Cities adjoining Mumbai primed for accelerated OOH growth

While Mumbai retains its primacy as the top OOH market, urban conglomerations contiguous to the city like Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Panvel, and the entire stretch along the Mumbai Pune Expressway are seeing significant OOH traction. All these areas have witnessed a major infrastructure makeover in recent years, and with burgeoning traffic on the roads the OOH media assets are attracting a gamut of advertisers. Interestingly, these areas have not only conventional OOH media, but also transit, mall and cinema advertising media, doing an estimated annual business of Rs 150 crore, which will likely double in the next 2-3 years.

Amardeep Singh, Director of Ronak Advertising, a major OOH operator in this region, cites the infrastructure development in cities like Thane and Navi Mumbai as a key OOH growth catalyst. People are seen to be moving to these cities, away from the congested confines in Mumbai. “In the last one decade, an estimated 70% of people residing in the southern and northern sides of Mumbai -- from places like Sion, Mulund, Ghatkopar and Dadar -- have shifted to the new cosmopolitan areas,” says Amardeep. For the OOH operators, the demographic changes are helping them to attract more advertising business, apart from the fact that the city development is also paving the way for vantage advertising sites.

Several corporate businesses including the megalith Reliance Industries have also spread their wings across these cities, catalysing the demand for more OOH advertising in these markets.
Improved transport connectivity is another lever for accelerated OOH growth. Amardeep points out that the Metro rail network has considerably reduced the commuting time between Thane/Navi Mumbai and VT/Vashi, and that is another reason for people to live in the adjoining cities and work in Mumbai. This large segment of on-the-go office-goers are target audiences for various advertisers. Moreover, the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport will transform these OOH markets.

In the next 6 months, waterways are expected to come up, providing seamless connectivity throughout Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) whereby Thane would be well connected to Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Vasai. “All these developments will amplify the outdoor advertising opportunities in the city and its surrounding areas”, says Amardeep.

These changes notwithstanding, it is imperative for the civic administration to usher in suitable norms to ensure the advertising does not cause any visual clutter. It helps that cities like Thane and Navi Mumbai have their own civic bodies and respective standing committees that efficiently look into the advertising functions.

The rise of non-metro OOH markets like Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel will lend spurs to the overall regional OOH business.

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