MAM

OOH, digital need to marry for scale-up in India

Published

14 years ago

March 27, 2012

MUMBAI: If out-of-home (OOH) business has to scale up in India, it has to align with digital media to reach out to a rising youth population while preparing for innovations to keep in line with evolving technologies.

India has a lot of catching up to do in the digital OOH sector. The size of the digital OOH market is a meagre $10.5 million compared to China‘s $1.8 billion, US‘ $1.1 billion and UK‘s 160 million.

The OOH landscape, however, is changing fast. There are nearly 20 million bloggers, 55 million tweets a day, 4 million photos on Flickr, 25 hours of video that are uploaded daily, 10 billion songs sold on i-tunes and 1 trillion URLs on Google. Nearly 25 per cent of the world’s population is online.

“There is a vast opportunity for OOH to collaborate with digital media and reach out to this population,” says strategy advisor Dennis Sullivan.

Supporting this marriage between OOH and digital will be the growth of mobile Internet and penetration of smartphones in India. A survey shows that 17 per cent of apps on the mobiles are related to OOH. The truth is that most people use mobiles when they are outside, where OOH exists, and is easily accessible to the new media users.

OOH companies will have to learn how to engage the consumers. With the evolution of new media, it is also possible to pinpoint the TG and the communication directed towards it.

Says Sullivan, “Innovation, technology, production and audience participation all work in tandem to create effective digital OOH and will craft the future of the medium in India.”

Digital OOH faces several challenges in India, including factors like economic viability, changing technologies, planning, and finding the right balance between digital and pure OOH. Lack of tools to measure accountability, raising the creative bar, and moving away from pure OOH to content-based execution are the other hurdles that need to be crossed over.

Says DDB Mudra Group COO Pratap Bose, “Digital OOH exists in a silo which it needs to break free from. Everything we do is digital and is not limited to one screen only. This calls for creation for exclusive content for the digital OOH medium. Once you start looking at digital OOH as a business solution, the planning and execution of innovations will become streamlined.”

The outdoor medium is often complementary to the new media and provides scope for innovation. Also, OOH drives search and is a powerful communication medium when targeted at a particular audience moving in a particular destination.

Says Vodafone India senior vice president – brand, consumer insights and communications Anuradha Aggarwal, “OOH’s beauty and merit lies in the fact that it is a local medium and, thus, can be used to target a niche audience.”

In the age of smartphones and multiple media usage, an innovation on OOH can be transferred on to different mediums; it has a multiplier effect. A life-sized super zoozoo mannequin, for instance, is going to find itself photographed, tweeted and talked about for sure.

Innovation can and should be used to drive consumer engagement. A group of dancers perched on a scaffolding at a prominent junction dancing to the dhol on Baisakhi in Ludhiana is as good a way to engage your customers as any.

“The innovation needs to add to the message, grab attention and create memorability. OOH is a local medium and, thus, innovation can be done keeping in mind the relevance of the audience. Using OOH as a reminder medium only doesn’t utilise the might of the medium; one needs to start with the intention of innovating in this medium and then move forward,” says Aggarwal.

Can innovations achieve scalability? “Innovation do not operate on the premises of scalability in the first place. It may not necessarily be applied over a large scale,” says Bose.

Clients need to be brave and invest in innovations, particularly when OOH is becoming increasingly about people and is no longer the static medium it used to be. Says Bose, “Innovations in the OOH medium need to engage the consumer to be effective. The parameters are being continuously redefined. Innovation in OOH is more about magic and less about logic.”

How does one predict on the ROI while innovating? “Due to the lack of measuring tools in the medium , the gut feel plays a big role. This has to be backed with experience and insights,” says Aggarwal.

OOH is no longer that huge billboard or the bus shelter. It is being almost anything out-of-home. “This evolution has taken time but has finally arrived,” says Times OOH managing director Sunder Hemrajani.

Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.