Tag: GroupM

Kyoorius launches ‘Melt’; says not competing with Goafest

MUMBAI: “Today there is a lot of talk about digital media, technology and data, but ultimately ours is an “ideas” business. And it’s great ideas that build great brands,” announced GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas.

Clinging on the same lines has witnessed the birth of a festival of creativity – Melt 2015, at the convergence of advertising, digital, media, marketing and emerging technology.

Launched by Kyoorius in partnership with the three lords in the media and entertainment sector – D&AD, GroupM and Zee Entertainment Enterprises, the two day festival is an attempt to fill the gap, which addresses the blurred lines of advertising, marketing and digital space.

“We felt there is nothing happening in India that stimulates the entire marketing and communications industry at large. So while there is something happening for the marketing, advertising and digital independently, it does not happen at the convergence of all these three put together,” said Kyoorius CEO Rajesh Kejriwal.

Elaborating on choosing the name Melt for the event, Kejriwal said that the lines are blurring today. “The media company is also doing creative and digital work and then there are digital agencies that are doing creative work. Advertising agencies have opened their own digital houses. It has all become a melting pot and so the name.”

The festival doesn’t have sponsors, but has partners. These include: Hindustan Times, Happy Finish, Afaqs, Pepperfry, Future Laboratory, Hyper Island, The Partners, BrandMusiq, One Eyeland, Maxus, YouTube, Google, BARC and many more in the pipeline.

To be held on 21 and 22 May at Nehru Center and NSCI at Worli, Mumbai, the festival will be filled with seminars, exhibitions and workshops, which will culminate with the Kyoorius Advertising and Digital Awards Night on 22 May to be held at NSCI Stadium.

Kyoorius expects close to 5000 delegates and 60 speakers attending the event across the two days. The event could also see close to 25 partners. “Next year will be larger wherein people from South East Asia will also be participating,” informed Kejriwal.

A lot of research has gone into creating the festival. “We met a number of marketing people and understood their problems and the terms that they didn’t understand, which could range from content marketing to brand activation. Through the research we found that there was a common problem between the media and the marketing people and so we wanted to put content that addresses their core issues,” added Kejriwal.

The sessions will address all issues across platforms. Starting with a creativity conference, which is aimed at the advertising community, day one will also see learning for the media people, for Facebook and Twitter marketing, session on measurement with the coming in of new ratings body amongst others.

“Different partners have come onboard to curate content. There will be workshops like the Sonic branding workshop, YouTube workshop on launching a YouTube channel, on being a YouTube star etc,” informed Kejriwal.

According to GroupM’s Srinivas, the benefit of an event like this is that it can attract talent. “The biggest challenge as an industry is to be able to attract talent and then sustain them, because over a period of time advertising doesn’t remain an attractive career option. It is through events like these that we will bring the advertising sector back on the radar of young talented people and show them how attractive the sector is.”

Talking about the reason for GroupM’s association with Zee Melt 2015, Srinivas said, “We wanted to play a role in showcasing what the industry does overall, especially the creative side of the industry, to get the young talent excited about the industry and hopefully to improve the talent quotient of the industry.”

On Zee’s association with Melt 2015 Zee corporate brand head Roland Landers said, “When Kyoorius pitched the idea, we felt that it blended with what Zee does as a corporate brand.”

Zee currently boasts of two brand intellectual properties: Zee Leadership series, targeted at CFOs and Zee Mindspace targeted at the CMOs. “When we looked at the Kyoorius event, it looked like a longer version of the Zee Mindspace event,” reasoned Landers.

The network on day one will look at crowd sourcing of content. “We are a content company and we believe that anybody who has a good content idea can come to us with the idea. We will evaluate that through our screening process and the short-listed ones will be further evaluated by our senior team at the venue. If we like the idea, we can back it as well,” informed Landers.

Zee has in the past partnered with a number of events from Goafest to AAAI, but this one is too close to its heart. Landers explained, “In events like Goafest, we are merely a presenting sponsor or title sponsor but beyond that we don’t get an opportunity to use our creative talent anywhere. With Melt, we believe it is the partnership that will evolve because we are integrating our own IP into this.”

Many in the sector feel that the two day festival is in direct competition to the upcoming Goafest. When quizzed about the same, Kejriwal said, “There is a need for not just one or two but four such events.”

He added, “Goafest is a great event, but then we do need more such events. The industry has 25,000 people, Goafest gets some 2000 to 3000 people, Melt 2015 should get close to 5000 people, but there are so many more people and learning doesn’t stop.”

Kejriwal also feels that considering such events are targetted more at the younger lot, it is important to have an event of this scale in different parts of the country. “Not everyone can go to Goa and so we decided to keep it in Mumbai,” said Kejriwal while adding that since Delhi is a growing market, Kyoorius will be doing an event sometime next year in Delhi as well.

Echoing the same, Srinivas said that the industry can do with a lot more events like Goafest and Melt. “As an industry, we are still very young and there is a long way to go. We don’t see anyone competing with the other,” said Srinivas.

The list of final speakers and the public announcement with regards to the event will be done between 15-20 April.

March 31, 2015
Brands on its way to digital success

MUMBAI: As digital advertising and online presence gains ground for brands, they are increasingly realising that the digital world differs greatly from traditional media. A one size fits all strategy is unlikely to help brands leverage the full strength of the digital platform.

Additionally, user engagement in real time and dynamic digital environment is a challenge. To add credibility to visibility, marketers need to continue to make full use of online by listening and engaging-not just showcasing.

Discussing the same were panelists namely Dentsu Aegis CEO Ashish Bhasin, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas, Producers Guild of America CEO, Bunnygraph and VP, new media John Heinsen, Culture Machine CEO Sameer Pitalwalla and Viacom18 Media MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy.

The panelist discussed the ingredients required to build a successful online brand presence. The session was moderated by film-maker Rohan Sippy.

According to Srinivas, the world is moving towards programmatic buying and advertising. “Most of the advertising media is getting automated on digital. It has huge implications on the brands,” he said.

Talking about brand’s engagement on the digital world, Bhasin feels that there is nothing different in the digital world earlier than the digital brands. He believes that many brands in today’s time are going wrong. “The principle of any brand is to identify the consumer’s needs and fulfil them,” he said adding that today many brands are getting caught between digital and technology.

He believes that the key to success will be to retain factors like – maintaining the principles of brand building and secondly speed of response accelerated to deliver a lot more basis on the consumer’s needs.

Heinsen opined that brands on digital platforms are the best combination. It gives visibility to brands even more. A successful brand building is the convergence of three things – traditional media, advertising and technology. According to him, integrating these things are needed to build a brand. “As content creators and story-tellers, if we have all these factors only then can you entertain, engage and influence the audiences.”

According to Pitalwalla, brands face two challenges on the digital platforms. One, there are multiple platforms and each of them comes with their own rules and have a lot more content than traditional media. Second, there is a fragmentation of content. He believes that TV commercials have become just one format in a way people are interacting with the brand.

Swamy has a different story to tell. He asserted that if people are not talking about your brand, it is considered that your brand has not made it to the heart and minds of consumers. He feels that brand management has now become a 24×7 and 365 days activity.

As a broadcaster and content creator, Swamy believes that everyone is messing with the format. “People are just playing with all kinds of formats. There is not one fixed formula to it, but people are just experimenting and waiting for it to hit the right chord.”

Swamy added that dialogue conversation with the digital audiences is very important to keep the brand healthy and live. He stated the example of Roadies. “When Roadies was launched, we noticed that there was buzz only for that time of the period till it was on-air. Offline, there were no conversations at all. To keep the brand alive, we launched a digital series, which is accessible throughout the year and now the digital has become a base and TV show just compliments it. That is the power of digital,” he informs.

Bhasin believes that today’s consumers have matured. Earlier, people consumed whatever was shown on television. “Now the consumers are telling us what to do. They are dictating the tonality to which we can pass message through our brand,” he said.

Heinsen believes in the power of conversations. “As a content creator, you should be able to create a content that can spark off conversations. And that’s where social media platforms come into play.”

March 27, 2015
GroupM India wins ‘Country of the Year’ at eMMies

MUMBAI: For the second time now, GroupM India has won the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies 2015, the regional awards for GroupM Asia Pacific. However this time round, India will be sharing the title with GroupM Philippines.

The ‘Country of the Year’ is the grandest award at the eMMies and is given to the country that delivers the best business performance.

Commenting on GroupM India’s showing, GroupM Asia pacific CEO Mark Patterson said, “India continues to set a gold standard in the region through continuous refreshment, reinvigoration, expansion of services and unique influence in the market whilst maintaining a close, collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit throughout GroupM. India does this year on year which make their performance all the more special and worthy of recognition. If there was a country of the decade award it would be India’s.”

GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas added, “India is extremely proud to receive the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies this year. 2014 has been one of our best years. We are especially proud of our talent who have embraced challenges in a very dynamic market and delivered true value to our clients. However what is most heartening is that we live up to the highest standards of quality among our peers in the larger GroupM family.”

March 23, 2015
Media, marketing & technology experts to gather for ad:tech

MUMBAI: Ad:tech global digital marketing & advertising conference and exhibition, having 14 shows worldwide, will host its fifth edition of the New Delhi Show on 19 – 20 March, 2015. The event will be held at the Leela Ambience Hotel and Residences, Gurgaon where more than 4000 thousand marketing, technology and media communications professionals are expected to attend.

dmg :: events EMEA & India digital marketing head James Drake-Brockman said, “The fifth edition of the ad:tech promises to be a testament to this ever expanding digital market in India. This year the show will have 110 plus speakers and more than 70 exhibitors and sponsors for the event. We have witnessed overwhelming success since ad:tech’s inception and we are confident that this year, the legacy will be continued. At ad:tech New Delhi 2015, you can experience two action-packed days with keynotes, education led by digital marketing’s best and brightest, hundreds of leading-edge suppliers – from established players to the newest startups – nonstop networking and much, much more.”

This year the keynote speakers include: Unilever Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia vice president Rahul Welde, GroupM chief digital officer Rob Norman, Myntra CEO and Flipkart head of fashion Mukesh Bansal and BBC news and current affairs director of digital development James Montogomery.

Among the big themes this year will be: M-Commerce, the future of E-Commerce, data fuelled marketing, analytics, fresh insights on programmatic advertising, digital content, media measurement in the digital era and multi-screen world, evolution of native advertising, digital’s impact on entertainment, music & news, experiential e-commerce, performance marketing, the role of data and automation in future media planning,

This year’s event will be attended by some of the biggest brand from India and the world like Airtel, Oberoi Group, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Thomas Cook, Yes Bank, Olx, HDFC Life, American Express, Indus Ind Bank, Max Life Insurance, Tata Capital, Tata AIG, Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, ITC, Star India Pvt Ltd, ITC, FlipKart, GSK, HDFC Life, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, HCL, Madison Communications, GroupM, Lintas and Cheil Worldwide amongst others.

March 11, 2015
GroupM launches MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare in Sub-Saharan Africa

MUMBAI: GroupM has launched its MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare media agencies in sub-Saharan Africa, supplementing GroupM’s existing offering in South Africa and Northern Africa and strengthening its position as the global leader in media investment management.

This development follows the lead of GroupM parent company WPP, which last year increased its stake to a controlling interest in Scangroup, the leading advertising and communication services group in East Africa.

Based out of Nairobi, GroupM and the three media agencies will manage all sub-Saharan entities and client relations managed out of Nairobi. Monica Kambo, Rajiv Gopinath and Mac Machaiah will serve respectively as the agency leads for MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare. Kambo comes over from Ogilvy & Mather Africa where she was the general manager of media services, Gopinth joins from MediaCom Singapore where he was responsible for running the P&G account in China and Machaiah previously led Mindshare in Southern India.

Clients who work with MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare will benefit from the consolidated media management of GroupM, while receiving best-in-class client leadership, communication strategy and executional delivery deeply connected to the agencies’ respective global networks. This will provide clients in sub-Saharan Africa with the market’s most advanced media capabilities and give access to training and development on the latest strategic planning, media tools and technology.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is a key growth priority for many of our clients and we are increasing our presence and capabilities across the region,” said GroupM CEO EMEA Dominic Grainger.

These operations will have a market-leading position and the overall network, along with its affiliates, shall comprise a team of more than 150 people across sub-Saharan Africa. The evolution of the company’s media offering supports its growth strategy, client growth, and fast-changing opportunities for brands.

Nandu Buty will assume day-to-day leadership of GroupM in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to his responsibilities as COO of Scangroup, with the management team of each of the operating agencies.

“This is an important development for us as it means we can advance our media agencies aligned to their respective global networks,” said Buty.

February 19, 2015
GroupM crowned ‘The Dream Company to Work For’ second year in a row

MUMBAI: GroupM India retained the title of ‘The Dream Company to Work for’ in the Media and Entertainment sector at the World HRD Congress Awards 2015. GroupM also was featured in the overall list of ‘Dream Employer of the Year’ in India.

Besides the company commendations, GroupM South Asia chief talent officer Gaurav Hirey won the awards for HR Leadership and The HR Achiever of the Year. The award for Women in Leadership for HR was won by national director, digital talent and employee engagement Apoorva Vig and manager, talent Farzeen Santoke was awarded the title of the Young HR Professional of the Year. The awards were held in Mumbai.

GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “Talent management remains a key focus area for GroupM South Asia, and we are delighted to win the ‘Dream Company To Work For’ award for the second year in a row. We are also extremely proud of the three individual awards won by Gaurav, Apoorva and Farzeen that demonstrate the stellar caliber of our professionals in the company.”

GroupM has aggressively pursued a people transformation agenda, with various capability-building initiatives like the Youth Executive Committee (YCo), the New ME Initiative for digital orientation and Client Delight and an engaging Campus Connect effort, keeping in mind the ever changing media landscape. With digital and Client Delight at the heart of their processes and planning, GroupM and its agencies have pioneered some of the best Talent practices in the South Asia markets.

Hirey said, “We are extremely proud and honoured to receive the awards and recognition. We thank the leadership group at GroupM for their belief in the talent function and creating value not just for our people but also for our clients. We aspire to be not just the best place to work but the place where the best work.”

February 18, 2015
Maxus wins media mandate for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

MUMBAI: GorupM’s agency Maxus has won the media investment mandate in India for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2015, which is taking place in Australia and New Zealand.

Maxus MD Kartik Sharma said, “Cricket is one of the important sports in India and the frenzied excitement and popularity it has is unprecedented as compared to other sports. Maxus is extremely proud and excited to manage the media duties for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The World Cup is the pinnacle of one day cricket expected to draw tremendous excitement all over the world.”

Maxus has previously handled four campaigns in India for the ICC including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, ICC Champions Trophy England & Wales 2013 and ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will commence on 14 February, will conclude in Melbourne on 29 March, during which a total of 49 matches and 14 participating nations will test their mettle.

February 12, 2015
MEC Access organises Kolte Patil Developers turnkey project Nest Fest 2015

MUMBAI: MEC Access, part of MEC, media agency and a founding partner of GroupM, announced its partnership with Kolte Patil Developers Ltd’s (KPDL) initiative ‘Nest Fest 2015’, bringing to light India’s first ever grand property expo which includes an element of fun and play as well.

‘Nest Fest 2015’ goes on-ground 6 – 8th February, 2015 in Pune. The property festival will display a wide product range which is projected to cater to 50,000 people visiting the property expo over the three days. The mega event will showcase properties ranging from Rs. 30 lakhs to Rs. 10 crores across 10 locations.

MEC Access was responsible for identifying the venues and organizing the entire event and managing the branding of KOLTE PATIL at these venues. The Décor and F&B were also included into being carefully planned aiding to the over-all experiences. The event being catered to potential real estate buyers from all walks of life, MEC Access ensured the use of state of the art equipment’s in building the mammoth structure and planning experience of big ticket events.

Sidhraj Shah, National Director, activation, MEC, says, “MEC Access has been able to plan and execute a seamless on ground execution for a challenging yet great experiential activation for Kolte Patil Developers 3 day Nest Fest event, which is being attempted for the every first time in India.”

Omar Gul, Marketing Head, 24K and Digital, Kolte Patil, said “Nest Fest is Kolte Patil’s flagship property exhibition with a single focus to deliver dream homes ranging from Rs. 30 lacs to crores in Pune city. The exhibition showcases Kolte Patil’s entire Home segment with amazing offers, value adds and easy finance schemes. It’s been a fulfilling experience to work with MEC GroupM as our partners in this endeavour”.

MEC Access, during the pre-buzz phase, conducted two events on the same day across 21 cities pan India. A channel partner meet was scheduled in the morning and the customer meet in the evening.

February 10, 2015
“Emerging categories are looking at digital as it is cost effective to reach the TG”: CVL

One of the most awaited report, which brings out the trends of advertising spends for the calendar year, was released by media agency GroupM on 2 February. Called ‘This Year, Next Year,’ the report highlights a marginal increase in the AdEx: from 12.5 per cent in 2014 to 12.6 per cent in 2015.

Inaugurating the report, GroupM south Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “With achhe din at the centre, we are hoping that things will only go upwards from here.”

The media agency has forecasted the nation’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 48,977 crore in 2015. Digital, as per the report, will show maximum growth with 37 per cent in 2015, which had been growing at an average rate of 35 per cent over the last two years.

With the whole industry looking very positive, Indiantelevision.com’s Seema Singh and Meghna Sharma caught up with Srinivas to get a few insights on the released report and the way forward.

Excerpts:

What is the highlight of ‘This Year Next Year’ findings?

We have just released GroupM’s ‘This Year Next Year’ ad spent forecasting and GroupM is forecasting ad spent growth of 12.6 per cent this calendar year, which is January to December as compared to the previous year. We are in the same level as we were last year, which we estimated to grow at 12.5 per cent.

General elections helped increase the ad spent last calendar year. Wouldn’t World Cup 2015, Indian Premiere League and Delhi elections help boost AdEx?

To an extent, the World Cup 2015 and the other opportunities offset the fact that we don’t have the general elections this year. Because last year, minus the general elections, the total AdEx grew at over 10 per cent. So on a like-to-like basis, if we remove the general elections, then the AdEx is growing from 10 odd per cent to 12.6 per cent, and this is definitely a growth with the rest of the industry. But if you bring the general elections into play, looks like we are in the same zone.

We see this year, once again, to be strong for e-commerce. While the base is still small, we expect them to increase their ad spent anywhere upwards of 50 per cent. We also see a good year for segments like auto and BFSI. Not only this, FMCG which is a very big contributor to the AdEx, while will be a bit under pressure, is expected to be steady on their ad spent.

The report also highlights the growth of digital. How do you see Star India’s Video on Demand (VoD) platform hotStar and MSM’s Sony LIV adding to the medium?

Digital has been growing, in fact by about 35 to 40 odd per cent year on year for the last many years and we forecast the ad spent growth by about 37 per cent for the current year and I think the reasons for that would be:

1) Lot more penetration of smartphones and we are seeing better infrastructure and hopefully we will see better bandwidth in months and years to come, and therefore using smartphones to connect with consumers with lesser wastage is a trend that will only catch on from here.

2) The other contributor to the digital ad spent will be digital video. The fact that as Indians we love consuming video on content and we are one of the highest consumers of video online, plus there are a lot of platforms opening up for video consumption, large broadcasters are launching their own platforms to disseminate content and hence more opportunities for advertisers on digital media.

3) A lot of emerging categories are looking at digital, because it is very cost effective for them to reach out to the target audience.

So all said and done, digital will see a strong growth.

What about broadcasters who are launching new channels?

TV, despite having a high base already and contributing to 44 per cent of the total AdEx, according to our estimate, will continue to grow at healthy double digits. Also this year, we have opportunities like the World Cup and various programming initiatives being taken by channels. We also have some increase in the supply that is available across newer channels. So overall, we see the medium to grow this year as well.

The report shows a drop in OOH. What’s the reason for that?

We have estimated that OOH will grow by four per cent this calendar year. I think these are estimates of what each medium will do. But the bigger story is that there is huge opportunity to grow across media.

We are still a nation, which is under branded and we are still scratching the surface when it comes to smaller towns, geographies, which are regional and we need to get more and more of those brands and clients to advertise. I think, the more we do that, the more we can open up revenue opportunity for media players in this industry.

The sky is the limit for all media – be it radio, OOH or print and hopefully 2016-2017 onwards, one would see the industry moving at higher growth rate when consumer sentiment improves and one actually sees off takes going up on the ground.

You have also stressed on native advertising being the trend to watch out for. How can one implement this?

It is one of the formats of advertising, which is gaining in popularity because of more consumption of content of digital media of smaller screens. So you cannot always use the same content or format of advertising for different screens and different modes of consumption. On smaller screens content is consumed on the go and is quick and easy. The consumption is very different and so there needs to be a different style of advertising.

Native advertising has been born out of this change in consumption habits. It is one form of advertising and will not override all the other forms of advertising because you will still need the traditional storytelling and brand advertising, but it’s definitely a format which is here to stay and provides opportunities to brands to communicate and connect with its consumers.

Last year, GroupM revised its report. Will you do that even this year? If yes, will it be upwards or downwards? Do you think ‘Achhe Din Aa Gaye Hai?’

The way we do the study is that we put out the number at the start of the year basis all the analysis that we do through our intelligence and analytics team. We get a chance to review our numbers in the middle of the year, because by then we can get real data and numbers. So we are able to go back and test our hypothesis and take a call if we have to revise our numbers.

Currently, it is very difficult to say if we will revise our numbers and if so, upwards or downwards, because it will all depend on the performance of the first five-six months. But if at all, we will need to revise the numbers, we will do it in July and not wait for the end of the year.

February 2, 2015
Industry sees higher growth than GroupM’s 12.6 per cent estimate

MUMBAI: “Acche din aa gaye hai,” said GroupM south east Asia CEO CVL Srinivas while unveiling the agency’s ‘This Year, Next Year 2015’ annual report.

As per the report, India’s advertising investment is expected to reach an estimated Rs 48,977 crore in 2015, up 12.6 per cent from last year with digital leading the pack with 37 per cent growth and television following at 16 per cent.

Last year, the growth of 12.5 per cent was attributed to the heavy ad spending due to the general and state elections and industry categories like e-commerce and telecom. Keeping the same positive attitude, the agency feels that 2015 will also move upwards.

Agreeing with it, the industry believes that with the economy going up in a positive manner, the numbers could even go higher.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Parle Products marketing general manager Praveen Kulkarni says, “ARPU (average revenue per user) is going to be better this year and ad spends will increase further.”

According to him, various initiatives taken by the government will bear fruits in the coming months. “2015-2016 will see a positive turnaround in the economy and the overall AdEx can grow up to 15 per cent,” he adds.

Voicing the same sentiments, HDFC Life marketing, product, digital and e-commerce senior executive vice president Sanjay Tripathy, sees an upward trend across all media. “The gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6.9 per cent in 2013-14, and if it continues to grow, then AdEx is bound to increase as well. I see it going even beyond 12.6 per cent and as for digital, it can go up to 40 per cent,” he states.

However, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair is a little conservative about the numbers. “Digital has various buckets from where the revenue comes in. Apart from media, there are other digital assets like apps as well. I don’t think we can put a number on the growth as I feel the industry will take at least one more year or so to touch a 37 per cent growth number,” he says, as he believes that numbers could increase for categories like retail but one cannot generalise.

“Definitely, the medium is growing faster than the rest but I would still peg it a little lower,” Nair adds.

As for the television, with new channels being launched by networks as well as investment in the digital platform and the ICC World Cup followed by the Indian Premiere League (IPL), the medium is moving forward.

Stating the example of recently announced yet-to-launch &TV, ZEEL chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal believes that with new channels comes added inventory. “World Cup and IPL will obviously help the channels as well as digital mediums. And as and when Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) releases its data, the advertising spend on television will see an upward trend as well,” he says.

However, Sehgal is a little cautious as well and believes that the numbers will be more close to reality when the next financial year begins in April.

The out-of-home (OOH) sector will see a drop this year as the agency estimates it to grow only by four per cent. Milestone Brandcom (part of Dentsu Aegis Group) MD and CEO Nabendu Bhattacharyya adds, “I guess GroupM has based the report on last year’s general elections but I believe that the sector will continue to grow by 10 per cent as the economy is stable. With e-commerce investing heavily on the medium and support of real estate and jewellery brand as well as infrastructure growing across cities and towns in the country, the medium has nothing to fear.”

February 2, 2015