Unsqueezed tube

Metro routes in Delhi are just the outdoor medium advertisers could've hoped for.

Outdoor advertising in New Delhi has always been a headache. In comparison to other cities like Mumbai, Bangalore or Hyderabad, all the more so.

Delhi residents, spoilt by the historic elegance of its urbanscape, think of hoardings as eyesores, and they cheer in approval whenever they see the local government "" armed with stiff regulations "" take another looming billboard down.

That's why the Delhi Metro has put the gleam back in the eyes of outdoor advertisers. Some advertisers are enthusiastic.

Says Indrajit Sen, president, Primesite, Mudra's outdoor arm: "Delhi Metro is still untapped, and provides an excellent opportunity for outdoor advertising." Hindustan Times and TVS are some of its clients using Delhi's swanky new tube.

Take the Dwarka-Barakhamba Road line, which opened this New Year's. One look is enough to confirm that this is nothing like the shoddy panels hanging miserably overhead along the coaches of Mumbai local trains, for example.

These are slick, glow-lit and very appealing. You have curved and flat panels inside coaches and alongside the underground platform walls, and they all add to the ambience of what is truly India's first "international" commuter experience by way of public transport.

Have space managers rushed to corner the panels? Oddly, no. Entertainment Networks, the outdoor division of the Times Group, recently bagged the rights to a fraction of the space at the Kolkata and Delhi metros, but that's about it.

Another outdoor media buyer, TDI Media Services, is watching developments carefully "" to ascertain the traffic profile.

"Unlike Mumbai where people from all strata use the local trains," says Gautam Chaddha, country head, TDI, "the Metro hasn't seen that kind of a response."

Crowds are thin for the moment, and it's true that the Delhi high-spender can safely be assumed to travel almost exclusively by car.

Still, the ad rates are so low "" about Rs 30,000 for a month's display at Barakhamba Road station "" that an early bet may pay off once the squeeze begins. "With the Metro gaining more prominence, it will be interesting to see how marketers go for it," says Sen.