Bus Branding in India

Bring on the Bus Branding for higher brand awareness!

Bus Branding has evolved over the years. Earlier messages of public interests and government schemes would only be advertised on buses or at the bus shelters. But with private companies providing bus services for local and inter-state travel, outdoor advertising scenarios have also changed. Now, we can see advertisements of various brands and services on the buses and bus-shelters. Weighing the impact of transit advertising, advertisers make bus branding an important part of their outdoor advertising campaigns.

What is bus branding?

Bus branding is a part of outdoor or out-of-home (OOH advertising). Bus branding can be explained as using public or private buses for advertising any brand or service. Bus branding is done via posters on buses, bus wraps, and back panel ads, ads on bus seats and ads on LED screens installed inside the buses. Luxury bus services like VOLVO Buses can also use their staff uniforms, demonstrations and sampling as a part of bus branding.

Why bus branding?

Be it private or public bus service, buses have been the most popular means of transportation in India. The affordable ticket rates and operations in almost every locality of different cities make them the most preferred mode of transportation across the country.

• Reach: The first definite reason for bus branding is its reach. Buses roam around at majority of locations across Indian cities as well as states. Therefore, anything advertised on the buses reaches to wide variety of target audience.
• Diverse audience: As buses are used by both economical and business class people, one can target wide variety of audience at once. For instance if your brand is a luxury brand, you can advertise in Volvo and other private buses and if your brand is a more of a value brand like that of a water purifier or a hair care brand then you must opt for local bus branding.
• High Exposure: Owing to traffic jams, traffic signals and dwell time at bus shelters, the consumer is exposed to an advertised brand for longer period unlike other mediums that play ads for limited time only. This high exposure leads to saturation and the consumer mind is automatically driven to the advertised brand when making the purchase.
• Cost-effective: Unlike Cab Branding in India, As the brand is on the move covering different locations, also outside city limits, diverse audience and different times for long duration, bus branding proves to be a very cost-effective outdoor advertising medium.
• Eye-catching: Be it bus ads or ads at the bus shelters, the ads displayed here are usually large, attractive and colourful that attract more eye-balls than usual hoardings and billboards that are placed at above eye-level.

Bus branding can have a very powerful impact on the sales, brand awareness and brand recall of any product or service, if executed properly. Bus branding is appropriate for a brand that wishes to reach the masses. Bus branding is also a covert style of advertising where the ads do not interrupt the routine of the consumer rather fir in the routine.