Focus on safety & aesthetics, says Pimpri Chinchwad MC’s new OOH ad policy

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in its newly released Outdoor Advertising Policy has directed particular attention on the safety aspects concerning installation of roadside media in the Pimpri-Chinchwad city – around the suburbs of Pune. The policy, drafted on the basis of a review of “global studies on the safety of advertisement devices”, discourages the use of large advertisement devices within the city and prescribes the use of such media only in the business and commercial areas, and along wide roads. The outdoor policy also lays emphasis on preventing any “visual clutter” in the city.

Stating that the policy is governed by city development imperatives, rather than revenue considerations alone, the PCMC is resolved to promote the creation of street furniture in the city that also serves as advertisement devices. Other media formats that are being encouraged by the MC are media on buses, commercial passenger vehicles, bus shelters, metro shelters, public toilets, garbage facilities, public parks, etc.

However, in the placement and use of the street furniture and other media on utilities, the utility value will be the most important criterion to be considered. If not, punitive action will be taken against any advertisement agency responsible for the deviation.

The policy provides for a checklist to be prepared for differentiating outdoor advertising and on-premise private advertising.

The license period for advertisement devices on private property shall be 1 year, to be renewed annually, whereas it will be 1 month in the case of temporary advertisements. Advertisement on public property to be as per the tender document and through a public procurement process.

The total license cost for media will be charged by adding the base license fee and other applicable premiums. A 5% supervision charges will be extra applied for advertisement devices on corporation property.

The policy mentions that the perimeter of an advertisement device shall not exceed 1.5 times the width of the abutting road. For pole kiosks, maximum width of a single advertisements boards on each size of the pole shall be 1ft i.e. 12 inches with total width of 2ft. In case of large and medium format advertisements the aspect ratio (width to height) of the devices should be between 1-2. For small format advertisements higher aspect ratio is 1-3.

Road premium and zone premiums are also introduced on both public and private property by MC depending upon structure locations.

For top, bottom and backlit extra illumination a premium of 20% will be added, with35% more premium for Digital/electronic and Neon Signages.

MC will renew the legal hoardings, whereas the unauthorised media will be removed by the divisional Officers.