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Capital wears a new look

The huge and colourful advertising banners mounted on the lampposts lined up on either side of the busy streets have been the fad lately adding to the capital's image profile.

Introduced in Abu Dhabi just over a few months back, this new form of below-the-line advertising called the 'lamppost advertising' offers the capital residents a visual treat of products ranging from mobile phones to magazines and airlines to banks.

With illuminated frames, these banners that scream for attention even at nights have proved to be quite successful in reinforcing the brand image with the entire population as the target audience.

In Abu Dhabi, an advertising company called Group Plus has received the major contract from the municipality to put up advertisements on the street lampposts.

"We have taken the contract for a total of 742 lamp posts and each post can carry two pieces with two faces each. That amounts to a total of 2,978 faces," said a sales executive at Group Plus.

According to him the company has hired a whole team of workers who are trained to mount the banners as per the customers requirements as it takes an average of 40 minutes to install all the four faces in a post.

Companies or agencies wanting to advertise on the lampposts can get them on rent for any period of time ranging from two weeks to a year depending on their promotional campaign.

According to Wael Jamal, Media Planner, Universal Media Seven, the media wing of the Fortune Promoseven, the average rate of a single face is Dh10, 000 and varies with the time period for it has been availed of. That amounts to a whopping Dh40, 000 for a single lamp post and any company has to hire a minimum of 13 posts at a time, explained Mr Wael.

The new phenomenon has become so popular that most of the advertising agencies vouch that there is a beeline of clients wishing to put up their product lines on the lamps.

"This is something new for the Abu Dhabi residents and more and more clients want to advertise their products through lamp post advertising. It ensures very good visibility and so the value for money for the clients too is very high," said Wael.

Yet another advantage of the lamppost advertising as pointed out by marketing professionals is that it caters to a wide range of consumers irrespective of their age, language or interests. When you advertise your product, be it a toothpaste or a designer wear outlet, on the streets, you have the guarantee that the message will reach out to maximum number of people. A particular television channel or a magazine will drive the message home only to their unique segment of readers or audience," Abishek, a marketing executive elaborated on the merits of lamp post advertising.

Whatever be the advertising mechanics of lamppost advertising, the residents in general are quite happy to be greeted by vibrant images of their favourite products as they step out of their houses. "These new boards have some feel-good element in them. They are cool on eyes, have an aesthetic sense and tell you what are the latest products on the shelves," enthused Aishwarya, a housewife.

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