Mudra To Come Up With Another Outdoor Arm

Pratap Bose

COO, Mudra Communication

“There are many digital outdoors networks and all are doing well but I don't think that digital outdoor is going to come up very much. The reason is very clear, the flow of investment towards this side is very low.” says Pratap Bose, COO at Mudra Communications. In an interview to Tajdar Ahmad Khan of Bestmedianfo.com, Bose reveals future plans of Mudra for its OOH arms.

Q) Since you are known more as an OOH guy, let's start with that only. Recently at convocation you mentioned that last year outdoors grew at 4%, which was a four year low. What do you think could have been the possible reason?

OOH…No No, I am not that much of the outdoor guy as you mentioned… Basically if you look at reason why Out-of-home industry in India showed a negative growth was simply the economic slowdown. And the second reason was the Out-of-home industry didn't do any thing to counter the slowdown. You look at other media forms; they all prepared themselves a lot. Look, both the print as well as electronic media offered great offers and discounts for the advertisers but in case of OOH, it was not at visible.

Q) Another thing which is popping out very much in OOH Media is digital outdoor. What do you say about the digital outdoors in India?

You see, digital outdoor is a part of OOH landscape right now and has got a very small share out of the total OOH industry, probably less than 5 % and is expected to grow somewhat to 5 to 6% in the next Couple of years. Though there are many digital outdoors networks, and they are doing well too, but I don't think that digital outdoor is going to come up very much. The reason is very clear, the flow of investment towards this side is very low. I see more growth happening in small signal views like that you see in Café Coffee Day and Mc Donald's.

Q) Governments take on outdoors has been harsh. First, BMC in Mumbai and now MCD in Delhi are putting havoc. Do you think all this impacts the rate of outdoors?

I don't think it is going to impact significantly. There is always an alternative medium in outdoor and therefore if one of the medium has problem in terms of corporation and legislation the other medium takes over.

Q) Now lets shift to Mudra . In outdoor division Mudra already has Prime Site and Street Smart. So what are the prospects you see for Mudra in OOH business in the coming years?

Ok, I will surprise you a little. We already have two outdoor arms and now with in a few days, we are coming up with another outdoor division.

We are very much clear with our plans and are directing our efforts towards them. We want to garner maximum out of home spend in the country and want to capture 40\% of the total outdoor spends in the next two years.

Q) What about Portland Mudra? Can you please brief us about it?

Looking at the retail market growth in India, Mudra has come up with Portland Mudra which will be working in the retail marketing space. This division is mainly concerned with designing stores and will be working for big retail players.

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