Audio advertising fetches highest brand recall at ST Bus stations of Maharashtra

To evaluate the effectiveness of audio advertising / announcements as a medium compared to other outdoor media at bus depots in western Maharashtra, Vritti i-Media in association with the A C Nielsen Company conducted a research at MSRTC bus stands across the state. The findings proved audio advertising as a medium to be as effective or more effective than the other traditional forms of OOH like hoardings, signagaes and kiosks.

The key findings of the research are:

• Audio advertisement as medium is effective despite being restricted to confines of a bus depot
• The recall of audio advertising / announcements as a medium is at par with outdoor hoardings and bus panels at 98%
• On an average 2.2 brands are recalled on audio advertisements. It is comparable with average number of brands recalled from outdoor hoardings at 2.1
• Virtually everyone (97%) find announcements to be very useful or somewhat useful
• 85% of the people Read or Rest or chat with co-passengers while waiting at bus stations and are captive in nature. Only 15% of the people listen to radio while waiting at bus stations.
• Audio advertisements coupled with announcements appears to be an effective advertising medium

Sharing his perspective on the research findings, Mr. Veerendra Jamdade, CEO, Vritti i-Media says, “The findings of this research help us to reiterate our positioning for Vritti i-Media’s audio network in Maharashtra as the most effective medium to reach a mass audience across Sec A, B and C segments. Our unique format couples advertising with announcements about bus arrival and departure schedules that makes for mandatory listening. Audio advertising works brilliantly in rural areas as it overcomes the barrier of language and illiteracy.”

This study has presented Vritti i-media with a unique opportunity to convince potential advertisers of the effectiveness of the audio advertising medium while enabling advertisers to draw a comparison among diverse media present at a given location i.e. ST bus depots to sample the unaided recall of brands advertising across these media.

The MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) is the state run bus service of Maharashtra with 16,000 buses which ferry 7 million (70 lakh) passengers daily on 17,000 routes. On a typical day the average footfall measured at these ST bus stations is 40,000 & more thus making these junctions extremely critical for advertisers who are looking to make a mass impact among a target audience that ranges from students to small business owners, and semi urban dwellers.