Nagpur OOH businesses facing stiff headwinds, growth prospects rather grim

Tier I & II cities are often cited as the new engines of economic growth, but business in cities like Nagpur are seemingly running into rough weather owing to a variety of factors that include the fallout of Government’s demonetisation drive and GST implementation. As monetary liquidity dried up, and with tax compliance burden increased in the wake of the tax reforms, brands are loathe to spend much on advertising, and far lesser on OOH, especially in the non-metro cities. As a result, outdoor media owning firms in the city of Nagpur are experiencing quite a slowdown.

Suryakant Jaiswal of Make Advertising told Media4Growth that OOH business in the city is on a downslide as there are no new tenders for media coming up and brands are also not opting for regular campaigns.

In the usual run the time from Diwali until Christmas week delivers a big windfall to OOH business but this year the brand spends have been on a low key.

Sell Ads Outdoor Advertising attributes the dip in business to the impact of GST rollout. The wedding season, which also spurs significant brand spends, has also been rather sombre this year.

Local advertising brands act as a bulwark in most markets but they too have pulled back their spends. Educational institutes are perhaps few of the regular outdoor advertisers now.

K K Advertising spokesperson asserted that some of the national specialist agencies have opted to do business selectively with a few media owners in the city and that has curbed healthy competition. “Even when we offer a media package at attractive terms, there are no buyers,” he said.

When asked what would be the remedy for this situation, he said that there is no common platform for the media owners in the city to take up the common cause and so the onus is on mass media to highlight the industry’s grievances.