Today, it is critical to have a digital footprint in whatever you do: Alok Jalan

"The start-up scene was not always as glamorous as it is today," said Alok Jalan, MD, Laqshya Media Group. "It's been an absolutely incredible journey over the last 25 years," he added. Laqshya Media Group, which was founded in 1997, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. 

The last two years have been difficult for most of the sectors. While some industries have recovered financially, the Out of Home (OOH) industry, on the other hand, is still to reach pre-Covid growth levels. According to several industry reports, OOH media grew 27% in 2021 but remained at only 50% of 2019 levels. Furthermore, some industry leaders say the sector will not return to its pre-Covid levels until 2024.

Jalan, on the other hand, predicts that the group's monthly run-rate will return to 2019 levels by May or June this year. He believes that revenues in the calendar year 2022 will exceed 2019's.

In a conversation with exchange4media, Alok Jalan, MD, Laqshya Media Group, shares the group's 25-year journey, Covid's impact on the OOH sector, and more. 

Edited excerpts: 

How has the journey been so far? 

In the beginning, funding was not easily available. You had to build the business organically by putting in all the hard work you could and with the little money you had. When we analyzed this advertising space, we found that, on one side, it was dominated by large advertising agencies and, on the other hand, it was completely fragmented with a lot of small media owners across the country. So, we noticed that there was a gap and that's how we started offering solutions to a lot of multinationals and large Indian clients. 

During 2005-06, we started to feel that we would need some funding because a lot of new opportunities were opening up with the privatization of airports and metros. We went around and managed to receive private equity funding, which was the first-of-its-kind for an Out Of Home media company in India. After 2006's funding, we got a lot of new contracts, including the Hyderabad airport driving contract, and a contract of 1,000 air-conditioned bus shelters in Dubai. And then in 2008, we raised another round of funding led by one of the world's top five private equity companies, which was another high for us.

Can you share the key achievements of your company in the last 25 years?

I think these two rounds of funding were first-ever by a major Indian OOH company. So, I think it inspired a lot of people. It really created a lot of excitement around our company, as well as in the sector.

As we moved ahead, we realized that only OOH media may not be enough. We wanted to do a lot more. So in 2012-13, we entered the events industry with Event and Experiential Marketing, in which we started owning events, creating our own event IPS, and owning event services at a large scale with many global and multinational clients. And then after a couple of more years, we realized that we needed to get into digital space also because everything is becoming digital. So, that's when we started a company called Digital Labs and also started offering digital with experiential marketing to increase the overall value proposition for clients because in today's world it is important that whatever you're doing, you must have a digital footprint.  

How has the OOH industry evolved in these last 25 years?

There has been a lot of growth in the industry in terms of quality of advertising, the number of options available for sites, and the budgets getting allocated to OOH. Also, the depth of OOH across the country has increased considerably, allowing brands to effectively advertise across all million-plus cities in the country and on most of the highways. From painted hoardings to pDOOH, and convergence with mobility, OOH has come a long way.

Looking at the future, I feel that things are going to be bright for the OOH industry because even after being the oldest medium it has the latest characteristics of the sector. So today, you will see a lot of digital billboards in India and across the globe. As we move forward, new technologies like AR is going to create a lot of excitement around the media industry. We are also seeing a change in media consumption habits of millennials and Gen Z as they're largely either on their mobile phones or are outside their homes. That is the massive opportunity that we want to capitalize on by using both these mediums to their best. 

By when do you think the OOH industry will be back to 2019 levels? 

According to our estimation, our monthly run-rate will be back to 2019 levels by May-June this year. We had a very good start to FY2022 but the second and third waves pushed us back a bit. However, since movement of traffic was better during the third wave as compared to the first two, this helped us to keep up the momentum. We think that revenues for the calendar year 2022 will exceed 2019.

What will be the primary growth drivers for the sector this year?

The biggest growth driver of the industry will be its confidence in itself. We, at LMG, are using cutting-edge technology to deliver RoI for our clients. We are using hyperlocal technologies to track the efficiency and efficacy of OOH campaigns. We are using high-end creatives and innovations to enhance the recall of our client brands. And we are constantly expanding our footprints across the DOOH sites to deliver seamless, targeted campaigns for our clients.

What distinguishes Laqshya Media from other OOH agencies?

In a way, our specialized, standalone and independent OOH agency became a trendsetter in the sector. And we have always ensured client before self, people before profit, and industry before short-term gain. This value system has brought us to this level and has helped us with the lowest attrition rate, and the highest client retention rate in the industry. 

Has the pandemic changed the profile of OOH advertisers?

My answer will be based on two levels – pure OOH (billboards, BQS, etc.) and on the larger platform of all OOH media (billboards, experiential and mobile).

In terms of clients, it has grown deeper – with start-ups and digital players coming to all OOH media with deep pockets. The traditional users, including real estate, auto, BFSI and FMCD/FMCG, have kept their faith intact.

From our side, while the pandemic was a real big shock for us, we brainstormed to come up with a solution and to exploit the hidden opportunities. So the first thing we did was to take all our B2B as well as B2C events online. With a hybrid approach, we started online events with offline presence and started online versions of offline, on-ground events. At that time, we were only looking at how to create a better value proposition as soon as we get people back on the road. So, we started working on a lot of data and our most advanced audience metrics called 'Sharp' was planned during the lockdown, to create more value for our clients. 

What is going to be the key focus area for the group this year?

As we move forward, we want this company to become one of the largest companies in the media and entertainment space by leveraging all kinds of emerging technologies, using a lot of data and analytics, and various innovative and creative ideas. So, apart from adding a lot of value to all our current and future clients, we also want to add value to all the employees, and all the people who have been with us all through their lives.