From the ancient Vedic era when students sat under a banyan tree, education has taken big strides in India. From growing into the Gurukul system, it developed modern classroom systems and now has transformed into a full-fledged Industry. In the process, schools, colleges, universities, professional institutes, coaching centres and all other educational establishments are trying to find ways to fill up the seats in their establishments. That is how promotion of institutes is integral to providing education while maximising profit from it.

Problems faced by educational institutions in Delhi

Everyone reaches for education in India and Delhi is considered one of the most preferred educational destinations for all kinds of students where education has become an industry. Thus, because of the growing competition in this industry, educationists find it essential to advertise what their institutions offer to whom.

After all, all kinds of schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions face plenty of competition from each other in their efforts to acquire students.

The different statures and types of educational institutes directly affects the budget they can invest in Education Ads in Newspapers. Moreover, advertisers often make biased decisions while choosing the right educational for their progeny. In this, they usually aim at admitting their children to only better-known establishments which have high cut-off marks. These problems are fairly common in the business.

What education advertisers in Delhi should do?

Most essential is to gain a trustworthy advertising medium and the most trustworthy are newspapers.

One must select a trusted newspaper for the target region. In Delhi, the best options for advertising are Hindustan Times and The Times of India. An overview of the two:

Hindustan Times (broadsheet, HQ Delhi)

Hindustan Times (HT) has a circulation of 993,645 daily (as of Jan–Jun 2017) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations with simultaneous editions in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi and Chandigarh. HT is considered to be the most widely read newspaper across Delhi including the National Capital Region (NCR) which includes Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad etc. It has been regularly selected the number one English daily of Delhi. Since HT is the first choice of most educated and upper classes across the region, it is the ideal newspaper for reaching the most important target audiences for most education advertisers.

The HT Education Ads can appear on any day but the focus day is Wednesday when the free HT Education supplement is published with every edition. Education ads can be placed in three categories – classified, classified display and display (about which more details will be provided later).

The Times of India (broadsheet, HQ Mumbai)

With simultaneous editions in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati, Hubballi, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Nagpur, Nashik, Panaji, Patna, Puducherry, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Surat, Trichy, Trivandrum, Varanasi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam among others.

The Education Times Ads can appear on any day but every Monday is the focus day and The Times of India brings out a free supplement Education Times with every edition on that day. Education ads can be placed in three categories – classified, classified display and display (about which more details will be provided later).

Type of Ads:

Classified Text: The cheapest option of advertising is in the form of text ads in the classified section. These are printed on the newspaper’s classified pages in run-on-line (ROL) text format. At extra cost, enhancements like screen, tick, colour for more visibility can be made.

Classified Display: A costlier option is charged per square cm of the area used for the advertisement. There is a constraint to the size of Classified Display (CD) Ads, but it can be customised using logo, image, different fonts and colour to enhance the advertisement. Classified Display Ads appear on a specific page or supplement of the newspaper.

Display: This costliest option – also charged per square cm of the area used for the advertisement – has no constraints about the sizes of the ads and is also charged per square cm of the area used for the advertisement. One can choose Full Page, Half Page, Quarter Page or any other size of ad besides the Page and Position.

Rebates: Every edition of the above newspapers has a different rate. However, repetition in the same edition or combo-rates with more than one edition may result in an overall cost-reduction.

For guidance, contact myadvtcorner.com, the online arm of a professional full-service advertising agency, which has been a fully accredited member of Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for over 25 years.