Jagran Engage, the out-of-home (OOH) division of the Jagran Group, has tied up with the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corp. (UPSRTC) to advertise on two of its new low-floor Marco Polo buses in Lucknow.
Developments such as this signal that advertising on transit media is reaching the next level in India, entering the mini-metros and smaller towns.
UPSRTC recently launched some low-floor buses on a trial basis in Lucknow. If the buses prove successful, it will bring in more. The low-floor buses are larger and have a low floor without any steps for easier accessibility, particularly for the elderly and people in wheelchairs. They have separate doors for entry and exit, and some of them are also air-conditioned.
The buses have a total display area for advertisements of 700 sq. ft. The ads will be in the form of self-adhesive vinyl and one-way vision vinyl (for the windows) on the exteriors. Only one brand at a time will advertise on a bus. The advertising costs for a month will be around Rs 1 lakh.
Jagran Engage has bought the media rights to two UPSRTC buses for six months and will pay a licence fee for this duration. The first advertiser is Tata Indicom, which has engaged the buses for six months. In fact, the buses were manufactured by none other than Tata Motors!
Tanmay Tiwari, general manager, Jagran Engage, commented, “The fully branded low-floor buses are catching the eye of the commuters in Lucknow. Bus advertising is used regularly by brands in Delhi and Mumbai. Now, we are looking at markets in small cities, where transit media is picking up in a big way. We have been associated with the UPSRTC for three years now and this tie-up will strengthen our bond further.”
Advertisers in Lucknow will be heartened by this development. Until recently, local buses offered minimal branding, largely rear-end displays with low quality material and printing.