When in India, advertise like the Indians or How the Auto-Rickshaw may just dictate your India strategy

06/15/2010

Auto rickshaw advertising may have really captured the fancy of the masses with the innovative "Capacity - 3 Idiots" campaign painting the town towards the end of last year but the medium has been live for quite some time now and has helped build many brands in the process. Many of India's prominent start-up brands have been largely built using this medium.

The road so far

Mouthshut and Tally were probably among the first technology brands to use this medium effectively to build a presence in the offline world. Mouthshut even claims to have received 30M PVs/month as a result of the initial phases of the campaign, an imposing number considering typical startup marketing budgets.

Following the success of these brands, other home-grown tech companies like MapMyIndia and Zoho have leveraged auto-rickshaws well to create a presence for their brand.

Till very recently, this space was largely unorganised. A company would get 100-200 autos, pay the rickshaw owners a couple of hundred rupees and paint the brand on the hood of the auto.

To ensure that the auto rickshaw drivers are incentivized to retain the ad, some companies even pay the driver an amount if the ad is still present after 3-6 months. MapMyIndia has been following an incentive plan along those lines.

What works

Cost: The cost, without a doubt, is among the most attractive reasons for using this medium.

Engagement: If you really think about it, auto rickshaw ads can engage the user longer than most other ad media. A person stuck in traffic, often, has little else to do than stare at the back of the vehicle in front. In fact, this is pretty much the same reason that billboards placed at bus traffic junctions charge higher than those along the road at non-junctions.

Mobile coverage 24X7: The performance of the ad is inherently linked to the performance of the driver . The more the number of trips that the driver makes, the greater the visibility.

The Road Ahead

The potential of this advertising medium has always been immense and it is, of late, being recognized by various groups which are trying to organize the entire advertising process.

Nyayabhoomi, a Delhi-based NCO which works on promoting auto-rickshaws and improving their services helped get the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which holds advertising rights in Delhi, to approve advertising on auto-rickshaws on a revenue-sharing basis.

Following the MCD approval, JKJS, an auto-rickshaw advertising company, has started providing out of the box ad solutions on 5000 autos in Delhi, making it the single-largest provider of this nature. Their service "Ad it on Auto" adds other VAS to the advertising including ensuring replacement of ads in case of wear and tear.

Various models are being pursued to innovate in auto-rickshaw advertising:

Customized auto-rickshaws: Better suited for advertisements with spacious back, side and roof display space and multiple inside panels.
LED advertising screens: On the back of auto-rickshaws to enable nighttime viewing

Taking auto advertising to the next level, and moving from outdoor formats to indoor formats, three young entrepreneurs in Mumbai have started ‘Meter Down’, a 24-page general interest monthly magazine which provides passengers travelling in auto rickshaws with short, crisp and quick-to-read articles. The general interest magazine is placed free of cost for the passengers and features a mix of travel, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and fashion-related articles. the idea is to get local advertisers to advertise in the magazine to an engaged audience which has little else to do when stuck in traffic jams.

Finally...

Think wild and LED screens coupled with GPS capabilities on auto rickshaw hoods could, one day, vary the advertisement based on the locality the auto rickshaw is driving through. ;-)

I would like to see the day when MNC's coming into India actively budget for marketing on the auto channel. ;-) As for now, I hope more startups benefit out of this cost-effective medium.

Comments

Harsha M V link

06/15/2010 4:04am

Wonderful article. can i know of any such company who does so in bangalore ?

Sangeet link

06/15/2010 7:06am

Thanks Harsha! Mouthshut and Tally have done this well in Bangalore but I am not aware of a company managing this channel in this city yet. Will let youknow if I come across osmething

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06/18/2010 6:51am

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Jagan link

07/29/2010 5:43am

Easy Auto Service is a Branded auto service that is an initiative licensed by the Transport Department of Karnataka through the Regional Transport Authority. This initiative is supported by the Bangalore City Police. By establishing a call-center that co-ordinates the passenger and auto finding, at Easy Auto it is our vision and commitment to make your auto-commuting a pleasant experience.

At Easy Auto we feel that this is the beginning of a social change, because the revenue generated by this project goes back into supporting the livelihood of the drivers and their families. Easy Auto is run by Smart Commuting Services.

Our advertising arm is called as Smart Moving Media.

Advertisers, ride an Auto rickshaw with your customers

Smart Moving Media's LCD screen fitted behind the drivers seat displays both informative content and advertising. Advertising options range from static images to highly interactive marketing campaigns. Existing media assets can be easily adapted.

Smart Moving Media targets hard to reach, on-the-go professionals, tourists and entertainment seekers. Our highly engaging Interactive Out-of-Home advertising platform reaches these valuable market segments in places traditional media cannot. Our display panel consists of a high-impact, LCD screen mounted behind the driver seat at eye-level with passengers.

Because we deliver your message to a captive audience in a distraction-free environment, we have a recall rate and ROI that exceed other media. We direct consumers to your products and services, inform them of sales and events and fortify your brand image.

Our Value

How can you reach thousands of consumers daily in a distraction-free environment?
Smart Moving Media engages over 20,00,000 unique Auto rickshaw riders per month in Bangalore alone. (120,000 views per 100 screens). Our audience is comprised of affluent
professionals and business travelers by morning, tourists seeking local services by day and Pub / Club & event-goers by night. In near future, our scheduled content can be segmented by time of day so you can narrow-cast to your demographic exclusively.

How can advertisers command the attention of these affluent market segments in today’s congested media environment?
The answer is Interactive Out-of-Home Advertising. Unlike traditional media, which is over saturated with advertising, Smart Moving Media's screens play in a distraction-free environment where riders are highly receptive to new forms of entertainment and become particularly inquisitive about advertised offers while passing time.

How can return-on-investment be increased for marketing expenditures?
Smart Moving Media's network is wholly unique because it informs consumers’ buying decisions at the very moment they are traveling to make a purchase:
On their way to window shop… get them to stop by your store.
Tourists looking for city attractions…who better to show them?
On their way to a nightclub… passengers will change their destination when they see what’s happening at your venue.
Passengers looking for a good new restaurant… why not the one offering complimentary dessert all day?

Professionals
70% of our viewers are affluent professionals. With our platform, you can reach residents and travelers open to your message. According to the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of India, the average Bangalorean spends 53% of their weekly time outside of the home and avoids advertising delivered through traditional channels. Interactive Out-of-Home Media is uniquely effective in engaging these consumers.

Tourists
Each year, Bangalore welcomes over 3 Lakh visitors traveling with the intention and desire to spend money on local goods and services. 20% of our Auto Rich trips originate at the railway stations and bus stands and approximately one third of our riders are tourists (with more in peak season)

Entertainment-Seekers
62% of Auto rickshaw riders say they eat at a restaurant at least once a week. 77% are inquisitive and interested in discovering new services. On-the-go viewers are highly engaged because they use the information they read to help make buying decisions within minutes of seeing your ad. Over 90% of our ridership is between 19 and 55 years of age.

Screen Features
Smart Moving Media offers advertising space on 7 inch interactive touch screens inside Auto Rickshaws plying in BBMP areas. The following are some key features of our screens:

Intensely Engaging: Mounted at eye-level, the user interface has tremendous visual force. As a result, passenger interaction rates are greater than 95%

Weekly content: News, sports, entertainment, tips and more updated weekly.

GPS: Utilize the power of proximity marketing to play your ad in a particular part of the city

Measurable: We can provide custom campaign reports

Proven Technology: Advertisers have been profiting from our technology overseas since 2004

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