The Publicists Assistant

Consumer Insights on-the-go…

October 25th, 2009 | Author: Assistant

The other day when I was travelling in metro, a thought crossed my mind, a thought to call it a ‘consumer trap market’, but a market which in every way truly is a marketers’ delight. Thousands of commuters travel at different point of time in a day, and relish the comfortable experience of their journey. Metro act as an effective medium for brands to get maximum exposure, due to the capacity to reach different segments( age, class, profession) of target audience at one point of time. Number of eyeballs that rolls in the limited area of the train also makes it an effective medium. Above all, commuters have no chance to run away from the targeted print ads which is in front of them for the entire part of their journey … at some point of time in their journey they are likely to give atleast a glance to those ads.. that’s why a ‘trap market’

You can see advertisements all around you, just above every seat or around the support strap handle

source – Flickr.com

But how effective is just a glance, not sure about the recall factor of those ads as well. I think as far as the regular commuters are concerned, the ads around them tend to get unnoticed and slip out of their mind too. I just thought to observe commuters, their eyeballs giving attention to the ads and so on. And as I had thought so, not many commuters bother to spend more than a couple seconds on those panel/display ads. I am not sure about the ROI being generated from just a glance (by very few commuters); it might be good as well. But, what I am sure is of room for the creativity in the mediums adopted by marketer to catch maximum attention of commuters

Some of my observation turned strategy could be… (Viability still a question mark)

Use of digital signage/ LCD dispalys, a combination of advertisement and entertainment.
Station announcements inside the train can be followed by another announcement related to a brand/service like a new food outlet opening near that station.
Motivate commuters to give attention to the display ads inside the train. Like by playing a game or contest. sms on xxxx about the total number of ads covering banks or which bank’s ad talks about giving a personal loan at x%…. The idea is to involve commuters and motivate them to not only give glance to those ads but also read it through….’Can we call it Add on Ad’ concept
How about a brand representative on the train, to inform or educate about the services… the example that comes to my mind is of Citibank + metro travel card. I really liked that TVC that used to come during IPL matches, “jhoom jhoom” Wonderful ad, followed by billboards on station and also help centres on a few stations. I really wanted to know more about it, the benefits that the card is offering, how different it is and other queries, but never get time as I am always in a running mode to catch the train. Why not a representative from Citibank gets on the metro and travel at a schedule point of time, with their target audience to give a meaningful exposure to the card. Only selected brands or any educational campaign can be allowed to run inside the train with prior approval from the DMRC

Considering the amount of free time commuters have while travelling, makes me wonder other new initiatives that can be introduced for a mutual beneficial involvement between commuters and companies. Brands can get meaningful exposure with confirmed ROI and commuters get entertainment in return

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