November 5, 2026
The launch of Metro Arrival with Netflix
Netflix
The challenge
On a metro platform, a traveller’s attention is constantly shifting. The moments of maximum focus come right around the arrival and departure of the train. Until now, the challenge for advertisers was: how do you make your message seamless and contextually relevant for exactly those moments? How do you make sure your ad responds to the dynamics of the environment, instead of being a static message while people wait?
The solution
The solution is Metro Arrival: a pioneering media innovation from CS Digital Media, first used successfully by streaming service Netflix. This programmatic tool creates a direct link between our digital screens and real-time data from the metro trains. This lets advertisers:
- Show a standard base ad on the platform screens.
- Switch automatically and live to a different, contextual ad within 200 milliseconds of detecting an arriving train.
- Return to the base ad as soon as the train has left.
Netflix used this to promote a film with a general ad that changed instantly into a specific call to action when the train arrived, perfectly timed for the moment the doors opened.
The result
The result of Metro Arrival is significantly higher relevance and attention value. By letting the ad respond to its environment, the message becomes part of the travel experience instead of an interruption. For Netflix, this meant a campaign that was smarter, more dynamic and perfectly tuned to travellers. This technology offers a powerful new way of storytelling, allowing a brand to tell its message in two distinct, perfectly timed steps for maximum impact.
