Breaking through the barrier of ‘media darkness’ in Rural Maharashtra

Maharashtra, with a total population of 90 million, is one of the most populous states in this country, Out of this 90 million; a whopping 55 million people reside in rural and semi rural areas. Understandably, this presents unique and limitless opportunities for brands trying to make their presence felt in the semi rural and rural areas. Traditional media like print and TV reach out only to 45% and 40% of the entire population respectively. This means, that 46% of the population can be considered as ‘media dark’ or not being approached by any media. rnWith the traditional media reach being so limited, it’s a real challenge for advertisers to connect with their audiences and get their brand’s message across. It becomes important to find a solution that will not only reach the right people, but will also ensure their captive attention thus ensuring a high recall. Vritti i-Media’s Digitalworld+ solution is a digital technology enabled outdoor advertising solution that ensures corporates can effectively plan low-cost, high impact campaigns that reach out to the audience that are semi literate as well thus breaking the barrier of media darkness. rnVritti’s Digitalworld+ audio network relays audio announcements at MSRTC bus stands across Maharashtra at over 80 locations, every 20 minutes. The USP of this solution is that the advertisements are combined with announcements about the bus arrival and departure schedules, thus ensuring the captive attention of the audience. This medium is well established for over 4 years and leading brands like Lux, Wheel, Kirti Gold and Bajaj auto have been using the solution for their rural marketing campaigns. Lokmat, one of the leading dailies of Maharashtra has been using the Digitalworld+ audio network to promote sales of the newspaper by making use of the setup to announce daily headlines to passengers travelling by ST’s across Maharashtra. This medium is also effectively used to warn passengers against pickpocketers and other minor travelling hazards along with information on serious epidemics like swine flu. rnAs the announcements are in the local language, the impact level is high and helps brands reach out to the heart of the rural population, most of whom are illiterate. Unlike other OOH media, these ads can be changed dynamically and run at different times across different locations. Repeated renditions of the ads with a gap of 20 minutes ensures a greater recall (as the average time spent at a bus stand by passengers is half and hour- forty minutes) and helps form a brand image.rnWe can thus conclude that Vritti’s solution has a definite advantage over all other forms of outdoor advertising and it can be safely said that here is one technology that has helped brands break the barriers of media darkness and reach their message effectively to a population that just cannot be ignored by corporate anymore.