The pandemic has sucked the life out of outdoor advertisement in Calcutta this festive season.

Banners and billboards are usually stuffed into every available space on, above and beside roads and footpaths in the city in the run-up to Durga Puja. The festive season usually continues at least a week beyond Diwali. The last three weeks of the year sees a significant spurt in outdoor advertisement.

Park Circus Telegraph picture

But not this time.

Calcutta had close to 3,000 legal slots for outdoor advertisement, two-third of which went unsold during Durga Puja this year, according to outdoor advertisers. What remains of the festive season is unlikely to see a turnaround, they fear.

“We had almost zero bookings from March to August because of the lockdown. September saw around 25 per cent and October around 40 per cent of the usual business,” Noomi Mehta, chairman of Selvel One, an outdoor advertising agency with a pan-India presence, said.

Taratala Telegraph picture

The company has posted marginally better figures than the industry average.

Sanjiv Lall of Pioneer, another national player with a strong presence in Calcutta, said “around 25 per cent” of the slots in the city were booked during Durga Puja. The company has around 300 slots in the city.

The festive season is the best time for outdoor advertisement — from giant billboards at prime locations to a small traffic kiosk on a deserted stretch.

Consumer durables to real estate — every sector has new arrivals that need flaunting. An actress endorses a festive collection of a footwear brand from one billboard. A star cricketer vouches for a health drink from another. A sleek new hatchback announces its arrival from a third.

The pandemic has changed all of that and more. Most brands are reeling under the economic slump and splurging on promotions is a strict no-no.

CR Avenue Telegraph picture

A Calcutta-based company had booked close to 60 billboards across the city

during Durga Puja in 2019. This year, none. “Saving costs is the priority now. The focus is on digital marketing,” said a senior official in the marketing division of the company.

A week before Durga Puja, Durgapur Bridge that connects New Alipore and Chetla was empty on either side.

For years now, banners standing on wood and bamboo structures have blocked the view on either side at least a fortnight before Durga Puja. Ditto for Rashbehari Avenue.

At the famed Gariahat crossing, the footpaths and the buildings behind them are usually not visible because of outdoor advertisements. Banners and hoardings have often been termed “blinding, dangerous, hideous and stifling” by conservation architects.

This year, though, a tour of the city showed scores of empty billboards. Even slots with envious visibility — along the Parama and

AJC Bose Road flyovers, for example — had a common message. “To advertise here, call (followed by a phone

number)”.

The slots that have sold did so at a much lower price than usual. “A 40ftX20ft hoarding at Gariahat came at Rs 600psf last year. This time, the space got sold at less than Rs 150psf,” a Calcutta-based outdoor advertiser said.

Lall of Pioneer said “the massive dip in demand” had left space owners with no bargaining power. “We had to give in to slashed prices to sustain ourselves,” he said.

New Alipore Telegraph picture

Many outdoor agencies have gone for pay cuts and some have been forced to resort to lay-offs.

A veteran marketer said the slump in outdoor advertising signalled that “brands had given a vote of no-confidence to the economy”.

Automobile and real estate were the two main sectors that still saw bookings for some billboards and hoardings, according to outdoor agencies. Missing in action were some key players — FMCG, consumer durables, jewellers, footwear brands and restaurants.

“The puja season was extremely lean. Leave bookings aside, there were hardly any enquiries from advertisers,” said Debasish Kumar, a member of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators who is in charge of advertisements.