Billboard Advertisement
BY Dr. Bhoj Raj Aryal
While passing through Ratnapark in the heart of the city, one can see a massive Samsung billboard covering a large part of Ranipokhari’s view. While the billboard in itself is a well designed one reflecting the high quality standard of Samsung, an environmentalist would, however, wonder whether Samsung’s products are more important than the historical pond. No doubt, one can presume, being a multinational and one of the largest advertisers in the country, Samsung’s local distributor has a contract with the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Corporation in gaining the right to place that hoarding there in exchange for maintaining the beautiful garden over which the billboard is placed. Therefore, the possibility of legal problems for the advertisers should not be there.
But compare this with the massive Mero Mobile billboard (20 x 80 ft) at Teenkune which scores very low in terms of attractiveness because of its sheer size. Again the advertiser might have secured the right from the agency concerned to place such billboard thus avoiding the legal problem.
One can also recall that, a few years ago, a hoarding board located at Soalteemode was removed on receiving complaints that it was causing frequent accidents there.
These examples raise two questions: First, are standards fixed by the local authorities or that are universally acceptable for the sizes of billboards? Second, what would be the best location for billboards?
The debate is not new and its relevance heightens with the each passing day which sees new billboards cropping up at new locations. In Kathmandu , around 663 billboards are in record, though in reality this number is much higher. (Source: KMC). Thapathali, Tripureshwor, Maitighar, Sundhara, Kalanki, Kalimati, Tinkune, Kupundol, Jawalakhel, Pulchowk, Lagankhel are the prime location for billboard advertisement. Bhakatapur Municipality has banned billboard advertisement of tobacco and alcoholic products.
Many groups (environmentalists and others) have frequently complained that billboards are disturbing drivers and causing accidents. Therefore, these activists have been demanding the government to ban billboard advertisement altogether. Some people believe that billboard advertisement makes the city ugly and polluted. In 2004, the government had decided that billboards should not be placed around 100 metres of heritage, historical or religious places.
However, this decision (like many other decisions of the government characterised by the ‘soft-state syndrome’) has proved to be difficult to implement. Few billboards were removed from Darbarmarg and Bhadrakali area after the policy was introduced. But at Thapathali one can see many billboards quite close to the temples (Tripureshwore Mahadev and Gorkhnath temple). This is because Thapathali is the most sought after area for billboard due to a very high flow of traffic there.
In fact, one may even conclude that if the government’s said policy is strictly followed it would be practically impossible to find a place for billboard in Kathmandu , which is known as the city of temples.
Therefore, the better option should be to fix different standard sizes of billboards for religious and historical areas and make arrangement to ensure that one part of the fee collected from advertisers for such billboards is used to maintain the site. This way the advertisers too will feel proud that they are contributing towards the preservation of heritage, historical and religious places.
No doubt, billboard advertisement is a very popular everywhere, be it in the US and Europe or in India and Nepal. As a result, about 50 per cent of the total advertisement budget in the country is spent on this media. Advertisers are attracted to it because it is a one time investment and the returns are reaped over a longer period of time than from similar expenditures on other media such as print or TV advertisement.
Billboards reach a larger number of people and offer extremely targeted messages designed to intercept consumers whenever they are on the move, be it on city streets or suburban highways. Beautiful billboards may even enhance the beauty of the city thoroughfares if they are properly managed. Therefore, studies have been conducted as to how billboard advertisement can be made the most effective. One such recommendation from specialists is that such billboards should not have more than six or seven words so that the people can read it even while travelling at a very high speed.
Going by this principle, may be it is a good idea for Samsung to place several smaller size billboards (6 ft x 4 ft) at different places in the Ranipokhari garden rather than placing a single huge one. Putting up several billboards would have one more advantage in that the message would be visible from several sides while the present huge one is visible from only one side. More importantly, several small billboards will also pre-empt the possible complaint from environmentalists as these small billboards will not block the view of the Ranipokhari pond. One might have noticed that Asian Paints is using this small billboard technique very effectively.
(Dr. Aryal holds PhD for this thesis in Advertising Impact in Nepal and is a lecturer in marketing at the central department of Management, TU, Kirtipur.)
