We provide total communication solutions: Nabendu
By: M4G Bureau
Last updated : July 27, 2017 9:23 pm
Milestone Brandcom has made a habit of surpassing milestones with consummate ease. The firm's Founder & Managing Director Nabendu Bhattacharyya believes that OOH business is a pure conviction play. Bhattacharyya took the entrepreneurial plunge some five years ago with the firm belief that right ideas, right people, right practices will induce more brands to test the OOH waters. Milestone Brandcom is a testament to his firm belief. Bhattaryya talks about his riveting entrepreneurial journey in conversation with Outdoor Asia. Edited excerpts of the interview:
In
less than 5 years Milestone Brandcom has emerged as one of the biggest
OOH specialist agencies in the country. Please share with us your growth
journey.
Having worked with a large organization, I thought I
was done with plain vanilla campaign planning and execution, and moving
at a snail's pace in a corporate environment. I was somewhat frustrated
with the minimal or total absence of a re-investment plan for the
industry, lack of reliable measurement metrics and real-time monitoring
systems, absence of medium-specific creative, and so on. Although there
were a dozen or more specialist agencies in the market, none of them
addressed the issues faced by the industry and none were bold enough to
take a stand on any of them.
Being a dreamer, an energetic and
passionate professional, I was tired of ignoring these critical issues.
So, I got together with a few of my colleagues -- who are now partners
in this business - to took the entrepreneurial plunge to set up
Milestone Brandcom.
With the right vision, right people, right
intent, seed funding from our PE partner and a handful of clients and
media partners, we were able to set off on an unforgettable journey.
Along the way we have achieved many firsts in this industry.
We
hope to continue challenging ourselves and the industry by creating
differentiated products and never-seen-before campaigns. We started our
journey with just 25 employees in six offices; today we have over 200
people working with us, 42 network offices with 100+ active brands and
we offer OOH integrated services in the outdoor, events promotion,
retail designing and research, rural consumer communications, etc.
How do you differentiate yourself from competition in the OOH space?
We
provide total communication solutions and not just siloed offerings.
Our OOH creatives and works are ROI-driven and linked with our Milestone
Optimizer. The Optimizer delivers Gross Impressions of any touch point
across 10 cities (accounting for 75 per cent coverage of the industry
spend) and will soon cover 15 more cities, to deliver the most
accountable campaigns to our clients. Real time monitoring in top 200
towns and integrated brand communication solutions are exclusive to
Milestone Brandcom.
Furthermore, we provide through-the-line
communication solutions through brand activation - both in the urban and
rural areas. We deliver value through brand relevant creatives to
deliver the Cost per Thousand (CPT) reach and Gross Impression of a
plan.
Milestone Brandcom has diversified into several
related businesses. Could you please talk about your business
diversification strategies and plan. Has every one of your ventures has
paid off?
Milestone Brandcom's primary business is Out of
Home communication. As we believe in delivering the most comprehensive
plans to deliver the best results for our clients, we later expanded to
other auxiliary verticals to strengthen our position.
Milestone
Lastmile delivers retail design and research solutions in stores and
captive environments. Milestone Connect deals with event promotions and
experiential marketing, and we have Milestone Outland that deals with
rural consumer communication to cater to consumer groups in rural areas.
We
recently launched Storyboard Brandcom which is the 2nd OOH division of
Milestone Brandcom and the 3rd OOH division of Milestone Media. Lastly,
our Canvas Outdoors division caters to building OOH assets
Do you plan to diversify into any other area?
Media
industry is rapidly evolving and the opportunities are growing in the
sector. We are closely monitoring the developments and see the potential
for a digital OOH arm, a social media division and a mobile
communication and technology platform.
Milestone Brandcom has
often executed highly unconventional OOH campaigns. How do you convince
advertising clients to experiment in the OOH space? Is there high risk
in experimenting in the OOH space?
We constantly push
ourselves and encourage clients/marketers to throw challenges at us and
try the untested waters. Our communication and planning are value
driven, based on the client's objectives. We push them to share the most
detailed brief and request them to involve us in the developmental
process from a scratch.
As clients always look for ideas and
possibilities within a particular budget that is in sync and relevant to
the purpose of their communication, we at Milestone refuse to rest
until we have created the best relevant idea and strategy.
As
advertising involves a lot of investment, most clients have little
appetite for risks but in my 20 years of experience I have noticed that
if the idea is big and the team executing it is capable, the
possibilities are many.
At Milestone, we believe in going all
the way for any campaign and brand. We are not satisfied until we
develop an idea that is big enough and relevant to the brand while still
serving the purpose of overall communication need. And because of these
reasons our clients have always appreciated our efforts and our
successful campaigns stand testament to it.
There is an element
of risk in all forms of advertising but when you have the kind of
experience we do, it becomes easier to minimise the risk as we know what
generally works and what doesn't and we are familiar with the consumer
mindset.
Have you succeeded in getting business from clients
who have not tested OOH advertising? What stops many of brands from
entering the OOH fray?
I have had so many experiences in that
space during Milestone's journey! McDonalds is one of the biggest
examples as they had very miniscule budgets for OOH. They did not
believe the OOH spends would be proportionate to their sales. However,
with our campaigns and services, McDonalds today is one of the biggest
propagators of OOH advertising and is one of biggest spenders in the
sector. Fastrack is another such example of a brand that has
successfully leveraged our strategic outdoor advertising solutions.
Many
MNC brands are reluctant to spend in the Indian outdoor space as there
is no common currency for audience measurement. Now with Milestone
Optimizer, every client will be able to create the most systematic and
precise campaign, ensuring maximum impressions among the target group.
Tell us how you went about building Milestone Optimizer.
As
I said earlier, I was frustrated with the industry not having
measurement metrics to determine ROI for clients. Many of the brands
were not willing to bank on "instincts and gut feeling†while putting
their monies on OOH. As industry leaders, we took on the daunting
initiative of creating a tool and a measurement system that will benefit
agencies and brands alike. In fact, it will change the entire approach
towards advertising in India, shifting the focus to disciplined
planning.
We invested 18-24 months, captured data viz. IRS-iLAP,
TGI, GFK, did the traffic count, tagged 25,000 sites on the map and
developed a Visibility Index. The methodology was developed with the
help of a few senior media planners from mainline media, and we looked
into client feedback. With this tool, now we can compare an OOH plan
with that of TV, press and radio in top 10 cities. We will now rapidly
expand the coverage of cities in the next phase. We invested in Rs 2
crore for the 1st phase.
Milestone Optimizer provides the kind
of accountability that brands demand. It also provides reach and
frequency of different modes of advertising through Gross Impression
Points (GIP) that can be compared with the more conventional forms of
advertising such as print, TV and radio. It allows one to evaluate
category benchmarking and market threshold levels of activity giving a
whole new dimension to media planning. The client can work out the
optimum plan cost, launch plan cost vs. sustenance plan cost and what
the Gross Impression of each plan would be.
Milestone
Brandcom has also acquire a few assets. Are you planning for major media
acquisition? Do you think it is a good strategy for a specialist agency
to also own media assets?
We acquired assets in the
beginning and kept on hold as during the journey we realised that assets
ownership and agency specialist business are two different businesses.
One needs to have deep pockets to own assets across all key markets. I
do not want to create anything that is average.
Tell us about your team building efforts? Are you able to attract young talent to your organization?
Team
building for a startup company is the most difficult task! In my case
it was easy as I have always been a people's person and it is in my
nature to build a team. I select right people, empower them, give them
space and believe in them. Mutual respect is of utmost important for any
team to be successful. I am 24x7 approachable, I pay heed to the needs
of my team members, their ambition and give them the space to fly.
Advertising business is like software business, it is the people who
make difference in our business and I can with pride say we have the
best people with us and they made me look good.
We consistently
looked at building young talent in our organization, be it from business
schools such as Amity, MICA, etc., or from various creative schools. We
believe we have a good senior talent pool having people with 15+ years'
experience in advertising.
Do you have any plans to foray into overseas markets?
As
an entrepreneur, sky is the limit and I am constantly looking out for
relevant ideas and opportunities. I am restless and ambitious but from
my experience, I know that one needs to wait for the right time to make
such decisions and I am waiting for the same.
What is your message to young entrepreneurs in the OOH industry?
There
is nothing like becoming an entrepreneur! It is not so much for
yourself but for society at large as well. India as a country can grow
much faster if we could create more and more entrepreneurs; the
ecosystem is now ripe for more startups. An entrepreneur's first
strength comes from your instinct. Your gut feeling comes from your
belief and confidence in yourself - and with that comes the right ideas
and opportunities. After undertaking my entrepreneurial journey in the
OOH space, my mind has opened up so much that I see opportunities
everywhere.
So, if you want to become an entrepreneur, don't think too much -- take the plunge!
Milestone Brandcom
Nabendu Bhattacharyya
Milestone Optimizer
First Published : July 26, 2014 12:00 am