Hype Integracomm inks deal for grab handles in Mumbai local trains

The media company has inked a five year deal with western route (Churchgate to Virar) in Mumbai to install new comfortable designer grab handles

After successfully launching the Smile TV network in western route of local trains in the financial capital, OOH media company Hype Integracomm has inked another deal with Railways in the same route to put up designer grab handles in Mumbai’s trains.

Hype has won a five year contract to put up these handles in the trains run on the western route (WR). While exploring a very innovative advertising medium, this will also bring in hefty revenues for the railways.

To start with, Hype installed the handles in three WR trains, but the good response from advertisers and commuters has egged it on to install these in all the trains of WR.

Each compartment of the trains will have about 125 handles, which is 40 handles more than the current number of metal and wood handles. About 67 trains of WR will have these handles installed over the next couple of months. Hype is investing nearly Rs 10 crore for the entire project.

Jignesh Sharma, executive director, Hype Integracomm, tells afaqs!, “The attractive ad space of each of these designer handles is 7x 3.5 inches on both sides. Advertising on these handles, say for a month for a whole train, could cost an advertiser anywhere between Rs 1.5-2 lakh.”

Hype has also won contracts to install similar handles in trains of central route (CST to Kalyan), BEST buses and has installed these in the local buses in Bengaluru.

Through this deal, the railways will earn substantial revenue and also be able to offer a comfort feature to the commuters by way of the designer handles. The new handles are made of polycarbonate, which is as tough as iron or steel, and have specially designed finger grooves for a better grip.

The handles have a smart design and give a cheerful, vibrant look to the compartment when they display uniform images of the advertisement on top of these grooves. Commuters have welcomed these sleek, comfortable handles in the place of the hard iron handles.

One of the first advertisers on board for these handles was Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL) –with its brands, Red Label tea and Knorr Soups, in the first two trains. Other brands such as Century Ply and Max New York Life Insurance have followed suit.

Commenting on this new medium, Sharma says, “Railways is the lifeline of this city. About 7.77 million passengers travel daily by train and each train carries about 75,000 passengers daily. The journey time generally varies between 20-100 minutes. Advertisers will be able to reach these consumers for the average journey time. Grab handles is the medium that is closest to the eyeballs and offers a very high brand recall value. Thus it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Hype Integracomm is one of the growing OOH (out of home) media companies in India, owning media assets in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. Hype owns all the media assets that it markets and follows the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model in conjunction with the local governing bodies.