Idea on transit to rural Karnataka

The telecom brand has launched a three-month campaign in the rural areas of Karnataka to increase visibility. It uses transit media such as government buses and water tankers to spread the brand message.

With an aim to increase its presence in the rural areas of Karnataka, Idea Cellular has launched a massive out of home campaign that began in January and will continue till the end of March.

The campaign uses transit media such as state government buses and water tankers branded with the Idea logo and a message in Kannada saying 'Idea Network Connects More than 21,000 Towns and Villages across Karnataka'. Idea has painted 200 buses and 60 tankers that carry water in six to eight districts.

The telecom brand aims to create awareness about its seamless coverage and network across rural Karnataka. The campaign is spread over 80 towns of South India, including Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns that provide a potential market beyond the over-penetrated metros.

The Idea spokesperson says, "These buses move from one region to another, thus giving the brand visibility across a lot of towns and villages. Also, there are places where the water is supplied via tankers, so painting them brings a large audience closer."

He adds that the main consideration for this campaign was to increase reach and exposure to the rural population with minimum logistic hassle.

Gour Gupta, CEO, Platinum Outdoors (the OOH agency for this campaign), says, "Looking at the size of the state of Karnataka and the huge spread of population in rural, reaching out to potential mobile users through regular outdoor media is a challenge. Also, communication becomes efficient and effective when it has a local connect."

Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India with a subscriber base of over 117 million. It operates across all 22 service areas with 2G services and 3G services spread over 3,000 towns and 10,000 villages. Recently, it launched a major outdoor activity at Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.