Laqshya Media Group to partner with Comkeys, France

Laqshya Media Group announced a Strategic Alliance with Comkeys, the leading Independent, international communications group. Together they will bring, Mediakeys to the Market. Mediakeys is a specialized International Media Exchange which works with Brands to fulfil and execute across International Media Budgets.

Out of Home is a $29 billion market, accounting for approximately 6% of the $500 billion global advertising spending. As per a study by KPMG in India and Google, global cross-border B2C e-commerce is set to rise at 25 per cent CAGR to approximately USD1.5tn in 2022 and thus Indian brands are now looking at international markets.

With the consumerism and mobility among Indian audiences riding high, the OOH market is busy and bustling. Advertising expenditure in the outdoor media market, such as billboards and transit advertising, is set to soar this year, clocking 15 per cent growth year on year. Since it cannot be skipped by consumers or blocked in outdoor environments, the out-of-home (OOH) medium has remained the core channel to reach mass urban audiences.

Alok Jalan, Managing Director, Laqshya Media Group, “The OOH industry is ever evolving, and we have to change according to our clients ever changing needs. Like any other advertising medium, you can’t turn it off or turn the page or throw it in the bin. You can't beat outdoor for sheer audience size, even a handful of strategically placed hoardings can get market penetration that beats any major event! Also, outdoor is high-impact as well as low-cost and they convey the message day or night and rain or shine. To stay ahead of the times, we are privileged to partner with a big international agency like Comkeys SAS of France to bring Mediakeys to India. We will start this engagement with Mediakeys in November 2018.”

Speaking on the partnership, Paul Cahierre, Founder and CEO, Mediakeys said, “India is a strategically very important market for us and our clients. We have been long considering our options to enter this market. Laqshya provides us with the best in class capabilities to further support our growth in the region and to develop growing sales for Indian brands outside of India.”

Expanding on the partnership David Payne, Global Head - Strategy and Operations, Mediakeys said, "What we have is two companies with very complementary skills and a very complementary client base. We are a company that focuses on international media and handles only international budgets. At the moment we have a lot of advertisers who want to spend their media budgets in India. Laqshya is in the opposite position, where they have a lot of clients who want to spend their budgets outside of India. We can help them with their needs outside of India with our global network and we can crossover markets and obviously, when we have requirements for India we can come to them.

When asked if it would be a challenge to expand their presence in a less mature media market like India, Payne remarked, "We are reflective within the key points with the global media marketplace. We are present in London, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Cologne, and those are developed media markets and in the U.S we are present in New York again a developed media market. Whereas in the Asia Pacific where we are very strong there are less developed media markets. China, for example, is a mixed bag; it is very strong in some regards but not as strong in others.

Payne believes consolidation is a big 'need gap' holding back digital OOH in India, "Where you observe the OOH media market the most around the world is where there has been a consolidation of selling points and there has been a focus on the quality of the product. That's what I mean by less is more. My personal view is that if that were to happen here you would see a vast improvement and there's an awful lot of stuff that needs to take place for that to happen.