Big FM to provide "360-degree" ad services

JCDecaux offers $200M for Moscow billboards. Nissan and Clear Channel plan to brand an entire planned city for $850M. But lest you think that branding something as big as a city or public utility is a strictly Western affair, Big FM wants you to know that they're planning the same approach in India right now, calling their integrated marketing plan '360-degree advertising'. According to this article from exchange4media:

Big FM has made its foray into the out-of-home advertising industry with ‘Big Street’. Launched with the aim of offering a 360-degree advertising opportunity to advertisers, the division will offer a wide range of advertising options like billboards, street furniture, multiplexes and malls formats, along with a host of other options as part of its portfolio offerings to clients....

Speaking on the launch of Big Street, Tarun Katial, COO, Big FM, said, “We want to offer our clients a 360-degree approach, and this is a move in that direction. Worldwide, radio and outdoor have great synergies to offer efficient advertising solutions, and being one of the organised players in the business, we are confident that this will bring more professionalism and transparency in the category.”

There's no specific mention of any plans for digital signage or outdoor electronic billboards, but any true 360-degree marketing approach will need to add these techniques to the roster as companies demand them. Big indicates that they, "want to be the largest inventory aggregator in the category," so if India's outdoor ad market growth mimics that of the US, digital out-of-home will probably emerge as a fast-growing specialty category in India's rapidly-growing advertising industry. There's also no news of a first, big advertiser who might use the firm's new program, but the ability to provide near-ubiquitous exposure in big Indian cities will surely be valuable as the country's citizens continue to grow richer, and then look for ways to spend their newfound wealth.

Tags: India, out-of-home advertising, digital signage