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Is BMTC missing an opportunity ?

|In: Bangalore|Last Updated: | 9 Comments
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There is a saying “Nothing in this world is constant except change”, on a similar lines there have been lot of changes in Bangalore; some good, some bad. However, one thing that has drastically changed is the “Public Transportation“. Remember the days when we only had blue colored BMTC buses but now with the introduction of Volvo buses, Public Transportation has gained momentum. Not to forget with the shift of the international airport to a so called remote place, the obvious choice of most of the Bangaloreans is the famous Vajra bus.

BMTC has done a great job by introducing Volvo buses for the right places and also setting the up the right frequency for the right routes e.g ITPL or Electronics City is a place which is filled with software companies and the frequency of Volvo buses is exceptionally great there !!!

Before writing this article, I interacted with a few people[who travel to ITPL] and most of them preferred BMTC over their own cars/bikes. Apart from the normal ways of generating revenue, there are many other areas where BMTC can look for more revenue:

Brand Promotion

Most of the times, there is FM being played on the radio in the bus but if BMTC manages to tie up with brands, radio can act as a great medium for marketing.It can be used to showcase offers in shopping malls, promote new brands, movies etc. Remember, there is Big Bazaar near ITPL; so this would be much useful in such cases !!!

Job Announcements

After the economy tumbled, many were laid off where some of them landed up in jobs out of no better choice. With Indian economy showing early signs of recovery, Volvo bus would make an excellent tool to showcase jobs again through radio or advertisements inside the bus. To make things better, these advertisements can be geo-targetted like buses from ITPL, Electronics City etc. would ONLY carry those ads.

OOH Advertising

Along with the convenience, the added advantage in Volvo is the additional standing space. The photograph shows the frontal view & there is definitely a big opportunity for Out Of Home advertising. There is space for 2 TVs [one in the frontal entry and other at the back entry]. With OOH growing at 20% annually , this is a big opportunity form BMTC to target the people travelling in the bus.

Photo Credit – Srinidhi Hande

To summarize, BMTC can replicate the Google Adsense model for the Volvo – RIGHT Ads Targeted for the RIGHT routes and obviously for the RIGHT customers !!!

Many of us would be travelling by BMTC buses, hence if you feel there is any other revenue generating opportunity BMTC is missing; please leave them in the comments section & it would be added to the article.

Comments (9)

  • Hey,
    @Indavao:
    Thanks for dropping by.

    -Himanshu Sheth.

  • Good tips-hope someone listens. Thanks for the credit.
    Keep writing

  • Hey,
    @Srinidhi:
    Thanks for the comment. I searched at many places for the BMTC bus pic and your blog had all the things I was looking out for 🙂

    Hope you keep reading my blog !!!

    -Himanshu Sheth.

  • Good idea .. I had already seen this in one of the Volvo buses(333P) last year. Some stored content(Tom Jerry Cartoon) with marque ads was played on the screens. But for a daily traveler watching the same content everyday will be boring. So getting eyeballs on the screen regularly can't be guaranteed in long term. May be they can change the content regularly or somehow they manage to stream live content like news, sports etc.

    Btw in Mumbai OOH Media – BEST TV screens have been installed in many buses
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombaylives/2397273671/
    http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=295781

    Performance based ads like Google Adsense is also good idea .. similar to pageviews in websites .. BMTC can charge for ads based number of passengers per km in a trip. The company may not pay very high amount for displaying ads in a bus which is running with very less passengers.

  • Hey,
    @Shande:
    Sorry for my delayed reply to the comment. It is glad that it has already been implemented in Mumbai.

    I do buy your opinion that watching the same things would become boring but that is what TV is all about. Also,passengers would always be different so still even if you may feel boring at least once you may grab some attention and expect some output. Would update my article with the links which you have provided in the comment

    Thanks for visiting ThoughtsPrevail and hope to see you again.

    -Himanshu Sheth.

  • When I used to travel on the Electronic city route, OOH Adverts were already being aired. Most of it was repetitive as the businesses are yet to realize the potential. As you rightly said, BMTC ought to market themselves well to earn Advertising money.

  • Hey,
    @Puneeth:
    It is good to know that BMTS has started using OOH (or should I say that I had not observed BMTC using it :))

    If you have some pics, than do share it with us.

    -Himanshu Sheth.

  • I chanced upon to view your blog and found it very interesting. Great … Keep it up!

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