The auto-rickshaw driver is happy with the free gas he gets every week for putting up the special display and the advertisers are happy with the response they are getting.
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| Deepak Singh, an auto driver who has put up the LED on his auto-rickshaw |
For the first time in the city, LEDs (light emitting diode) have been installed atop autos to display running advertisements. Inspired by such autos that are popular in China, Madhukar Patil has used the concept to suit the local market.
Patil says, “I began by advertising a Marathi play, Jaanta Raja, through a poster on the back of an auto. The good response made me thinking about how to use this medium of advertising to maximum effect. I saw it was very popular in China, so I thought of localising it and this kind of advertsing was born.”
There are around 80,000 autos that ply in the city.
Ten days ago, Patil started running the LED ads on 20 autos in the city on a pilot basis and the response has been very good, he says.
While initially he gave gifts to the driver for displaying posters and charged Rs 150 from the company advertising a product for an entire month, now Patil gives the auto driver displaying a product Rs 50 worth of CNG for a week and charges Rs 500 from the company advertising it.
Patil, who was the first to advertise the Three Idiots film on a rickshaw with the slogan: ‘Capacity: Three Idiots’, has himself designed the LED that is charged by the auto-rickshaw’s battery. He intends to take the city police’s permission to run it on a larger scale.
Deepak Singh, an auto driver who has put up the LED on his auto, said, “A lot of people have inquired about it once I started displaying it on my auto. Earlier, we used to get gifts, now with free gas we get to earn a bit more.”
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