Open space

ADVERTISING: Keen to put your messages on Delhi's bus shelters?

Among the many pieces of advice George Michael's music videos contain for ad professionals, "go outside" is the hardest to implement. Especially in Delhi, which treats outdoor advertising like something the cat brought in.

Luckily for advertisers, there's a non-open-air option now that gets classified as "outdoor": the Delhi Metro. But this project is still a work-in-progress, with the network still patchy and train tunnels too far from the vast suburban sprawls of Gurgaon and Noida to get switchovers from cars.

Meanwhile, the French company JCDecaux, having won the contract from the municipal corporation for maintaining and developing Delhi's bus shelters, wants to get the outdoor advertising buck.

Says Jean Charles Decaux, CEO, JCDecaux, "We have a contract for 15 years, and we look forward to develop the bus shelters in Delhi." Decaux is watching the Metro closely too.

But are bus shelters such a big draw? According to Indrajit Sen, COO, Jagran Engage, an outdoor agency, nicely designed shelters could be quite an "attractive option" for advertisers.

JCDecaux, which has a revenue sharing arrangement with MCD, expects to kick off with some 200 shelters "" all in stainless steel, and all crafted to assuredly global quality levels, with benches, clocks, timetables, flowers and much else.

Will it draw ad money? If the medium excites the creative guys in ad agencies, it should excite the target audience. So Monsieur Decaux had better mean it when he speaks of shelter design expertise.