Washington-based tag Media Network has entered into a partnership with MAA Group to put up 26-inch panels in supermarkets and hypermarkets. It’s treating India as a testing ground for a global launch. And intends to create original programming relevant to retail outlets as well as run advertising. “We want to focus on creating content and expand our in-store TV network in supermarkets and hypermarkets.” Explains Daniel Ginsburg, CEO, TAG Media Network.

    Also in the fray is Flash Media. Founded by retuning NRI Abhishek Kandoi who spent five years in Hong Kong . It has entered into an exclusive tie-up with Shoppers’ Shop to install
And manage panels in its showrooms across India. It plans to target other malls. Multiplexes,
Retail outlets and public spaces “where people spend a lot of time in a receptive mindset”.
Says Kandoi. Other players like Future Group’s Future Media are also believed to be waiting for an opportune moment to make to make a splash in this space.
            That’s quite a lot of firepower talking and big Indian marketers and media professionals are up and taking notice “Clients whose merchandise is available in that retail environment and any marketer targeting the audience that visits modem retail formats stand to benefit. I see that covering most marketed categories.” Says Vikram  Sakhuja. Group M COO South Asia.
 

REGULAR Seekers of retail therapy at Shoppers’ Stop or Spencers will have noticed them. few avid gym-goers might have been surprised by them. And we’re betting that employees who noticed them in their as a welcome distraction.
 


The LCD panels screening loops of advertisements and promotional offers not just point- of sales incentives those in the know believe they could herald the next big medium to take Indian consumer by storm. Here’s a Story that could be preview –and to make it more intriguiging it’s got a Chinese connection Chinese entrepreneur Jason Jiang and his Company Focus Media made advertising history of sort when they put up almost 200,000 flat-panel LCD screens in commercial buildings. malls, multi-plexes and retail outlets in China’s Bustling urban centers. With ad support from some of the biggest











 

companies in China – Nokia, Coca-Cola, Nestle . P&G, Toyota, Honda FedEx and many .many  more present on its screens- Focus Media has gone on to list on NESDAQ, triple its share price and reach a market capitalization of $3.1 billion And Jiang has made it to Forbes’s list of the 40 richest people In China.

That’s the juggernaut that’ poised to roll into Indian mind space. As a whole host of companies ready  their plans. They’ve got deep pockets. Technology and experience, and some of The top talent to run the show. For instance.

 
Private equity group 3i. One of the original investors in focus Media, is funding a similar initiative through 3i India. Ishan Raina entrepreneur In residence, 3i India explains that 3i India has entered into an exclusive 10-year deal (renewable for another decade) with focus Media to use its intellectual capital. He believes the medium the potential to grow  to 3% of advertising spends – estimated at about Rs 15,000 crore currently In the next three years.
 

WHEN WEBEGIN

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WE’LL BE 10

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ISHAN RAINA

But Raina won’t have an uncontested run at it. Adlmpact  Media, founded by twenty – something Citibank alumnus Vibhav  Parikh, also plans to target white-collared. High disposable income consumers using digital screen set up in office complexes. “We want to entertain and inform office goers while they wait for the elevator. It’s mostly high-end products in the auto,

 

Financial services and luxury category that need to communicate to this group.” Says Gautam Bhansali, COO, Adlmpact Media. The company has made a start, plastering 19 inch screens in Commercial buildings across Mumbai like Express Towers in Nariman Point and Panchratna in Opera House .