Corporates line up to salute Lalbaugcha Raja

Want a taste of advertising a la Ganesha? Just visit the Ganapati puja pandals in the city's Lalbaug area.

The roads are replete with hoardings of companies, whose products perhaps bear the remotest resemblance to the elephant-headed god "" from upmarket vintners to sanitaryware and cement companies, all are vying for a few lakh extra eyeballs during these 10 days.

You get to see these hoardings and banners popping up every 100 metre before you actually reach the pandals. Though ads in various forms have become an essential part of the festival, this year some players seem to be more enthusiastic. Chateau Indage, for example, has set up big hoardings in the Kalachowki area and has also invested up to Rs 3 lakh in sponsorship for different pandals.

"We have installed hoardings and banners of our new brand, Vino, at three places in the Lalbaug area alone""Lalbaug Ka Raja, Ganesh Galli and Kala Chowki," said Sanjay Tikare, sales manager, Chateau Indage, Mumbai.

"We chose Lalbaug as it has the highest visibility during these days, and we can have lakhs of people see our hoardings in a short time. We are promoting our new brand Vino, an inexpensive wine launched recently," Tikare said.

The English daily DNA is the largest advertiser during the Ganapati festival "" not only in these areas but also in the entire greater Mumbai "" as the time suits the newspaper most to promote itself after being launched only recently in the city, in June this year.

Declining to disclose total investment in the hoardings, Amiy Roy, head of marketing, DNA, said, "Traditionally, Lalbaug means Ganeshotsav.

It's also the place where we get really original pandals. Since DNA is a city newspaper, by being present at these places of worship, we are able to emphasise our connection with the city.

Besides, the pandals here being most popular attract maximum number of people to these areas, and we get more visibility." At Lalbaugcha Raja, sponsorship figures stand at Rs 3.5 lakh.

"This includes DNA and the Times of India (TOI)," secretary of the mandal said. "We have a sponsorship of Rs 2 lakh from DNA, Rs 23,000 from UltraTech and Rs 20,000 from Esselworld," said Sanjay Sawant, chairman of the Lalbaug Ganeshotsav Mandal at Ganesh Galli. This is in addition to the Rs 3 lakh from subscriptions and the leftover from last year's funds.

The other big player in the Ganeshotsav ad game is Red FM, whose hoardings compete with those of DNA and TOI.

However, the station head, Saugato Bannerjee, denies this. "We have not sponsored any pandal. It's a part of our campaign across the city that has been running for the last two months. Altogether, we have invested around Rs 1.5 crore," said Bannerjee. And what is the BMC's cut in all this? A measly Rs 315 for every 10ft by 3ft hoarding for a month, with a refundable deposit of Rs 55. This is the corporation's fixed rate, which is applicable throughout the year for all kinds of hoardings""political, corporate and religious.