Two weeks ago, Fergus and I had the privilege of visiting India and experiencing its exciting OOH landscape firsthand. This was an especially important opportunity for us to understand the market up close since we have observed a great level of international brands expressing their interest to be present in the Indian market.
Over the years, the country has grown by leaps and bounds, the most recent instance being Apple shifting its manufacturing operation to India from China. In FY22/23, the GDP grew by an estimated 6.9%, posing it to be one the fastest growing economies in the world (worldbank, 2023).
India as a country, is incredibly diverse with the language, culture and customs changing nearly every 100 kilometers. However, we endeavored to begin our journey by focusing on the top 3 cities – New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital of India, and there are typically lots of government and administrative hoardings present here. However, we went further to two cities – Noida and Gurgaon, which are satellite cities of Delhi. Both these cities are home to many top MNCs and people typically commute from Delhi to Noida or Gurgaon for work. Over here, we saw many large format sites, and were typically less cluttered compared to the formats seen in Mumbai and Bangalore. My favourite one would be this incredible wall wrap for Levi’s. It stands out brilliantly!
Bangalore
After this, we made our way down to South India – Bangalore. Bangalore is also known as the ‘Silicone Valley of India’, and this is where you will find most IT firms like Accenture, Amazon, HP among others. There are exciting OOH opportunities available inside IT parks which is ideal to target key decision makers (for B2B clients, in particular). Along with this, we also saw the newly launched airport which is, in my opinion, one of the best airports I have ever visited. It’s laden with lots of green spaces and light and is an experience to walk through. There are some exciting sites available like the rotating towers, which are ideal for brands targeting travelers – business and leisure.
Mumbai
Our destination was in the buzzing city of Mumbai, which is also known as the commercial capital of India. This city never sleeps (quite literally), and a lot of it is reflected in its OOH offering too. There are static and digital sides on nearly all major roads and highways, and it is certain to draw impressions because there is always traffic here. Aside from the static roadside formats, the site that stood out to me were the digital screens at Jio World, which is a global business and cultural hub. Many iconic international luxury labels opened their first stores in India here – think Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Cartier, hinting that India is a market for luxury brands too.
To say I had fun in India would be an understatement. In fact, I was a little sad the trip was coming to an end because all of it was so exciting and insightful! It was wonderful to be able to meet our partners in person, and of course, dig into some very delicious Indian food. I left the trip feeling a little more knowledgeable about the market. I say little, because I have observed that the media landscape changes with every passing minute, and that’s always good to see, given the growth the country is experiencing.