Will India follow Western World’s footsteps in Transit Media Movement

While, Branding on heavy goods vehicles has become a common thing in the west (big names such as Pepsi, Nestle are investing in it), brands in India are still in their initial days of Mobile Media Marketing, largely due to the unrealized potential of this segment. Even today, most of the big players are putting in money on TV ads & online promos. However, consumers often tend to change the channels on TV to escape the ads & Ad blockers do the rest online. Hence, with the digital media becoming a hype, some wise brands have started investing in the OOH media especially on mobile media with traceable performance. This is largely since, digital media along with being discarded by the urban, has negligible penetration in the industrial, semi-urban & rural areas of India (where about 70% of the population resides).

Worldwide, transit media advertising has a fair share of the total outdoor marketing budget due to its numerous benefits. Transit Media, allows the companies to get the same results as stationary billboards, at tenths of their prices. As per reports from Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) every OOH format grew in 2016. OOH continues to grow alongside digital media, while most forms of traditional advertising struggle in today’s audience-fragmented environment, the organization notes. With companies like JCDecaux, Outfront Media, Clear Channel registering a revenue in billions, the extent of OOH advertising in the West is clearly visible. For national campaigns, the majority of the brands have started using Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCVs) in the transit media marketing segment. These HCVs go across numerous industrial corridors, villages & semi-urban cities showcasing the huge potential of a successful marketing campaign.

Tier-II, Tier-III, Semi-Urban and Rural population form the biggest consumer base for many enterprises. From FMCG to Consumer durables to construction equipment/materials, all these sectors find & will continue to see their customer base in these areas with great hidden possibilities for the coming years. Alongside, HCV billboards’ cost advantage is difficult to match as they offer humongous space at reasonable price. Since, these moving billboards offer the choice to people for consuming the content, general feeling towards truck advertisement is positive among most of the consumers. Considering the huge size available & being a relatively new field of advertising for both the media agencies & the consumers, creativity options are terrific which can help gather a lot of attention from the consumer’s end.

Media savvy advertisers as well as the enterprises know, a successful campaign can be achieved only through clear visibility & high frequency. Both these requirements are fulfilled by, the big, on the move billboards provided by the HCVs or trucks. Digital media via TV, websites, & apps is being slowly carried away by this new segment of Out of Home (OOH) Advertising. These moving billboards provide the advantage to brands in deciding the geographies where they see potential customers for their campaign. Also, the huge size of the advertisement helps attract thousands of eyeballs towards it.

Rolling Banners, an emerging OOH Marketing firm, is leading the efforts on enriching OOH industry with unconventional and value for money media options in the Transit media segment. Mobile billboards, HCV Billboards, Helium Balloons, Innovative BTL activities have already become our forte and the company is relentlessly working on growing its media portfolio with innovative media options. Rolling Banners has collaborated with GoEx.in for bringing the HCV billboards to marketers. Following is a snapshot of our latest activity.

The reasons behind any brand’s decision to go for a campaign through HCVs rather than traditional ‘static’ billboards are something of interest for any marketer. Brands believe that HCV marketing gives them the opportunity to campaign PAN India with 1/10th the cost of a billboard. Also, the reach of the idea presented increases as the mobile billboards are perceptible from a large distance range. The marketing campaign onHCVs proves to be tremendously beneficial for the companies whose products cater to the low and Middle income, price sensitive populations, thus increasing the scope of easy market capitalization in the heat of competition.