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Tag: Nabendu Bhattacharyya

  • Milestone Brandcom is slated to venture into the rural communication space with Milestone Rural, the digital space with Milestone Digital and aims to set up a creative agency too

    Coming soon: Milestone Digital and Milestone Rural

    By Robin Thomas

     

    In a bid to extend its services, out-of-home media agency, Milestone Brandcom has big plans and is all set to enter the rural communication and digital space and set up a creative agency, all within the next one year.

     

    Milestone Brandcom is slated to venture into the rural communication space with Milestone Rural in the next three to six months. The next six to twelve months will see Milestone Brandcom entering the digital space as well with Milestone Digital. In addition to these developments, in a year’s time, Milestone Brandcom aims to set up a creative agency under the brand name Milestone Brandcom. It will be a mainstream creative agency which will handle the entire creative communication programme, be it TVC, print or radio.

     

    Through Milestone Digital, brands will be able to explore social media campaigns, digital OOH innovations and various other digital initiatives and campaigns. Milestone Brandcom, therefore, is aiming to provide enormous opportunities for brands to extend their communication ambit in the digital space.

     

    “Digital and Out- of- Home works hand-in-hand and therefore it increases enormous possibilities for brands. Since the digital and social media space is unique and real time, it just scales up the opportunities. You will see us in the digital space in the next 6-12 months time,” said Mr Nabendu Bhattacharyya, Managing Director, Milestone Brandcom.

     

    Milestone Rural, on the other hand, aims to reach out to the rural consumers, particularly in those areas where television and print have limited or no access at all. “Milestone Rural is about communication in ruralIndiawhere television and press don’t reach all marketers and brands looking at next destination for their growth story. We would be launching Milestone Rural in next 3-6 months time” shared Mr Bhattacharyya.

     

    Today, Milestone Brandcom has an Out of Home media division – Milestone Out of Home, a retail division – Milestone Last Mile and an event promotion division – Milestone Connect. With the soon to be launched digital and rural communication initiatives, Milestone Brandcom aims to build an entire vertical which will provide complete integrated solutions to their clients.

     

    Milestone Brandcom is said to have over 70 established brands in its kitty. Tata Docomo, Colors, McDonalds, Binani Cement, Axis Bank, HDFC Mutual Fund, Dish TV and Franklyn Templeton to name a few. The recent additions to its client list are L’Oreal Paris and Garnier.

     

    Speaking about Milestone Brandcom in 2012, Mr Bhattacharyya observed: “In just two years we have reached a stage where we are one of the leading agencies in the country. We have already touched the Rs200 crore plus mark in turnover. In 2012, we will try and offer our existing clients more solutions and we will continue to expand our services. We have been growing 100 per cent since the last two years, and this year is going to be no different.”

     

    In the next three years Milestone Brandcom aims to plough back the profitability into the business with more investment on quality talent, manpower, on production set up, and technology.

     

  • While 2011 witnessed many innovations, 2012 is the year which will see client demanding efficiency in the medium, writes Nabendu Bhattacharya

    FDI in retail can bailout OOH industry: Nabendu Bhattacharyya

    By Nabendu Bhattacharya

     

    Key milestones for OOH Industry in 2011:

    • Due to service tax ruling the industry came together to discuss standard operating procedures for OOH industry in line with other industries.
    • Marketers demanded more efficiency in OOH planning, creative innovations and 2011 witnessed many innovations in various categories in OOH. We saw various formats introduced in line with the international OOH markets. Street furniture inDelhiand Mumbai put emphasis on format beautifications in terms of aesthetic structures of billboards.
    • We also saw a lot of entrepreneurs entering as OOH specialists; many of them emerged after breaking away from large agency specialists’ space.
    • I would call 2011 a year of growth. It may not have been a great year in terms of huge OOH advertising spends, but OOH stakeholders pursued other categories and managed to convince local clients in the city levels, and few categories even invested more namely, gems – jewellery, real estate, retail, media entertainment, automotive and FMCG.
    • Hence, in adverse conditions the industry grew because of a significant contribution from other advertising categories.

     

    Five trends to watch out for in 2012:

    • Industry codes of conduct will be effectively introduced in line with IBF and INS.
    • Clients will demand efficiency in the medium, hence OOH stakeholders need to get together to offer planning and research in OOH.
    • Small format mediums will be introduced in line to build government infrastructural projects by the authorities in line with other countries. The government will be more open to look at long-term tenders. Hence, international players may show interest in enteringIndia. The government will bring in greater control over the medium.
    • Technology and innovation will be demanded from agency specialists by marketers.
    • Industry will face a hard time due to the economic slowdown, hence new categories will emerge. If FDI gets through, retail will bail out the OOH industry in a large way.

     

    Nabendu Bhattacharyya is Founder and Managing Director, Milestone Brandcom.