Banner Talk: The first LED billboard of Gujarat by LCPL is the talk of the town in Ahmedabad
By Japan K Pathak
It is one of the highest talked about things in Ahmedabad this week, especially among youths. It attracts attention of anyone passing through the Polytechnic cross road in Ambawadi area of the city. It is the first LED digital display advertisement billboard in Gujarat. Erected just last week, it is now well talked about thing.
An 800 sq ft LED digital display screen meant for advertising, standing on the top of a three storied building is similar to what you see at Piccadilly Circus in London or Times Square in New York. The city of Ahmedabad first witnessed this screen last year during Vibrant Navratri festival on University ground. The screen was there on a stage broadcasting the event live. Then this same screen was seen on the bank of river Sabarmati on Uttarayan day to broadcast the International Kite Festival live. But these were some random appearances. Now this screen has come up over a building on Polytechnic cross road permanently to display advertisements in motion.
A wonderful thing about this media is that, even if there is broad sunlight, the visuals are clearly visible. And in the evening, this billboard looks even more dazzling. It just impresses everybody in its visual proximity.
Gujarat’s first LED billboard is erected by Ahmedabad based Lavingia Communication Private Limited. The company is formed by three foreign return Gujarati directors in their late 20s: Raj Lavingia(28), Anand Lavingia(29) and Parth Patel(29).
GujaratMoney grabbed an opportunity to talk with these young entrepreneurs who are exited about this idea and an innovative business model around it.
One of the Directors, Raj Lavingia who is architect by qualification says, “We spent over three and half years abroad and went back to Ahmedabad just eight months back. I was in London where big digital LED billboards always impressed me and my many other Indian friends. After coming back to India we, a small gang of foreign return Amdavadis thought to bring these western glitterati here. Last year we formed a company backed by our family business and imported a big 800 sq ft screen. While London’s Piccadilly Circus or New York’s Times Square are filled with cluster of digital billboards, we have brought to the city of Ahmedabad, a single billboard as of now, but due to its grand size it has been able to make the square where it is erected a happening place.”
Exited about this technology, Raj further states, “this technology was introduced in the world just before 10 years. It is becoming so popular that in the US, total screens increased from five hundred to five lac in one year.”
Then comes a quote from Raj’s mouth: “We don’t facilitate just an outdoor publicity, we say it’s a mass communication.”
Equally exited is Parth Patel, another Director of Lavingia Communications. We ask how this particular place (Polytechnic cross road) was chosen for this amazing billboard and he says, “the Ahmedabad stock exchange is located just opposite the billboard. Then there is an IIMA - AMA road on one side which connects Vastrapur and Ambawadi. The other road connect western Ahmedabad’s central point ‘Nehrunagar circle’ to University. Several colleges like Sahajanand College, L.D. Engineering etc are on the same road. This is an ideal place for next generation advertising platform. Our next preference would be the C.G.Road. We didn’t find S.G.Highway that exiting because there is lots of business traffic and people are constantly moving there. This place - Polytechnic cross road has a feel like a plaza. Here is the presence of all-class”.
Both Raj and Parth do not discuss the figures when we ask. They say, there are lots of non-serious queries about a cost to put advertise, “But we reply to only serious queries”. LCPL is planning to screen some good short-duration videos to deliver public messages also.
Lastly some suggestive inputs:
-Polytechnic cross roads junction has sleepy bungalow on one corner and a sleepy shopping centre on another corner. Two out of four corners are sleepy and shady in the evening. This makes this place partially non-happening in the evening time.
-Advertises are in video format and therefore should be tuned with the timings of traffic lights. When traffic stops, advertise should start and when it resumes as per the signal, the advertisement should end. So far, there are BMW, Pepsi, Swarnim Gujarat and LCPL ads, but they are not tuned with the traffic’s stop and go timings.
-The look of the building that houses this billboard is out-of-date. The building is three-storied and has unattractive elevation. At least they should color the iron supports that hold the billboard.
-Companies that want to advertise on this platform would need to have a small silent film to feature their product. A perfect tuning of billboard and its related backward activities would be needed.
-The rates of advertising on this platform are much higher, which is obvious. It would be interesting to know, how companies prefer to put their ads in this format in compare to traditional format.
Reach to a list of articles in Banner Talk series on this link
Your suggestion of tuning the screen to the traffic light does not make any sense as when one lane stop the other begins, so taking that into consideration the screen should never work cos there will always we one lane on.
Coming from Tokyo, I have seen hundreds of these screens at all the busy junction.
We should congratulate the boys for taking steps to make our city more pleasent and futuristic.
We need more youth teams like this to change our beloved city.
Go on guys….
[Reply]
NJ Guy Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
The screen is facing two roads(there are total four at this junction). The ads can be tuned in for the sack of these two roads that are facing towards the screen. When in one lane the traffic stops, the other lane would start moving. Then another ad should start. Of course we should congratulate these guys. But Amdavad mange more.
[Reply]