Planet Delhi and its chilly morning of 18th December’ 2009 warmly welcomed ‘Delhi Talks OOH’ a VJ Media initiative sponsored by Pioneer Publicity. The corridors of Hotel Intercontinental, Nehru Place were full of buzz as the varied stakeholders of the OOH community came all geared up for the eventful day. Media Owners, agencies, advertisers, regulators, experts amounting to a crowd of 200 attended and participated in this first of its kind regional platform. Noomi Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Selvel One Group being the keynote speaker gave the event a thought provoking start by providing a solution to the situation of Delhi OOH industry in one sentence ‘Yes! Delhi Talks but can we prove that Delhi also listens?
The day ahead witnessed a comprehensive set of speakers representing different stakeholders, perspectives and issues plaguing the Delhi OOH industry. Amiya Chandra – (Head of the Department of Outdoor Advertisement) – Additional Deputy Commissioner Municipal Corporation of Delhi shed light on MCD’s development roadmap and the kind of opportunities it offers for the OOH community and along with it he morphed a stern plea to avoid all illegal and policy breaking practices. Taking a neutral stand Mukesh Gupta, General Secretary of Delhi Outdoor Advertising Association pertinently put across some crucial hitches and issues that affect the OOH players and thus aimed to enable a smooth and productive industry relationship. Enhancing and prepping up this whole regulator v/s OOH dialogue was the panel discussion moderated by Pravin Vadhera, Country Head – OOH, 141 Wall Street that had OOH players like Ritesh Vasudeva – Promoter, Hindustan Publicity, Pramod Bandula - Managing Director, JCDecaux India, Sunil Vasudeva – Directory, Pioneer Publicity and Pawan Bansal – Vice President, Jagran Engage who questioned to seek justification on ‘Specific Issues’ that concerned the health and growth of Delhi OOH industry to Amiya Chandra – (Head of the Department of Outdoor Advertisement) – Additional Deputy Commissioner Municipal Corporation of Delhi who in turn played his part well by giving answers and thus raising questions on the conduct of the industry. All absorbed the audience participated and complemented the discussion. With all these issues at place questions on the kind of potential OOH industry has and is missing out on lingers addressing this crucial factor Sunder Hemrajani – Managing Director, Times Innovative Media Ltd affirmed the fact of that Delhi is missing out on OOH opportunity majorly on the demand side and communicated the need to generate demand. Answering the next logical question whether Delhi has the potential to attract more spends Pratap Bose – COO, Mudra Group moderated an intensive discussion with panelists Gautam Chadha – Country Head, TDI Media Services, Diptakirti Chaudhari – Head of Marketing, Hindustan Times Delhi, Gourav Tandon – National Director, Navia Asia, Raj Mohanty – Senior Business Director, Poster Publicity and Asim Mathur – National Marketing Director, Microsoft India unanimously agreed that ‘Yes! Delhi has the potential to attract more OOH spends, if…’ and so followed all the corrective measures and changes that are needed. And completing the ‘Potential loop’ Vivek Malhotra – VP Marketing, Idea Cellular Ltd spelled out the expectations of a clients and the ‘What’ OOH in Delhi needs to do in order to increase spends. Communicating a possible and important solution Piyush Tiwari – Director, Parivartan City Infrastructure Ltd reinforced the role of a utility-centric OOH model and thus went on highlighting the challenges and opportunities in store for all the stakeholders. Sure the presence of opportunities and avenues is clearly reflected by mushrooming of new players in the industry Sunjjoy Daadhicch – President, Explo Media Pvt. Ltd welcomes these players with an open mind and a scoop of advice and experience for them by putting the industry and its current status into perspective. Closing the day with a spoonful of wit and handful of humor Mandeep Malhotra – Senior Vice President, Mudra MAX played the pure Delhite he is and answered who are we? What is expected of us and what is much needed?
With ‘Delhi Talks OOH’ the attempt to create a conversation that will establish an ongoing and smooth working relationship between all interest groups of the industry was a great success. And in all ‘Talks OOH’ as a concept was well received and appreciated by the industry.