The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : MTC tickets glisten with celluloid charm

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Friday, Sep 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

MTC tickets glisten with celluloid charm

Deepa H Ramakrishnan

With diesel prices shooting up, MTC is looking at alternative avenues to rake in revenue

— Photos: M. Karunakaran

Resourceful: The front and rear of MTC tickets with advertisements, in Chennai.

CHENNAI: Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus tickets just got peppy and colourful with advertisements being printed on both sides.

Pyramid Saimira’s Tamil film Saroja was the first to make it on the tickets.

The front side of the ticket with the details of the ticket number, date, time, bus stop names and other codes has a teaser of the film at the bottom. And if one turns the little piece of paper, a still from the film with details of SMS contest are put in. Different stills have been used and printed using eight-colour bright UV ink.

“We have tendered the white space on tickets. We get the rolls supplied free of cost and the agency also pays us a royalty. In turn they charge for the ads from different companies. We will, however, keep tab on the kind of advertisements that are printed. They have to be approved by the corporation before being printed,” an MTC official said.

By this move the corporation will save about Rs.15 lakh every month that is spent on procuring ticket rolls. Presently around 2.5 lakh ticket rolls are being used by the corporation every month.

Praveen Mehra, of Mehra Forms, the company that has taken the tender for supply of rolls, said this was a new medium for those wanting to advertise.

“The tickets have a new look. They have pictures. To start with, we provided free advertising space to organisations such as Life Insurance Corporation, LG Mobile, ITC, NIIT and HDFC Standard Life. You find such tickets in Mumbai. We are waiting and watching how this medium will click and how advertisers will respond,” he said.

With diesel prices going up and the corporation not wanting to burden passengers with hikes in ticket prices, MTC is looking at alternative avenues to rake in revenue.

“We have also recently launched advertising behind seats inside the buses. Tenders have been called for ads on the rear glasses too,” the MTC official added.

R. Sridharan, vice-president (marketing) of Diamond Publicities, which has the tender for advertising on the rear side of the buses, said for the past one month they introduced back panels with lights.

“This is the first time in the country that panels in the rear of buses are lit up. We are using 4 feet x 3 feet panels with imported aesthetic frames and imported lights that consume minimal power,” he explained.

Though MTC has already wrapped a few of its buses in advertisements, there is more in the offing in the form of advertising.

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