Silver Campaigns wins right to do ads overleaf KSEBL bills
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/November 19-2020: It may be a bit intriguing to know that a huge advertisement opportunity offered by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEBL) on its 6 million bills generated every month failed to elicit any response last year.
KSEBL had last year accorded approval for printing advertisements on the back side of the thermal paper used for printing electricity bill, for which expression of interest (EOI) was invited on July 22, 2019.
KSEBL has about 60 lakh (6 million) consumers being billed every month by Spot Billing Machines (SBMs), meaning that the advertiser could reach out to 60 lakh viewers every month through an ad displayed overleaf the electricity bill.
Surprisingly, the EOI failed to attract a single bidder in the first floating of EOI.
However, on floating the EOI once again after a year, on July 22, 2020, one bidder, Silver Campaigns offered to participate in the bid and the same company was declared the winner.
Price is paying for paper rolls
As remuneration in return, Silver Campaigns offered to supply 50,000 thermal paper rolls per month free of cost to KSEBL with Board-approved advertisements printed on the back side.
Silver Campaigns spelled out its preference of seven districts viz. Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, where they want to ruh their advertisements.
KSEBL is using Spot Billing Machines (SBM) with thermal papers for printing electricity bills. With 60 lakh bills being generated per month, the total requirement of paper rolls for KSEBL every month comes about 98,500 rolls.
These thermal papers are currently being procured locally by the deputy chief engineers concerned. The matter was placed before the full time directors (FTD) of KSEBL, where the FTD has resolved to accord sanction to select the single bidder, Silver Campaigns.
They will supply the predetermined quantity of thermal paper rolls with KSEBL approved advertisements printed overleaf the thermal paper at various circle offices situated at their seven preferred districts.
