Meru Cabs, the new cab service in India is proving out to be more than a transportation boon. The cabs have re-invented the term transit media and have created a positive impact on the OOH space.

Meru has recently been associated with the movie ‘Toh Baat Pakki’ and has also been associated with brands like Tata Green Batteries, ING Vysya, CIDCO, UTI Mutual Funds, Colors channel, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Tata Photon+, The Week, and Charagh Din in the past.

Gavin D’abreo, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Meru Cabs, explained, “We see movies as part of the media and entertainment space that we would like to explore. ‘Cabvertising’ generates more immediate saliency than other outdoor options, as is seen in the usage of bus panels by film marketers. We are exploring this segment aggressively this year.”

For the promotion of the movie, ‘Toh Baat Pakki’, Meru had decorated its cars with flowers to resemble a ‘wedding car’ since the film revolved around the concept of wedding.

D’abreo said, “We are happy to be associated with a project like ‘Toh Baat Pakki’. The innovation of dressing up our cabs with flowers has been noticed across Mumbai. We look forward to doing many such innovations within the entertainment industry.”

Speaking about their future plans, he added, “Meru plans to develop and get more innovative in terms of its ‘cabvertising’ services. We are looking at the feasibility of using varied materials such as Lit Vinyl and 3D Vinyl to enhance the impact of the branding. One of the features that are being looked at currently is introducing a system that can measure the impact of cabvertising on audiences. Meru is also looking at putting up an LCD display option. Meru plans to double its fleet size from the existing 4,500 to 9,000 cabs within a year as part of its plan to become a pan-India player. Other than the cities in which we are currently operational, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, Meru plans to foray into cities like Kolkata and Chennai.”

Subway India has finally unveiled its national campaign across the country. Subway has taken route to advertise through transit media to promote its Every Day Value offer with Chicken Ham Sub @ Rs 50. Arms Communications (creative partner) and Alliance Advertising (media partner) together have designed this campaign.

The TG for Subway remains the youth, primarily college graduates and working professionals, in the age group of 15-35 years. In order to extend its reach, Subway has tied up with CashUrDrive, an on-vehicle advertising company with a database of around 20,000 (pan-India) vehicles.

Sanjiv Pandey, manager, marketing, Subway said, “Since this is a national campaign where we wish to reach our TG in a big way, outdoor works well. Branded cabs provide high visibility with lower costs. Earlier, this option was not available, as there were no organized vendors in the market. We plan to use outdoor consistently with a focus on regional markets.”

Raghu Khanna, chief executive officer, CashUrDrive also added that it is of prime importance to keep the creative simple and precise. “The onlooker should be able to understand the brand message, when the vehicle is stationary or moving at a high speed. The client’s brief was to penetrate areas where traditional media cannot reach. To serve the purpose, we roped in both independent vehicle owners and radio taxis like Meru Cabs, Mega Cabs and City Cabs.”

In the coming days, the multi-media campaign for the brand which will include TV, print, social media and mobile marketing, will also go live. The ad agencies have been briefed to merge regional flavor in the national campaign to connect with and attract their respective target audience.