Indiantelevision.com Team

(12 July 2010 9:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan, which has generally been blamed for its slack publicity methods, has decided to go out-of-home – particularly in view of the Commonwealth Games and the launch of high definition television by the pubcaster.

The channel has invited tenders for outdoor publicity from agencies that have an average annual billing of Rs 500 million during the last three financial years and have a minimum net worth of equal amount. Additionally, the agencies should have handled such campaigns for general entertainment channels during the past three financial years for out-of-home (OOH) advertising for its various programmes.

Doodarshan director general Aruna Sharma told indiantelevision.com that the agencies should have at least an experience of handling three outdoor campaigns in more than 50 cities during the last financial year.

Doordarshan is looking at 100 high-visibility sites in major cities, especially in metros, state capitals and important business towns. Apart from hoardings, the public broadcaster will also be looking at bus panels, especially in Mumbai.

The sites will be used to showcase the various programmes on Doordarshan apart from telecasting information about the Games. The creatives will be changed on a monthly basis.

While several producers of sponsored programmes on Doordarshan have gone in for OOH campaigns, this is the first time that the channel is planning to use outdoor media on such a large scale.

Sharma said that even if one went by TAM ratings, Doordarshan's viewership had gone up by 4 points in the last one year for entertainment programmes in the metros ad even higher for news. But the aim of the OOH campaign will be to reach out to larger viewers in urban areas since DD is already dominating in the rural areas.

Interested agencies will be required to submit their bid for the tender with the earnest money deposit of Rs 500,000. The agencies must have offices in more than 12 cities in the country, necessarily including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The last date to submit the tender is 22 July.

Shortlisted agencies will be needed to present their credentials and creative proposal for Doordarshan between 27 and 29 July.