Auto brands slip into the OOH fast lane to drive sales growth

In keeping with buoyant sales in September 2017, most automobile players – cars and 2-wheelers brands alike – marked a strong presence on the OOH canvas to drive sales in the remaining part of the current festive season. The industry’s strong sentiment stems from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM) recent public statement that the overall auto industry had registered an overall sales growth of 10% in in September 2017 over the corresponding period in 2016.

In the period between July-September 2017 the passenger vehicle industry that includes cars, SUVs and vans in the Indian market saw total sales of over 1.63 million units. Commercial vehicles saw total domestic sales of 3.53 lakh and two-wheeler sales registers 10.50 million units.

The second quarter (April-Sept) had registered the passenger vehicles’ growth by 9.16% over the same period last year. 

Two-wheeler sales heavily dominated by scooter sales saw sales of about 2.49 million in the domestic market. That includes over 6.86 lakh units of scooters, 12.69 lakh units of Two-wheelers and 84,934 units of mopeds. The second quarter saw two-wheeler sales growing by 10.14% with over 10 million Two-wheelers sold in the last three months.

To fast-track growth in this season, car brands like BMW, Maruti Suzuki India, and Honda Motors are giving best festive offers to woo customers to increase their sales amidst cut-throat competition. A host of OOH campaigns have been rolled out to drive individual auto brand sales. For instance, in Mumbai the prominent stretches near Mahim Causeway and near Bandra-Worli Sea Link are featuring very many automobile brand campaigns.

Apart from the carmakers, even auto-mobile dealers are giving lucrative offers to increase the footfalls of the buyers and take advantage of the GST cess structure which remains unchanged for vehicles with petrol-engines under 1200cc and diesel-engines up to 1500cc unlike sports and luxury cars which are now levied with higher cess.

Hoardings with the ads of Maruti Suzuki giving a discount of Rs. 20,000 on ALTO 800, Honda cars celebrating the ‘Great Honda Fest’ offering free first-year insurance coupled with other discount benefits and the most reputed brand like BMW enjoying ‘Sheer Festive Pleasure’ line up along the Arabian Sea.