5133124. . E-mail: radovan.madlenak@fpedas.uniza.sk 2 Phone: ++421/41/5133125. E-mail: lucia.madlenakova@fpedas.uniza.sk The Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT) have changed everything: news, commerce, advertising, relating to others, getting information and transport too. It has changed how the people work, how they practice religion, how they date, how they spend the free time and how they travel. One of the technological innovations that are based on usage ICT in advertising space is digital signage. This article presents the results of research dedicated to investigate the relationships between customers-passengers and this new ICT technology in real environment. The results of the research stimulate the discussion about the future advertising practices in Žilina town. Based on the wide analysis of opportunities the digital signage technology in advertising practices, the presented marketing research investigates how passengers accept virtual advertising technology in urban transport system of Žilina town. Authors highlight the advantages of interactivity between digital signage technology and consumers. The conclusions of this article triggers further investigations in the area of the interactions between the digital advertising technology and passengers, and the passengers’ perception and acceptation of shopping activities on the basis of advertising in digital signage medias. Keywords: digital signage, marketing digital media, transport system, calculation, ROI 1. Introduction Advertisement is all around us. We cannot avoid the contact. Products and services do need advertisement to increase their awareness. Marketers utilize all possible places and methods to catch customers’ attention. There is no guaranteed evidence of the first advertisement. Some specialists consider wall paintings in the caves as some sort of advertisement. We can certainly say that advertisement exists as long as the surplus production. When people started to produce more goods than they were able to consume they needed to barter them for something else. The easiest way how to capture the attention was shout the slogans loud. The Slovak word for advertisement (“reklama”) has its origin in Latin. Re-clamo means shout repeatedly (Reklamu.cz, 2014). The voices of the sellers were used as the medium how to deliver the advertising content to the ears of buyers. In the noisy crowd of markets sellers needed specific vocal resonation, vocal registration and remarkable content to distinguish their offer from other sellers. Advertisement on papyrus was used in Egypt to spread the commercial messages. Similar method was used in Pompeii and ancient Arabia especially to spread political messages. To capture wider audience, they even carved their messages on rocks and walls. In the Middle Ages the population lacked of education and there were only few scholars. Therefore sellers used signs to attract customers. Similar signs are still used nowadays although they are replaced with new types of advertisement (Mogel, 1993). Advertisement experienced rapid development after the year 1447. It was the year when Johannes Gutenberg invented printing. Therefore sellers could spread their messages faster, easier and more efficient. The remarkable name connected with advertisement is Théophraste Renaudot, the first French journalist. As a reaction to the poor situation with unemployment in Paris, he created message board for those who offer jobs as well as for those who were seeking for the free positions. To propagate this idea he established the first French newspaper La Gazette in 1631 (the title has its origin in Italian currency unit – gazetta) (Tungate, 2007). Another French newspaper, La Presse, published first paid advertisement in June 1836. This lowered the price of the newspaper as part of the costs was covered with money made from advertisement. Seeing that this method appeared to be very efficient other newspaper adopted it as well (Burde, 2009).