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The central aim of Primesite was to create high visibility for the Aircel campaign, by adopting innovative and interesting techniques to communicate with the target group. Aircel’s campaign titled – ‘World of Possibilities in Gujarat’, commenced on 26th Aug’10 which brought to its consumers thousands of applications with Aircel PocketApps, giving way to a million possibilities.

To do so, Primesite carried out the Aircel launch activity in the following cities viz- Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat & Rajkot. Primesite implemented various innovations which helped the brand to engage with its TG which created a “Wow” effect. One of the innovations involved Interactive Floor Projection which displayed the brand Aircel, resulting in an effective brand recall thereby allowing consumers to immerse into the brand. In another innovation, Primesite created great buzz through BluFi BRTS Bus Shelters where the commuter could download various Aircel applications, wallpaper, ringtones & Videos.

Glass façade was meticulously planned at a key location giving excellent elegance to the Aircel Branding, Billboards were given a feel of a gift box magnificently covered in a red and blue gift wrap which read ‘Aircel-Just Arrived now in Gujarat.’ Primesite also did Airport Arrival installations, where cube boxes were placed denoting their arrival in Gujarat. In addition to this, animated advertisements on Aircel’s arrival were displayed on LED screens at prominent junctions. Frontlit Hoardings with cut outs of the icons giving an illuminated effect at night & Blockout effect backlit sites were used which truly made a difference from regular media.

Primesite also made use of complete media mix which included Gantries, Unipole, Kiosks and Directional Signage’s. Apart from these, Promotional activities were executed at various touch points carried out by Kidstuff (Promotional marketing agency of Mudra MAX). They played a vital role in reaching out to the people at strategic locations within the city which included Petrol pumps, CCD, Malls/Multiplex & Markets, thus spreading the happiness of launching Aircel GSM service in Gujarat.

Commenting on this initiative, Mandeep Malhotra, President, Mudra MAX-OOH, said, “The campaign serves to take the brands ‘World of Possibilities’ to the next level. We have helped educating our TG in Gujarat on the services that Aircel provides and i am quite delightful on our success in achieving this in an interactive and appealing manner.

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Ashwin was also responsible for the launch and success of the 92.7 BIG FM stations in Andhra Pradesh. Through a mix of aggressive marketing and innovation programming, Ashwin took the Hyderabad station to leadership position in both product and sales.

At BIG Street, Ashwin’s key role will be to build and grow the BIG Street business, thus enabling a significant contribution to RBNL. He will focus on acquisition and creation of innovative OOH inventories across the country. Along the way he will drive research on the usage and consumption of BIG Street’s OOH offerings.

Ashwin Padmanabhan has rich experience in varied sectors spanning 14 years. He started his career with Reliance Industries Limited at their Hazira petrochemical complex, and subsequently got involved in starting his own venture Superseva.com – India’s first online concierge services company. A go-getter from the very beginning, Ashwin was also instrumental in setting up and launch of the News Channel TV-9 . Prior to joining 92.7 BIG FM, Ashwin was with Visage Media Services – India’s largest stock photography company, and an affiliate of Getty Images as Director – Content Development. An Engineering degree holder from NIT Trichy; Ashwin has done his Masters in Business Administration from the prestigious BIM in Trichy.

Speaking about the appointment of Ashwin as National Head, BIG Street, Rabe Iyer, Business Head, BIG Live, RBNL said, “BIG Street aims to completely transform the way outdoor communication is being looked upon by marketers. I am extremely confident that Ashwin will add tremendous value to BIG Street, more so because his earlier roles have allowed him to gain tremendous experience in understanding the vast national audience. “BIG Street aims to completely transform the way outdoor communication is being looked upon by marketers. I am extremely confident that Ashwin will add tremendous value to BIG Street, more so because his earlier roles have allowed him to gain tremendous experience in understanding the vast national audience.”

Commenting on his appointment as National Head, BIG Street, Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “I am really excited about this new role. RBNL is an extremely dynamic and growth focused organization with constantly evolving opportunities. BIG Street has built superlative OOH assets in the North, and in the coming months we will be focusing on the West to evaluate opportunities and build assets. With this we will be able to offer our clients innovative OOH assets across key markets.”

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Commenting on his new appointment, Mandeep Malhotra said, “Change is a very pleasant constant. Mudra MAX is a place where talent is appreciated and groomed for future leadership, not only within the group, but the entire industry. My new role will be to evolve Mudra MAX’s OOH business to the next level. I am looking forward to bringing a better interactive edge to the outdoor space in the future.”

Anurag Gupta, CSO, Mudra MAX, “Mandeep is a rare professional who has the experience of a veteran and passion which can put a management trainee to shame. In his new role Mandeep is not only going to add value to all our OOH offerings but will also be a key resource in integrating various offering of Mudra MAX on the whole. I wish him all the best for a long and fruitful journey with us.”

With a Masters in Business Advertising from Melbourne, Mandeep, more commonly known as Mandee, has over 12 years of rich professional experience in outdoor media. Prior to this appointment, he has worked with Clear Channel India, Rediffusion DY&R, 141 Wall Street (the OOH arm of Bates 141), Asian Age, Pioneer and Total Media Melbourne. He has managed brands such as Tata Indicom, Airtel, Reebok, Discovery, CNN IBN and Nokia among others. Mandeep has won many international and national awards for innovations in outdoor.

Pratap Bose, CEO, Mudra MAX concluded by saying, “Mandeep has shown great panache in building the Mudra Group’s Out-Of-Home capabilities in the last two years, and has groomed a well knit team as we go forward. Under his leadership I am sure he would take the OOH industry by the scruff of its neck, and help us attain the industry leadership position that we strive for.”

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And each year this footprint only increase, touching more consumers lives each day, each week, and each month.

Speaking on the announcement, Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd. said, “For marketers meeting with the challenge to engage time pressed and low attentive audiences, the need for integrated media solutions is a business reality. With RBNL’s already existing integrated media solutions capabilities, the true potential of these 200 Million + consumers can now be unleashed for brands to reach out and engage with their audiences. Our incomparable reach and multiple relevant touch points promise to attract advertisers and media houses who stand to gain significantly from our humongous network, all at one single touch point.”

This move effectively places in RBNL’s portfolio, possibly the country’s largest and widest footprint in media to develop and market through a single point. RBNL’s already operational 200+ strong, trained integrated media sales team – BIG CONNECT, which services 1000 + clients each month through 52 offices across the country, is ideally placed to maximize this opportunity and create value for advertisers and brand owners alike as its customer centric products build consumer engagement.

With this announcement Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd. now becomes an exclusive platform to access the 200 million+ strong consumers base of the Reliance ADA Group. This ability to touch almost 1 in every 5 Indians, through the RBNL platform is an exciting and unprecedented opportunity for brand owners and advertisers to leverage. This mind numbing reach of 200 million consumers through the RBNL platform dwarfs the ability of other media houses which offer individual platforms like television, print, out of home etc. RBNL now represents a new age opportunity that has the potential to change the media landscape in the country.

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The campaign which has recently debuted and will run until the month of November can be seen across television channels, print, outdoor and the online media. Interestingly Volkswagen has also launched a unique website www.innovationsforeveryone.com as part of this campaign. This website will act as a medium to reach out to people and encourage them to share their personal innovations in a forum.

Commenting on this campaign Lutz Kothe, Chief General Manager, Marketing & PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Limited said “At Volkswagen, innovation is cutting edge technology that is available to all our customers from the Polo to the Phaeton. Through this campaign we have focused on the innovative technology used in each of our cars across all segments which benefits the customer.”

The Campaign which is mainly targeted towards the urban, young, progressive and the new middle class men aged between 25 to 44 years old will be engaging and action oriented.

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Commenting on the success of the campaign Sanjay Pareek, President, Percept Out-of-Home said, “We are happy to be associated once again with the R.P.Techvision Group. The brief was to locate landmark sites with larger than life effects across Kolkata within specified budgets. Percept-OOH accomplished this objective successfully and created a strong impact on CHIRAG’s Target Audience. We have once again used innovation at all the landmark sites by placing the product cutouts and on pedestals to stand out from
the surrounding ad clutter and enhance brand recall for CHIRAG.”

Percept Out-of-Home bagged this account in 2009 and was responsible for promoting their latest range of desktops and laptops across West, North and South India through impressive outdoor and retail campaigns. The outdoor campaign was a resounding success and translated into Percept-OOH once again bagging the latest CHIRAG campaign.

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Commenting on the success of the campaign, Sanjay Pareek, President, Percept Out-of-Home said, “We are happy to be associated with DLF’S Retail. The client brief was to create a buzz around their highly popular shopping festival. They wanted a presence around niche market locations in Delhi where their Target Group resides and also around the shopping venue. We conceptualized the campaign and used innovation at all the landmark sites to spread awareness for the festival thereby creating a strong impact with all shopping enthusiasts.”

Percept Out-of-Home won the DLF Retail account after a stringent process of selection amongst multiple agencies. The agency’s lateral thinking and seamless execution translated into heightened levels of awareness and incremental sales for DLF Retail in Delhi.

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Getting bored off the routine job, he took sabbatical and traveled around the world, during which he even worked as a furniture consultant.

Life for Sanjay Pareek has been one interesting adventure. Working with different companies has given him a valuable insight of the market and it’s this knowledge that’s what keeping him ahead of the competition so far.

When Pareek joined Percept in 2007 as President at Percept Out-of-Home, he brought in all his experience to make Percept as one of the brands to reckon with.

“I started off by killing people, that is selling cigarettes, I spent three years doing that from 1987-90,” he quips as he explains his early life.

Pareek has worked with Blow Plast, where he worked for eleven years. Sodexo, which is actually a financial company according to Pareek, experienced his services for three years. He also tried his hands on audio-visual products and worked for a Canadian company called Visionaire.

Pareek says “Then I took a sabbatical actually for about good 18 months, and travelled around country spent time with parents. During that time I did a bit of consulting work for furniture manufacturing company and audio-visual companies.”

Pareek joined Percept in January, 2007. “Its three and a half years now.” he says, “My journey has gone through various phases from selling cigarettes to consumer durable and to selling projects to being a facilitating manager to going to Visionaire and getting all the Fortune 500 clients in the country with excellent cutting edge technology, we did a lot of work for TCS etc and then Percept happened,” he adds.

Boasting of more than 20 years of experience, Pareek, a graduate of Mumbai University, has been the pillar stone of the Percepts march towards the success. However it’s not been a cakewalk for Pareek.

“There are industry challenges. First is that it is very disorganised, it is mainly relationship driven, you may be a small agency but because you are in right relationship with people you would be able to do far bigger business, so the size of the agency, professionalism all that does not work, it’s your relationship with the client, your relationship with the vendors that matters, which is the second idiosyncrasy of this industry,” Pareek says.

“After that the quality of the people, this is another serious issue. There are very few people who would want to be a part of this, the development of people has never happened and the quality too s not really up to the mark. These are the major internal problems,” he adds.

Pareek says that there is nothing called a clean format these days and it changes according to the whims and fancies of the person, who is coming to power.

“The other thing is that we can influence but they are sitting out which is I would call –government. The biggest point is regulation; today every municipal corporation decides what they want to do in their particular jurisdiction. There is no one clean format, one single guideline and single rules are not there. So it’s based on the whims and fancies and the next time somebody new comes at the helm of the affairs, he/ she would like to change it,” he says.

“But I have not seen much of a change in the area of regulations, there is some improvement in measurement Indian Outdoor Survey and Media Research users Council survey for markets in Mumbai and Pune is one step, but it has taken them 10 years to do that, hopefully another 15 markets they should do quickly. But most of all the quality of people is the biggest concern. Internally the quality of the staff should improve because nobody wants to join Outdoor since it has had a poor reputation,” he adds.

Percept is among the top-five Out of Home agencies and Pareek is very proud of it. With a team that is trained to follow transparency, it has been the hallmark of their success.

“We have developed internal tools which are Propel programme and Prompt, these tools actually help us to provide better service to our clients. The other thing is the HR initiative that we have taken that every person who is a little higher we have one psycho-metric test that we do, and the person actually needs to cut into atleast 70 per cent and above to join us. But as an organization we think that until we don’t think inside out we won’t be able to bring about a lot of changes. We have done a lot of innovative things for Levis, Pepsi, Mochi and Panasonic,” he says.

With a successful turnover this year, Pareek hopes that good fortunes will continue to roll. “This year we are growing by 100 percent next year again we are looking at anywhere between 70 to 100 per cent, I think we would at least double our turnover every three years,” he says.

“The idea is that this year and next year we will double every year but at some point of time the volume will catch up and obviously then you can’t. The team is working towards and we are investing a lot of time, effort and money in HR,” he adds.

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The clear focus for Chak Dhoom Dhoom was to highlight the Grand Finale while the subsequent campaign dealt with the OOH for India’s Got Talent – Khoj 2, India’s biggest talent show with breathtaking acts and spellbinding entertainment.

Talking about the campaign strategy for the OOH campaign, Rupadhish Roy, General Manager, Primesite said, “The idea of taking this kind of media mix was to target people at the right place at right time. Our brief from the client was to create impact with large format and number of exposures (frequency) in order to create buzz around the shows. We are pleased to have adopted a multimedia approach to optimize the visibility and effectiveness of the campaign.”

To build salience for the shows, Primesite has embarked the campaign with a mix of out-of-home media vehicles. The choice of media for this campaign includes advertising on Billboards, BQS, Gantries, Cantilevers, Pole kiosks, Metro panels, Bus panels etc. The campaign has been executed at key locations scattered across the cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and in states like MP, Gujarat, Punjab etc.

To further build the WOW effect, an innovation for India’s Got Talent Khoj 2 has been executed at the main junction at Juhu Centaur, in Mumbai. An innovative fabricated kiosk has been created depicting cut-outs of various talents to make the campaign stand out from the usual clutter.

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They won the advertising rights for three years through a cut throat tender in which leading companies like Jagson Publicity,Prithvi Ads and Big Street.

Mr. Krishnendu Sen, Chairman – Katha Group said, “We are delighted to win the three-year contract from Punjab Roadways and we share their vision of providing a reliable, efficient and economical means of Passenger transport to the common man of Punjab”.

Advertising options on buses include concept bus campaigns and full bus wraps.

Out-of-home media is increasingly becoming a key source of information for people on the go in India. In Punjab these Buses operates 2.77 lacs kml. Daily for different State/Inter-state routes and about 5.00 Lacs passengers travel daily in these buses.