Commercial hoardings in major cities across Gujarat have gone colourless thanks to the recession affecting the bottom line of clients of outdoor advertising agencies. With few clients ready to go for outdoor publicity, agencies have lost business to the tune of 30 to 40 per cent.

On the other hand, local bodies have not felt the impact at this stage as they usually collect the fee for the entire year in advance.

“But if this goes on for a longer period than apprehended, then the revenue from this source could go down” said Pritam Raut, who heads the estate department in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Surat town development officer Ketan Patel too said the civic body has not yet felt the pinch. “So far, nobody has requested for more time for rental payments,” said Patel. But in Rajkot, according to civic official Dilip Dhebar, there has been a 30 per cent fall in the number of clients for the municipal corporation. He said, overall, the budget of advertisements have been hit.

To tide over the crisis, the Vadodara civic body has now decided to go ahead with the auction of vacant hoarding sites, shortly.

On one hand, while the civic bodies have a mixed bag of fortunes, agencies have a tale of woes to narrate. A prominent agency in Ahmedabad has even painted the reduced rate on its blank hoarding near the Shreyas Bridge.

“The rate is 40 per cent less than the routine fee,” said an official from an advertising firm.

Big Street, an advertising firm, has withdrawn from the Ashram Road contract, which was signed for a six-year tenure. This will cause them a loss of several lakhs but the firm has withdrawn, forcing the AMC to issue fresh tenders, though it has not spelt loss for the civic body.

Yashwant Shah of Shah Publicity in Surat said: “The business has gone down by around 30 to 40 per cent. We have 200 people working with us and we face difficulty in making payments, as we have not laid off anybody. We have begun doing business on the terms of our clients,” he said.

Kashyap Desai of Desai Ads says his firm has kept fingers crossed in the hope of better times.

In Rajkot, most of the newly erected bus shelters have no hoardings, and are without any advertisement. The main client, a prominent media group, has given up in despair, and has decided to opt out just like Big Street in Ahmedabad.

Considering the steep competition in the hoarding business, most agencies would not like to miss out on the auction. “The situation is different in Vadodara as far as hoarding business is concerned. Even at the lower costs, no advertiser would like to miss out on business, irrespective of the global slowdown,” said Paresh Shah, Director of Sujal Advertising.

With inputs from Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara