‘We don’t exist only for advertising, but to also add value to our city’

The Fireside Chat on the theme: ‘Daring to be different: traversing the Indian OOH landscape’ between Shekhar Narayanaswami, President, Times Innovative Media, and Rajiv Raghunath, Managing Editor, Media4Growth, on Day 2 of the Out of Home Advertising Convention (OAC) 2024 threw the spotlight on what it takes to navigate through challenges and emerge a winner in the OOH business eco-system.  

Charting the course on the Indian OOH landscape that had, as Rajiv pointed out, very few benchmarks and where standards had yet to be set, could be daunting. Sharing his experience, Shekhar who joined the Times Group in May 2008 and brings over 35 years of experience in business development, strategy, corporate finance, investor relations, M&A, and supply chain management, highlighted the distinct positioning that the company carved for itself right at the beginning. “One of the things that we began with was our unconventional positioning. When 80% of the market was in billboards, we decided not to be in billboards,” said Shekhar and went on to share the vision with which the company began its journey, “We wanted to be in a place of long-term contracts, where we could offer quality,” he summed up.  It was with this approach that company chose to focus on transit media, starting with the Delhi and Mumbai airports. 

Having defined the positioning and focus, the next phase of the journey was about learning and adapting. A key takeaway here is the need for agility to spot what’s not working and accordingly change course. This meant exiting contracts that were not yielding revenue. From this stage, the move to the next phase of consolidation happened quick naturally. 

The pandemic was also a defining phase for the company, as it was for most businesses. As Shekhar shared, it was time again for the company to redefine its positioning as an ‘airport advertising company’ and “widen the canvas of offerings”. This meant diversifying the portfolio and foraying into other media properties, such as digital billboards and focusing on building a DOOH network. 

Further, answering Rajiv’s question regarding the key takeaways that emerged during Covid 19, Shekhar talked about the need to be cost conscious and cautious, a need that has attained greater significance in recent times. “In OOH the collective belief is that profitability comes out of getting the contracts at the right price,” said Shekhar highlighting a key factor in the company’s approach, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. 

The conversation also highlighted a very important aspect of OOH – its potential for not just brand advertising, but for enhancing the public space.  As Shekhar said, while giving out a larger message to OOH media owners, “We don’t exist only for advertising, but also for adding value to the city that we are in.”  The conversation ended on an inspiring note with Shekar’s words regarding Times Innovative Media’s next goal: “We aim to be a Rs 5000 crore by 2030.”