Vehicles Present a New Paradigm in OOH Advertising

May 24th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (1 Comments)

Commercial vehicles that have pan-India permits are a great mode of marketing and branding. Due to their innate advantage of traversing diverse geographies, this mobile OOH medium spreads awareness about goods and services in regions that are inaccessible by most advertising channels. In this way, a vehicle which was used for the single, plain-vanilla purpose of logistics can be used to make a brand statement. An instance we have seen for years are trucks carrying soft drinks that always feature cola advertisements. Every time this truck travels to some distant part ofIndiaand moves deeper into villages, it serves a two-pronged purpose. Consumer-facing companies, in particular, can optimise their logistical expenditure by enabling their vehicles to advertise their offerings.

For years, Maruti Suzuki has been the undisputed king of Indian roads. In recent years, however, the company has become increasingly competitive to fortify itself against increasing global onslaught. To retain its premier place, the company has resorted to wooing rural India. Recently, at a town 370 kms northwest of Delhi called Amritsar Kalan, the company’s converted truck, accessorised with an LCD TV, split ACs and push-back chairs, attracted a throng all interested to watch the company’s beguiling ad-film. With a simple story and identifiable characters such as a villager who is convinced to purchase a WagonR due to its many virtues, the ad-film is an effective means to tap the functional and emotional aspirations of this class of clientele.

With this on-wheel initiative Maruti Suzuki was looking to tap farmers of Nagpur’s oranges, Tamil Nadu’s turmeric, West Bengal’s potatoes and Himachal Pradesh’s apples and fruits, in addition to Hyderabad’s granite polishers, Jaipur’s blue pottery makers and Bihar’s Madhubani painters. In this way, several measures by the company to reach rural India has helped the company increase rural share in sales from 3.5% five years ago to 26% in FY 2012.

Similarly, SBI’s ‘Bank on Wheels’ is a concept launched in a number of states including Kashmir and Karnataka, with a fleet of more than 100 vehicles. The idea behind this is to penetrate remote areas where financial inclusion is deemed to be most difficult. The bandwagon visits 4-5 villages twice a week and its employees ease the account opening process for villagers in a bid to sign up as many customers as possible. In due course, it has been realised that financial inclusion, among the most pressing concerns of our economy, can greatly benefit from such concepts.

In the area of advertising, the concept of car wrapping has gained popularity.Eye-catching wrappings for cars, vans and trucks make an attractive and incredibly cost-effective form of advertising. In metros, several prepaid cab companies display ads on their backs or sides. Innovators, the likes of CashUrDrive, revolutionised the vinyl vehicle advertising space. On its inception in August 2008 the company employed this medium in an innovative way by using private cars to promote its client Bonn Bread in Shimla,North India’s hill-station town.

Due to its terrain, Shimla isn’t the ideal destination for OOH, and there aren’t many cabs for on-vehicle advertisement either. Thus, CashUrDrive came up with the idea of engaging private car owners through their innovative campaign. It invited private car owners to offer their cars for promotion by partially or fully wrapping them with advertisements, in exchange of a reward. The reward included prepaid fuel cards to be used at HPCL and BPCL pumps. To ensure full realisation of this medium for advertisers, only cars driven 80 kms a day could register, while random checks were conducted to ensure that the wrappings remain pasted. Heavy weights like Tata, Reliance and the Virgin group had already advertised on this medium which is seeing several newer players such as Adometer and Ads on Wheels. With these efforts vehicle advertising is set to gain momentum as a dynamic new form of OOH, set to grow exponentially inIndia’s expanding consumer market.

 

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Telecom giants’ unique advertising ideas impress rural markets

April 13th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Client campaigns - (1 Comments)

India’s ever-growing telecom market is currently pegged at 770 million subscribers as per the latest data from TRAI. Yet, much more opportunity prevails in rural areas today, as opposed to big cities that are nearly totally saturated. With rural India being highly media-dark for mainstream advertising promotions, the telecom industry has always scouted for innovative media platforms that can quickly and effectively communicate the uniqueness of new products and services to the rural youth and working-class segments.

To this end, Airtel tied up with Rediffusion Y&R to extend the philosophy ‘Atoot bandhan. Atoot Network’ in 2009. The ad campaign which starred actor Shreyas Talpade depicted him as a nervous MLA entering the Parliament for the first time. Carrying the collective hopes of his village, he assures his father that he would never forget his roots. In the true flavour of rural advertising, the campaign hoped to establish an emotional connect with the native population. Similarly, in 2010, Vodafone created a product ‘Ultra-Pocket Sized Tariff at just Rs. 4’ with the rural audience in mind and coupled it with a memorable advertisement featuring an animated talking parrot. By arguing that nothing can be purchased for Rs 4 in today’s day and age, the argumentative parrot drives the point home; another witty attempt by the telco brand that gave the advertising industry ‘Zoozoo’ and the ‘Hutch dog.’

On the other hand, Idea Cellular’s approach to reach rural India included wall paintings and on-vehicle advertising. In addition, the company also attempted to gain some brand exposure through ‘haats’ and ‘melas’ in the past. The company’s focus on this population is reflected in the recent introduction of its pan-India interactive voice response-based value added service (VAS) in association with Handygo, a provider of software and system-enabling VAS called ‘Behtar Zindagi.’ This service provides everyday information to rural India in areas like health, education, finance, weather updates, mandi rates, livestock, agriculture and fisheries.

Yet, although every telco chooses a different approach to communicate with rural India, they have something in common. Idea Cellular, along with Maxx Mobile, Tata Indicom, Lemon Mobile and several other telecom brands have started using Vritti i-Media’s DW+, a technology-enabled media solution, to market their latest products and services to an audience that represents the most important markets for telcos in the imminent years. Maxx Mobile has engaged itself in a 6-month campaign that used Vritti i-media’s audio advertisement across more than 65 ST bus-stands inMaharashtra. This has helped the teleco penetrate and establish its brand in small towns and rural markets in a big way.

Vritti i-Media’s DW+ is a cutting-edge technology used in Vritti i-Media’s audio and audio-visual network. The DW+ system runs on a software platform that was developed in-house and is fully controlled from Vritti’s control room at Pune. Due to the use of sophisticated technology in this innovative advertising solution, there is complete transparency and flexibility in its use. Therefore, there is full assurance that the advertisement will be done at the promised rate, which is a rare case when it comes to rural advertising. By digitalising the entire process, the content can be changed at the drop of a hat and go on-line within 30 minutes. Due to the mandatory listening format, this medium ensures that brand communication penetrates the depths of the market. It enables brands to break through existing media clutter and connect effectively with local audience, which is generally oblivious to media such as newspapers, TV or hoardings, due to unreliable power supply or illiteracy.

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Vritti I-Media Enables KBC to Entice Aam Aadmi

April 10th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Client campaigns - (0 Comments)

Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), the Indian counterpart of the UK-origin game show, ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ has captured the fancy of the nation since 2000. Every season that has followed was viewed with rapt interest. In fact, foreseeing high viewership for the fifth season of the series that unfolded last year, advertisers are reported to have invested Rs 3.5 lakh for every 10-second ad slot. Sony Television expected a 70% increase in the show’s ad revenue that season over the previous year.

It is obvious that high viewership was expected to justify such ad spends. But achieving a viewership size that could substantiate this hype was impossible without roping in viewers in India’s far-flung corners. With a view to penetrate populations in Tier 2 and 3 cities as well as regions that are cut off from mainstream media, Sony Television has joined hands with Vritti i-Media to promote KBC Season 5. This initiative was in line with the newly adopted credo of the show, which declared that ‘Koi insaan chota nahi hota.’

In turn, the initiative looked at exponentially increasing the viewership base of the show by attracting people residing inIndia’s semi-urban and rural regions. Through Vritti i-Media’s award-winning audio advertising network, a promotional effort took shape in the form of the eponymous KBC jingle coupled with a reminder for people to catch the show. The jingle was played at regular intervals at MSRTC’s district-level ST bus-stations inMaharashtra.

This medium enabled KBC to reap clear benefits. Since ST buses are the primary mode of transport for non-metro folk, each bus-stand is frequented by around 40,000 people a day or 2-3 times a week. A commuter is expected to spend about 20-25 minutes at an average in his wait for a bus; at this point, he is eager and receptive to audio announcements. So, playing the KBC advertisements along with the bus arrival and departure announcements on regular basis on Vritti i-Media’s audio network made perfect sense.

As a result of combining Amitabh Bachchan’s booming voice with a memorable jingle and a compulsory listening format, the audio announcement was adjudged the most popular and highest recalled ad in ruralMaharashtra. These were the findings of a survey by Vritti i-Media, which is the only agency authorised by MSRTC to run audio advertisement at more than 80 bus depots across Maharashtra. This medium is estimated to reach an excess of 10.3 crore people a month in the state.

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The beginning of Out of Home Marketing

April 5th, 2012 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in Media Coverage - (0 Comments)

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Tips on Frugal OOH advertising in small towns of India

April 5th, 2012 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in Media Coverage - (2 Comments)

For non-metro parts of India, billboards hold immense potential. Since such regions do not have very high rates of literacy, print may not be the most relevant medium for advertising here. Irregular power supply does not allow TV commercials to be very effective either. In such a scenario, OOH can effectively grab eyeballs 24×7 and fill the coverage gaps left by other media. With limited media exposure in non-metro areas, this medium can thus be amplified, creating greater awareness among consumers there…Read More

Article by Mr. Veerendra Jamdade, CEO, Vritti i-Media

Published in Marketing91, A Marketing Resource blog

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Sonic Branding is the New Advertising Paradigm

March 29th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (2 Comments)
Sonic branding_Vritti i-media

Everyone has a favourite jingle. Perhaps we would all hum ‘Hum mein hai Hero,’ or ‘Har ek friend zaroori hota hai,’ if asked to break into our favourite new jingles. As opposed to signature brand tunes like Airtel or Intel, jingles have the ability to establish instant connect with the masses. Their beauty is that they can effectively go beyond audio advertising by permeating into the audience’s life.

 In India, jingles are immensely internalised. Children grow up listening to these commercials on radio or watching them on TV, and crooning the tunes in unison with their families and friends. ‘Hamara Bajaj,’ ‘Nirma,’ and ‘Lijjat Papad,’ still have the ability to take us to another time and invoke nostalgia. Similarly, brand songs like Hutch’s ‘You and I,’ Close-Up’s ‘Paas Aao,’ and Lux’s ‘Sone se bhi sohna,’ are gaining increasing momentum due to advertisers leveraging the success of jingles to influence brand recall among consumers.

Recognising the critical need for sonic branding, as the mode is increasingly being called, Vritti i-Media is taking jingles into those sections of society that remained untouched by mainstream media until now. For instance, when HUL required Lux’s Sandal and Cream bathing bar to have superior recall among similar soaps in its category, Vritti was brought on-board to run a 30-day campaign at 85 ST bus-stands in Tier 2 and 3 towns in Maharashtra. A survey conducted to test the effectiveness of the campaign found that women were able to connect better with the brand and preferred it to other soaps.

Also, when the Central Vigilance Commission wanted to promote ‘Vigilance Awareness Week’ as ‘Participative Vigilance,’ anti-corruption jingles like ‘Bhrashtachar tala, desh majboot kara’ and ‘Kayadeshir vyavahar, door thevi bhrashtachar’ were broadcasted in the local language at ST bus-stations, along with contact details of the local Anti-corruption Bureau office. Similarly, Sony Television roped in the company to advertise Kaun Banega Crorepati’s fifth edition, while edible oil company Kirti Gold’s jingles could be heard at more than 80 bus-stations resulting in considerable recall for the brands.

Combining messaging at a local-level with a highly effective medium, created a powerful concoction for successful audio campaigns. Since ST buses are the primary mode of transportation in non-metro areas, each bus stand is frequented by at least 40,000 people a day or 2-3 times a week. In the waiting time of 20-25 minutes at bus-stands, they have an ear out for bus announcements. At such a juncture, they are sure to absorb sonic branding through such jingles. Yet, for advertisers the focus must be on creating memorable brands and not jingles. If jingles are created as a result of this prioritisation, they can become power tools that enable consumers to recall brands even with their eyes shut.

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A Drive to the Expressway: Mercedes Formulates a Successful Advertising Campaign

March 19th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Client campaigns - (0 Comments)

Considered the pinnacle of automobile luxury since its launch in the Indian market in 1995, Mercedes–Benz is among the few car-makers to have a varied and extensive range of luxury cars in India. On Saturday, March 10th and Sunday March 11th, 2012, commuters travelling between Pune and Mumbai by road were pleasantly surprised on being greeted with communication by none other than the car company that has captured the imagination of India’s aspiring masses for decades.

It was to attract the high-end segment of a prospective clientele that the eponymous brand decided to campaign at the famous Food Hubs on the Pune–Mumbai Expressway. It is a known fact that food hubs adjoining the area attract maximum high-end traffic on weekends, given that Pune and Mumbai are both important industrial centres seeing a shuffle of workforce. People stopping at these food hubs were greeted by teams from Mercedes. Received with warm smiles and special gift hampers, a whopping 310 commuters that stopped by were also given the opportunity to touch and feel Mercedes cars and even take them for a spin.

This innovative and impacting consumer interaction for Mercedes–Benz India was a brain-child of Vritti i-Media, a major media owning group based in Maharashtra with the sole rights for 360 degree-branding on Expressway & Highway Food malls & prominent stopovers. For Vritti i-Media, the rationale behind this campaign was to emphasise first-hand user-experience. The target groups that advertisers are keen to attract are largely on the move for business and study and so the implication of this campaign hits the nail on the head.

With its 360 degree branding solutions along with its proprietary Audio – Visual Network for out-of-home marketing, Vritti i-Media has effectively reached out to appropriate target audience at transit hubs like highway malls, bus stations or airports in the past. Companies like Bunty Group, State Bank of India, Mango Holidays, Manish Potdar and Pride Purple have already tasted success with Vritti i-Media. Efforts to engage the audience include huge plasma displays, hoardings, information boards, product displays, promotional schemes and interviews. In addition to this, audio communication is also intertwined with bus departure announcement that the audience is eager to hear.

To sum up, by choosing to grab those idle moments when commuters take a break from their arduous journeys, Mercedes–Benz India has experienced victory on the go—quite perfect for the brand which is always driving forward if you think about it.

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Novel Means of Advertising Bolsters BFSI Sector

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (3 Comments)

With a view to encourage financial inclusion and to pursue financial security of the masses with insurance schemes, numerous BFSI players whether private or public, are leaving no stone unturned to attract rural customers.

To this end, the BFSI sector is said to have some of the largest ad spends among all sectors in niche areas like online display ads and text message advertising. With an expanding internet user-base and penetration of mobile phones, there is increased emphasis on modes like internet and mobile advertising.

The fundamental factors fueling the popularity of online advertising among BFSI players are the rise of social media and a boom in e-commerce and online retail. Some attractive and novel viral ads of IDBI Fortis are among those that made the best use of this opportunity. Statistics from Google India expect the size of Indian internet advertising to reach $1 billion by 2014, to give considerable competition to print media.

However, a new trend suggests that with increased penetration of internet in India, Indian users are now expecting more vernacular and pertinent communication. A survey, Ozone Media Performance Users Study, conducted by Ozone Media last year discovered that internet advertising in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam create greater impact than those in English. Vernacular ads received 30% better response than English.

Thus, it is clear that conveying a message in the customer’s tongue or by considering their cultural/regional nuances, advertising can build an effective bond, leading to a conversion. With a view to put this idea to good use, State Bank of India (SBI) undertook a ‘Home Loan Take Over Campaign in Rest of Maharashtra’ by signing on Vritti i-Media.

Through an audio campaign at 20 district-level ST bus-stands that lasted 20 days and with a single newspaper advertisement, they were able to generate enquiries worth Rs 550 crore. In response, SBI decided to extend its partnership with Vritti i-Media to 80 locations and by a year. By means of messaging that conveyed how loans can be availed and repaid on time, SBI was able to address its problem of non-performing assets arising from non-payments.

Similarly, the company’s digital signage-based outdoor advertising at restaurants and food malls on highways was able to create considerable recall and appreciation for SBI’s car and home loan ads. Being easy to grasp and catchy, it was remembered by an estimated 62% of people present at the food malls.

Though the BFSI market size is huge in India, the actual customer base is low. Thus, efforts to encourage savings among rural people that earn seasonal incomes are paramount. To reach an audience that is barely literate, lives in relative media darkness and has several apprehensions with respect to banking and finance, conveying a simple message in their native tongue is an apt way to build a connect. By employing below-the-line ad activities such as those discussed above, BFSI can create tremendous impact.

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Turning a Rural Ad-Pitch into a Golden Ticket to the Hinterlands

February 29th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (0 Comments)

Real estate in Haibatpur, a quiet village located 28.4 kms from Noida, ran into some trouble last year. The Allahabad High Court was moved over the issue of state-acquired land for affordable housing here. It is believed to be unlikely that there will be a stay on the affordable housing properties in the area but prospective buyers are unconvinced.

To allay their fears, local real estate dealers like Sang Real Estate Solutions have hired villagers as their mouth-pieces. They inform inquirers that they have received 100% compensation from the state government. They claim that even in case of a stay, a small amount of additional payment would be paid by the government. The land is already futile having been touched by cement. For the locals, the only tool for sustenance or development is selling this real estate. Under these circumstances, they are in a better position than suave city salesmen to make a sale.

This is not an isolated move. To improve the visibility of its FMCG products in the hinterlands, Godrej has undertaken hands-on interaction with village-folk. Below-the-line activity is their credo, and for this, they have resolved to stay ahead with participations at village fairs and in-store demonstrations.

In another instance, to promote their hair colour products, the company has roped in about 50,000 barbers in nine states in a co-branding exercise. They have allowed them to add the title ‘Expert’ to their salons; ensured that their fixtures prominently bear the company logo and provided them with grooming kits such as dye bowls, mixing brushes, as well as talcum powder and shaving cream. Since most people seek their barbers’ advice for personal grooming, Godrej has effectively influenced the influencer with these measures.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that a salesman by the name of Sandeep Sharma travels to several villages promoting a range of wares and products. He works for Linterland Rural Communication, part of Lowe Worldwide. At Benipur village, he sets up a stage, speakers and posters, and puts on a skit to gather a crowd. On this rural platform, he promotes Castrol, Lifebuoy, Close-Up and Nokia to rural folk that are untouched by mainstream media.

In India’s villages where electricity remains a privilege, it is a challenge for advertising to reach rural masses, communicate with them in their dialect and share information that is relevant to them. To fill this gap, salesmanship—an idea that had been shelved by marketing professionals in cities for so many years, has reappeared.

Today, several companies are resorting to methods of rural advertising such as Vritti i-Media’s audio announcements at MSRTC bus stands. Similarly, announcements made over PA systems at travel hubs and food malls, promotions through melas as well as on digital OOH are considered impactful because they can interact with the public. Since the advertiser takes on the responsibility to maintain the media, its effectiveness is better guaranteed than print, radio and television. With more and more corporate marketing strategies involving such innovative methods, the expansion of rural advertising is on the cards.

 

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Innovative Technologies: Need of the hour in non-metro advertising space

February 17th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (1 Comments)
Solar Powered Billboard

Decades after liberalisation, rural India continues to face a debilitating challenge of deficient electrification. India is estimated to be the most power-deprived country in the world with about 400 million Indians living in darkness every night. With a national policy which is fast changing to adopt a holistic green energy programme, quick progress is hoped to light up the nation with public and private initiatives. In the meanwhile, as India continues to suffer from power paucity; media devices like computers, phones and TVs may remain unreliable for reaching non-metro folks. But there is no need to worry; a solution lies right around the corner.

With plans of more villages embracing solar power and moving off-grid, there is anxiety over the future trends of mass communication in rural society. In order to reduce and even eliminate dependence on grid and fossil sources of power, the onus is on advertisers in India to think of innovative means to achieve zero foot-print. The traditional medium of billboards/out-of-home (OOH) can present some succour to advertisers. Since OOH has no power needs in the day time, it is a low-carbon footprint media to a large extent. Yet, much may be done to implement frugal engineering practices in OOH. Just as these methods are enabling waves of development at a local-scale by stripping down input costs to create adequate energy for several thousand villages, they have implications for advertising in small towns as well.

For evening lighting, billboards and OOH media companies need to move away from outdated means of lighting like diesel generators. With high cost of diesel and labour (required to manage the machinery), it has become an expensive option in comparison to other cost-effective means like solar and biogas. Villages in Bihar are already utilising abundant farm waste, like rice husk, to generate electricity; enough to light homes and civic spaces. Not to mention, diesel is also responsible for the creation of fumes and noise, thus causing pollution. Environmental departments in states like West Bengal are already mandating a conversion of diesel-run billboard lighting. Such impetus from the policy side is aimed at encouraging advertisers to reduce their dependence on grids and replicate these set ups in all rural locations of advertising interest.

However, conventional OOH medium is increasingly losing its charm due to the observation that its impact is immeasurable and that controlling content on it is a hassling and tedious process. To beat such limitations, OOH has evolved and as a result, new routes of dynamic audio-visual media have emerged.

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