As Shakespeare said 'What is there in the name?' but in marketing, the brand name "instantly informs customers about a company's reputation, enabling them to trust the quality of each product or service that business offers. The very mention of the brand name (or the sight of the brand logo) conjures all of a customer's experiences and perceptions of a business-good and bad." Hence, brands always look for varied opportunities to reinforce their brand name by associating them either with celebrities or CSR activities or sports team and other popular entities. Recently, there is a new international trend picking up in Indian Outdoor advertising i.e. associating the brand names' with popular transit touch-points of metro property.

DMRC, which has always offered outdoor advertising space in & out its stations and running trains, demolished its restrictions and floated the tenders of Semi-Naming Rights (SNR) tender in which media owners were given the rights to sell the partly naming rights of the metro stations as well as displaying opportunities to the reputed brands.

Participated by numerous number of media owners, but Pioneer Publicity successfully bagged the SNR tender of 8 stations out of 12 stations opened in the tender. One of the biggest media owners already had SNR rights of 3 stations i.e. Noida Sector 18, Vaishali & Dwarka Sector 10 which were sold to City Centre, Jagran & PNB Bank respectively. And now new stations added into its portfolio by Pioneer Publicity are:

1. Guru Dronacharya Station of Yellow Line has been sold out to Indigo Airlines

2. MG Road Station of Yellow Line has been sold out to Syska LED

3. Sikanderpur Station of Yellow Line has been sold out to Bank of Baroda

4. Neelam Ajronda Chowk Station of Violet Line has been sold out to Lakhani Armaan Shoes

5. Badkal Station of Violet Line has been sold out to Manav Rachna Institutes

6. ITO station of Violet Line has been sold out to JK Tyres

7. Vishwavidyalaya Station of Yellow Line has been sold out to Honda Two-Wheelers

8. IFCO Chowk Station of Yellow Line also has been sold out to a reputed brand, yet to disclose the name

While analysing this display opportunity, this international level of outdoor advertising has been capable of fetching big moolah for the vendors and huge exposure for the brands. While in a quick chat with Deepak Vasudeva, Director, Pioneer Publicity shared, "We have tried altogether into a new field. Though we are very positive about this new concept and lucky that we have been able to bring some of the esteemed brands of the trade on board for this new innovative concept, however the outcome of the SNR concept cannot be predicted in a while as it will entirely depend on a longer duration association with the brands on display.  Therefore currently we are going ahead with these 8 numbers that we have acquired which we have further sold out to the brands as mentioned."

The interesting fact to look at this deal is that brands are actually going beyond than just displaying their names. The brands are painting the station arenas into their brand colors like Bank of Baroda painted the station into its Brand color i.e. Orange, giving the station a bank avatar & Syska LED designed the logo at the station with LEDs manufactured by the brand itself. Also, brands are utilising the display sites located on platforms to communicate their on-going offers like Indigo is utilising the display space within the station to create buzz about their airfares and related details.

Taking reference from international trend, not just transit points, but other avenues such as stadiums, airports and masses allocating spaces are often being renamed with brand names. Internationally such outdoor advertising opportunities are often considered as "bang for their buck" when it comes to putting names on popular avenues. Various brands have several strategies with regard to naming rights. For some it's simply having the brand exposure out there, others may be more interested in using the naming rights as a way to have more participation and more interactivity with the local community.