The buses of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) of Chennai will soon be a thriving advertising front and sport a new look.
Encouraged by the tremendous response to advertisements in air conditioned buses, MTC has decided to aggressively market the space inside and outside of all of its 3,300 buses to increase revenue.
MTC has given a three-year contract leasing out panels behind seats, glass panes above windows, rear glass panes and the top portion of handles hanging from the roof, to 10 private advertising agencies to procure and display ads.
The will pay a royalty on the basis of the number of buses advertised in. They have been given 45 days to market and gather advertisements. Until now, MTC allowed advertisements only on the inside of glass panes above the windows and space available below the glass panes on the rear side of the bus.
A senior MTC official said, “As there has been no hike in the fare for over seven years, we feel this is the ideal way to increase revenue. Already we are getting an excellent response from advertisers who have been evincing interest in displaying advertisements in our 30 air-conditioned buses. As of now, our total daily ticket collection is Rs 1.65 crore to Rs 1.7 crore and we have estimated that our revenue from advertisements will be about Rs 20 crore this financial year.”
Bus advertising was not such a popular medium until three years ago. Back then, MTC’s revenue through advertising was only Rs 3.5 crore. However, now the transport corporation expects more advertisers to choose its buses as modes of advertising, particularly in view of the ban on hoardings in the city.