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Auto rickshaw advertising · Marketing

An auto goes wherever its fare goes, so you are buying a city, not a route.

Our transit advertising page covers buses, metro and station media, where a route list can be demanded in writing. Autos are the one transit format where no such list exists, and the selling pretends otherwise.

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Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

Editorial illustration for Auto rickshaw advertising

In one paragraph

Auto rickshaw advertising buys branded hood covers, side panels and seat-back panels on a block of autos for a month. GullySales sets the block size and format, insists on a registration number list and dated photographs, and checks mid-month how many covers are still on the vehicles.

A driver takes the fare he is offered. He may start in Rajajinagar and spend the afternoon in Whitefield, and next week he may be on hire to somebody else entirely. So an auto campaign is a city or a zone buy. Anyone promising you one locality is describing a hope.

What autos do well is repetition at low cost. Your name passes the same junction, the same school gate and the same market a hundred times a week, in the field of vision of every car stuck behind one.

Who it is for

This is written for you if these sound familiar.

  • Hospitals, diagnostic centres and clinics that draw patients from a whole zone rather than one street
  • Coaching centres and colleges advertising in the admission months across a city
  • Electronics, furniture and jewellery showrooms running a festival offer that is worth a drive
  • New app-based or delivery services that need a city to recognise a name quickly
  • Builders and developers whose site is on a road that autos already work

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • A shop with a two-kilometre catchment, because autos cannot be aimed and most of the money goes outside your ring
  • Anyone selling to other businesses, where a moving vehicle reaches the wrong person entirely
  • Owners who want proof of where each vehicle went, since no honest vendor tracks that and the ones who claim to are selling a screenshot
  • Candidates campaigning for office, who ask for autos more than any other advertiser and are the one enquiry we refuse

The problem

Does this sound like your business?

What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.

  • “The vendor promised our area and delivered the whole city”

    Autos are allotted to a stand or a zone in the plan and then follow the fares. Ask what the vendor can actually confirm, which is a count of vehicles and a broad operating area, and price the buy on that.

  • “Half the covers were gone by the third week”

    Hood covers tear, flap loose or come off when a driver takes a better offer. Without a mid-month check nobody notices, and the photographs you were sent were all taken on day one.

  • “The proof photographs had no number plates”

    A tight shot of a hood cover proves nothing. The same vehicle can appear in three campaign reports. Insist on the registration number being legible in every picture.

  • “The design was made for a page”

    Four lines of text and a small number on a hood cover, read by a driver in the next lane at a signal, is read by nobody. One name, one offer, one large number is the whole brief.

What we do

Everything that is included.

Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. Format and block decided together

    Hood covers for the car behind, side panels for the footpath, seat-backs for the passenger inside. Each reaches a different person and the mix follows who you are selling to.

  2. A registration number list

    The vehicles in your block listed by number before installation, so the count you paid for is a list you can check rather than a claim in a proposal.

  3. Driver and permit check

    The vendor confirms the driver has agreed and is being paid, and shows what the state transport authority permits on a passenger auto in your city. The rules differ by state, so the permit holder should confirm before anything is stuck on.

  4. Artwork for each surface

    A hood cover is read at a signal from four metres. A seat-back is read for a twelve minute ride, which is the one place on the vehicle where a QR code earns its space.

  5. Installation photographs with plates visible

    Dated pictures of every vehicle in the block, taken so the registration number can be read. Anything short of that is not proof.

  6. Mid-month spot check

    A sample of the block seen again in week three, at the stands they work from, with replacements demanded for covers that are missing or torn.

  7. A response route of its own

    A campaign number on the panels and a code or QR on the seat-back, so the enquiries that came from the vehicles are separable from everything else running.

How the result is measured

  • Autos live against autos booked, by registration number
  • Photographs delivered with plates legible
  • Covers still in place at the mid-month check
  • Calls to the campaign number
  • Scans of the seat-back code
  • Rate per vehicle per month against the first quote

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

How it works

How the auto rickshaw advertising work runs

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Set the geography honestly

    We agree the city or the zones your buyer comes from, and accept that this format cannot be narrowed below that. If your catchment is two streets, we recommend a different medium and say so.

  2. 2

    Choose format and volume

    Fewer vehicles for three months beats a large block for four weeks, because recognition comes from passing the same name repeatedly.

  3. 3

    Test what the vendor can confirm

    Before any booking we ask for the registration list, the permission position and the replacement policy for damaged covers. The answers sort the vendors quickly.

  4. 4

    Print and install

    Material and sizes to the vendor's specification, installation scheduled at the stands, and photographs collected as the covers go on.

  5. 5

    Check mid-cycle

    Vehicles are sampled in week three and shortfalls are taken up with the vendor while the month is still being paid for.

  6. 6

    Read the enquiries

    Calls to the campaign number and scans of the seat-back code are counted against the month before, and the result goes into the report.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
Can we choose which areas the autos run in?
Only roughly. A vendor can pick vehicles from stands in a zone, and after that the driver follows his fares across the city. Treat the zone as a tilt in your favour, never as a guarantee, and do not pay a premium for one.
How many autos should we book?
Enough for your name to be passed repeatedly where you care about. That usually means a modest block held for two or three months rather than a big number for one month. A small block worked out of a few stands beats a scattered one across a city.
Is it legal to advertise on an auto?
Advertising on passenger autos is common, and what may be displayed on a public service vehicle is set by the state transport authority and differs between states and cities. Ask the vendor to show the position for your city, and have the permit holder confirm it before printing.
Which is better, the hood cover or the seat-back?
They do different jobs. The hood cover builds recognition with people in cars and on the footpath, and cannot be responded to. The seat-back has a captive reader for the length of a ride, so it is the panel that can carry a QR code, an offer and a reason to act.
How will we know it brought anything in?
Through the campaign number and the seat-back code, compared with the same weeks before the campaign. An auto keeps no record of who read it, and a vendor offering you an impressions figure has multiplied a guess by a number of days.
Do you own a fleet or hold rates?
No. We plan the campaign and coordinate the booking with the vendor who works with the drivers, and we negotiate each block. There is no inventory of ours and no exclusive rate on anybody's vehicles.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on the trade, the channel and what is already in place. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.

By industry

Auto rickshaw advertising, written for your industry.

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