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Note to readers: The last decade has witnessed significant advances in mobility and transport. New technologies and opportunities have brought a dramatic change to our societies. Planet and people-friendly transportation is more relevant than ever in the history of humankind, with everything from health to climate crises hitting us at warp speed. Storyboard18’s Month In This - EVolve 2022: Building an electric future, is an opportunity to bring to the forefront conversations around charging up marketing and brand building, to exchange and share new ideas, challenges and solutions in the field of clean transportation and mobility. Catch this Storyboard18 special on Moneycontrol, CNBC-TV18 and Forbes India. 

As electric mobility continues to gain popularity among sustainability conscious upwardly mobile Indians, advertisers might find a new way to advertise to this new set of customers.

Earlier this year, a report from advertising and marketing focussed news portal reported that a US-based EV charging network Volta Charging, which boasts of 2,137 stalls nationwide, is launching a dedicated media network, Volta Media, to better serve its advertising partners.

The move simply means that brands across categories will now be able to advertise at these EV charging stations to capture the attention of tech savvy and affluent consumers.

On Volta Charging's website the company states: "It's time to rethink your media strategy. Our growing network of charging stations reaches millions of qualified customers with premium place-based, interactive content in a sustainable format."

In India, the same model can potentially be replicated as the EV infrastructure strengthens owing to the strong impetus given to ramp up the EV ecosystem both by the government and private players.

The Centre said it is planning to install up to 70,000 EV chargers across the country in the next few years. Meanwhile, under phase II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-India) scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has sanctioned 2,877 electric vehicles (EV) charging stations in 68 cities across 25 states. 1,576 charging stations have been sanctioned across 9 expressways and 16 highways.

FAME was launched in 2015 to improve the infrastructure required for the large-scale use of EVs. Phase II, which began in April 2019, is the current phase and will last five years.

Meanwhile, key companies including Mercedes-Benz India, already have 100-odd EV stations across the country where EVs of all brands can be charged easily.

Ideal touchpoint for engagement

Experts believe that EV stations can potentially be an impactful outdoor advertising platform, giving brands access to upwardly mobile, tech savvy and an affluent urban consumer base. This cohort are not only early adopters of technology but are also equally conscious and responsible about the environment.

Rachana Lokhande - Founder, Glocal Bridge and advisor at the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) says that the EV charging stations require higher electricity voltage and the availability of larger spaces to build the stations which can accommodate multiple cars.

“The plans for battery swapping stations and building a dense network of charging points instead of charging stations are emerging to be a better solution. Considering that charging stations might likely be on the outskirts, this dense network of public EV charging points is an ideal touchpoint for developing a good DOOH (digital outdoor) /OOH network,” she adds.

Viability of charging stations advertising

Industry executives seem divided on the potential of charging stations becoming a hot favourite of advertisers when it comes to targeting a specific set of consumers.

Nilay Chandra, VP - marketing and charging infrastructure, Ather Energy, notes that in India, our two-wheeler parking locations are in the corner where there is not enough parking space and outdoor in such an area will not be in the best looking or well lit-up space probably beyond a point I don’t know how many people will be visiting that area to get return on investment (RoI) of that location.

“I believe even in India in some locations this model can work. The need to get operational revenues from advertising is little low in India. Even if 40 percent of our vehicles convert into EVs in the next five years we are talking about 10 million EVs so our volumes are so substantial even without doing outdoor advertising at charging stations there is business viability,” he explains.

Chandra further adds that the charging time is so less at these stations one doesn’t get such a highly captive audience that brands might get at an airport.

“While volume might be high, the engagement will be so slow that conversion rates won’t be high. My belief is that while in some prominent locations this model might work but this will not be the prominent model of how revenue generations at these stations will happen,” he rues.

Meanwhile, luxury automobile maker Mercedes-Benz India, which has over 100 charging stations in the country, says that it intends to keep its stations advertising free.  

“In future, there will be charging points for luxury cars (more than 100 kW) and the others will be for the mass brands. We however do not want to intrude customers with advertising messages when one is charging their car, rather focus on offering a quick charging experience,” says Santosh Iyer, vice president of sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz India.

Lokhande of Global Bridge argues that the potential of outdoor advertising is dependent on exposure to the audience, which is dependent on the time taken to charge a vehicle and the positioning of the public charging points.

Whether the outdoor advertising at EV charging stations picks up big time is something only time will tell, the adoption of electric mobility in India is clearly undebatable.

EVolve 2022: Can EV charging stations become new outdoor ad platforms?

The electric vehicle (EV) space in India is heating up with companies spending big money to grab the attention of curious consumers. Bengaluru-based mobility startup Ather, which recently launched the new Ather 450X in the Indian electric two-wheeler segment, is eyeing the leadership position in the category.

In an exclusive interaction with Storyboard18, Nilay Chandra, VP - Scooter Business, Ather Energy, talks about its evolving marketing strategy, decoding the EV customer and solving the negative perception associated with the EV category.

How has your marketing strategy evolved over the past few months? What has been your initial learning in terms of what kind of marketing is working and what is not working so far?

Right now, we are in a full scaled up phase. Our brand is known to a lot more people, we have moved to a pan-India approach and gone mainstream by adopting TV and print in the last one year. We want Ather to be considered like any other scooter company that has been there for decades. This year, we have realised that we are leaders in the EV category and we need to be perceived that way by consumers. Hence, we have exposure in IPL even in regional markets where we have associated with Indian Super League (ISL), Tamil Nadu Cricket League. Sports is a means to reach our TG. Coincidentally, post-Covid a lot of sporting events have had high viewership of a core SEC A/B which is why it has become a vehicle of preference for us. Though our mainstream campaigns continue, sports adds a layer of salience and engagement for us. 

Which media platforms work the best when it comes to promoting EVs in India?

What really works for us is our community, influencer and auto industry engagements. We are able to engage with them in a manner which is very different from the category. Within paid mediums, video content has built a lot more traction for us in the last two years. Within that, regionalisation has given us way better results. Content which is made for the geography based on the locales of the geography and which is contextual is picking up traction. OTT, digital, TV and print as a mix has been extremely useful for us.

How is it different from conventional auto marketing and advertising?

Owing to the fact that electric vehicles (EV) is a new category the consumer’s expectations from it based on how they live their life today vis-à-vis the expectation from the existing brands is from the perception they have built over the years. Consumers expect that the brands coming from the EV category will speak the language of today and not build on the language of yesterday. These expectations are in terms of media channels, the kind of content being put out, how relevant it is and how exclusive it is.

Consumers also expect us to understand that they do not know everything about the EV category so education becomes way more important. There is a lot of education oriented marketing happening in this category some of which can be paid. For instance, our retailers have become the education creators to even address anxieties that consumers might have related to rain or reliability for instance. A leader brand needs to take care of all this.

<blockquote>At this stage, there’s no substitute to having good reliable products with an intent to be industry for a longer haul and not running after selling certain volumes.</blockquote>

Who is essentially an EV consumer? What makes them tick? Their desires, preferences and beliefs.

Gone are the days when people would look for EV scooters for low-cost option or low-speed option which doesn’t require registration. Every scooter buyer is an electric scooter customer who is futuristic, not settling for average products and has the willingness to try something new. Early EV adopters are more aware consumers, they have the ability to discern something knowledgeably that is new. We have seen consumers who are heavy riders and are willing to try superior features offered by EVs. People who want performance are looking at EVs seriously including motorcycle riders.

But there are many challenges facing brands. What are the key challenges in your view? 

My biggest challenge is I don’t have enough scooters to supply to our potential customers. There is momentum and demand but unfortunately because of the Covid-led disruptions, the war and the electronic equipment supply hurdles we have not been able to meet the demand of the scooters. While there were consumers willing to buy an EV the industry did not have enough stick to meet that demand. At this stage, the EV industry requires good reliable products. Consumers have a very high benchmark on reliability and trust for their automobile manufacturers. I think while we had a great journey on delivering reliable and consistent products I don’t think that is true about consumer’s perception about the category. 

We need people in the category who are as focussed on the quality, reliability and consistency That would be the second biggest enabler to getting way higher EV adoption. Awareness about charging infrastructure is another critical challenge.

When consumers want to adopt a category because the products are better, especially in a category where families are going to use it and deeply linked to their livelihood as it is related to the commute, I think reliability of a product becomes fundamental. 

Rather than pointing fingers at how things are blown up in the EV category which might be true, the industry needs to focus on measures to make reliable products. Once consumers see evident action being taken by all players then half of the problem will be solved and then we could do myth busting exercises. At this stage, there’s no substitute to having good reliable products with an intent to be industry for a longer haul and not running after selling certain volumes.

EVolve 2022: Industry needs to focus on measures to make reliable products: Ather’s Nilay Chandra

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