Taxi advertising: It’s an ad-cab world

Advertising options in out of home are growing, with taxi companies providing multiple ad spaces

The yellow taxis of New York have some tough competition in terms of advertising. Indian taxi companies, such as EasyCabs, Meru, Gold Cabs and Mega Cabs, are offering ad spaces galore to advertisers ready to invest in this mobile medium.

EasyCabs of Carzonrent India has recently started providing advertising space on its fleet of cars across the country. The company provides advertising spaces both inside and outside the car, depending on the client’s requirements. It has 50 cabs in Chandigarh, 550 in Delhi, 350 in Hyderabad and 400 in Bangalore. It will soon commence operations in Chennai and Mumbai as well.

An advertiser can put up his communication on the four doors and on translites at the top of the car, which glow at night. Inside the cabs, advertising can be carried on the headrests. In two-three months, it plans to introduce LCDs as well inside its cabs.

Permissions from the State Transport Authority and no objection certificates from the traffic police in each location have to be obtained to put up ad cabs.

Ashok Vashist, chief operating officer, EasyCabs, says, “If you look at the history of radio taxis globally, it shows that the business was not viable till advertising became part of the revenue model.” He adds that EasyCabs has recently extended its fleet extensively, and this is one reason why they have started offering advertising.

Their clients include Vodafone, Vishal Megamart, Emaar MGF and HPCL.

Vashist shares that the rate of advertising in one city for a minimum of four-five months will cost the advertiser around Rs 7,000-10,000. Lesser time frames will not be viable for the advertiser. “Other OOH media are static, while this is moving. It goes to airports and railway stations, ensuring high visibility,” he adds.

While EasyCabs has no fixed ratio of advertising from local and national advertisers, Vashist feels that numbers are critical. “An advertiser should take the entire fleet in a city for six months, rather than spread it thinly over 10-20 cars across the country.”

Another player, Meru Cabs, launched by V-Link Taxis on March 30, 2007, offered advertising right from the beginning. Meru offers the four doors and branding on the seat covers and back pockets. Meru’s clients include BPCL Speed, Radio City, Bharti Axa Life Insurance, Sahara Filmy, Reliance Consumer Finance and P&G’s Pantene. Meru claims to have been approached by a few international brands, too.

On the effectiveness and reach of taxi advertising, Neeraj Gupta, managing director, V-Link Taxis, says, “The more the number of cabs, the higher the visibility. According to World Advertising Research data for 2006, in London, cab advertisements produced around 50 impressions per mile. This comes to 7,500 impressions per cab per day. For the cabs in Mumbai, there are around 500 impressions per kilometre. That comes to one lakh impressions per day per cab and approximately 90 lakh impressions per quarter.”

Meru keeps a track of the total kilometres run by the vehicles on a daily basis, as well as the number of trips per day. This database is combined at the end of the month and shared with the client as an ad effectiveness report. This gives the client a complete idea of the exposure his ad must have received through the month.

Gupta adds, “Advertising on our cabs is like advertising on a mobile hoarding running across the city which gives good mass visibility.”

Other locations that see a lot of taxi advertising are London, New York, Singapore, Thailand and Dubai.