The guiding light

In a differentiated outdoor campaign, lighting company Halonix has used outdoor media to not just promote its brand but also to light up the streets and promote women's safety.

Research reveals that there is a strong correlation between crime and darkness - incidences of rape, mugging, car-jacking and other crimes have been found to be higher after sunset. Lighting company Halonix has come up with its latest campaign where it has turned its advertising billboards, hoardings and bus shelters into street lights after sunset.

The hoardings carry an advertising message by day. By night, the lights of the hoarding are turned outwards, pointing towards and lighting up the street rather than just the advertising message. Only one light shines on the advertising message that reads 'The Right Light'; all other lights point towards the street. Thus, a dark, potentially dangerous street is turned into a bright, well-lit one.

Amar Wadhwa, marketing advisor, Halonix, says, "Our company's positioning is 'Right Light', which has many manifestations. For this campaign, we wanted to illuminate the poorly lit up areas, where there are no street lights and dark patches that create a problem for women to travel alone, and that is one of the manifestations for Right Light. Our communication medium is now a medium which adds a little more safety to the society."

The brand has attempted to put these advertising billboards in poorly illuminated areas of different cities. Currently, the campaign is on in 10 cities but the brand plans to take this to 10 other cities. While the ongoing campaign has only 20 units, the brand is working towards taking the number to 50 units.

The campaign kick started with Halonix inviting the citizens of Delhi to name streets or areas in their neighbourhood that need better lighting. The Facebook page ( of Halonix registered many of these suggestions and the top suggestion was identified by a poll. As a test run, a Halonix hoarding was put up in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. Currently, there are more than 10 units in Delhi itself.

Some of the other cities where the brand has installed these units are Mohali, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Mathura, Allahabad, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.

Halonix Technologies operates in industrial and residential lighting. Set up over two decades ago as an Indo-Japanese joint venture, Halonix is a progressive, environment-friendly lighting company. It is keenly focused on emerging technologies like LED and CFLs. It has a wide range of products across LED, CFL, luminaires, home decorative lighting, halogens and high intensity discharge lamps.