The bus stop commercial break

It is not one of those usual announcements at the state transport bus stand in Latur, Maharashtra. This one comes with freebies attached. Buy a pack of Marie biscuits and get tea free, says a commercial that comes between the usual bus arrival and departure announcements. An offer from the Mumbai-based biscuit maker and confectioner Parle Products, it leaves the hundreds of travellers and the tea seller at the bus stand smiling.

The Parle brand has a strong association with categories such as Glucose biscuits, as the company’s brand Parle G is a dominant player in that segment. So, to drive home the association of Parle with the Marie category, the company looked at interesting consumption opportunities. As Marie biscuits are often paired with tea, there was an outdoor advertising opportunity where Parle could get its message out loud and clear.

The company engaged the services of Pune-based Vritti Solutions that has held the rights for advertising through announcements in state transport bus stands in Maharashtra since 2007. Within a week of the ‘biscuits for tea’ campaign, more than 40,000 consumers had bought a pack of Parle Marie at the bus stands where this promotion was taking place. “This medium is a novel approach for reaching out to consumers. We advertise all our mass market brands through the bus stands,” says Shalin Desai, deputy marketing manager, Parle Products.

Rajesh Radhakrishnan, director - marketing, Vritti Solutions, says the Parle Marie campaign is an example of how advertising at public places can engage with its audience. “When you use a medium like public announcement systems, you are guaranteed 100 per cent listening. But if the message is relevant to your audience, you stand to get much better results,” he says.

Vritti, an IT solutions company, toyed with the idea of making public address (PA) systems for state transport corporations in 2007. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) was looking to put up computerised announcement systems in its depots across the state. But sponsors were hard to come by. So Vritti proposed to build a computerised PA system in exchange for which it gets advertising rights between announcements at the bus stand.

Today, the idea that started off as a trial in 19 state transport bus stands across Maharashtra has spread to 284 locations across four states — Karnataka, Punjab and Goa, besides Maharashtra.

Soon the company will be replicating its model in Rajasthan, with Uttar Pradesh and the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to follow.

Company officials point out that the commercial messages that are announced between bus arrivals and departures have the potential to reach about 29 crore travellers every month. Executives at Vritti say the medium caught the imagination of large national brands as regional brands started getting a lot of mileage through this route. Radhakrishnan points to the case of Latur-based Kirti Gold edible oils. It was among the earliest clients of Vritti in 2007 and the company has now expanded its operations to parts of Karnataka and Goa and continues to advertise in this medium. Another example is the Jalna-based tea brand, Vikram.

It’s partly the cost-effective rates that makes it attractive for local retailers to opt for advertising through bus stand announcements.

A 10-second audio announcement will cost you ₹20 at Vritti whereas a similar slot in an FM radio channel in Maharashtra would cost you eight times more.

Radhakrishnan says the next stage of evolution for the medium is to use the state transport bus stand as a hub for promotions. For example, in the case of a recent bike launch, Honda used the bus stand as a place to showcase the bike and for prospective customers to take test rides. The local dealers got involved and Radhakrishnan claims the effort managed about 80,000 enquiries and 600-800 bookings.

There have also been useful takeaways for Vritti over the years, says Radhakrishnan. The company has found out that while ads engage with the audience, companies seeking a response to their ads must keep in mind that those travelling by state transport buses prefer giving missed calls rather than sending SMS while engaging with the ads.

The mix of clients advertising through this medium now includes public sector banks advertising tractor and agricultural loans and farm equipment manufacturers.

With Vritti getting more than 30 per cent of its business through recommendations made by media agencies, more clients are waiting to board the bus.

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