Sixth Element pioneers consolidation for OOH in Pune

Pune-based OOH media houses Asha Publicity, Captions Outdoor Advertising and Hallmark Outdoor Advertising have joined hands to what will be the first of its kind consolidation in the OOH industry of India. The consolidation will be represented by an independent entity called Sixth Element Advertising.

Sixth Element products include a wide and broader range of billboard inventory, gantries, bus shelters, ad poles / pole kiosks, building façades, drops and wall wraps and many more.  The company plans to put up a comprehensive resource centre with on-line inventory status, where client servicing teams can access the availability of sites quickly and accurately apart from bringing in new partnerships in the area of sourcing and innovative media.

The managing partners of the newly formed Sixth Element bring together a collective experience of 20 years in the OOH industry. It includes Chandrakant Kudal of Asha Publicity as the chairman, Razi Faquih of Captions Outdoors as the managing director and Haseeb Faquih of Captions Outdoors and Mahesh Solaskar of Hallmark Outdoors as the directors.

Sixth Element Advertising shall provide a huge inventory of sites across Pune and other cities of Maharashtra. Promoters of the new entity believe that joining forces will enable their teams to reach out proactively to more clients and offer a one-stop-solution for all outdoor needs and requirements.

“Sixth Element will give us the leverage to move into other metro cities of Maharashtra. Not only that, we plan to aggressively acquire new properties and sites at the current geography but shall also look at the cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai," said Manoj Daniel, CMO of Sixth Element.

“All three organisations have been in the OOH business for a long time,” said Haseeb. “Now we’ll be able to provide our clients an even broader portfolio of OOH sites through Sixth Element, as well as consolidated delivery mechanisms.”

Kudal is optimistic, “Sixth Element will acquire the clout to take on the bigger campaigns and will be the must-have outdoor partner.”

Solaskar, added, “We will nurture and develop this enterprise into one of India’s largest OOH conglomerates, while at the same time work towards retaining our core values which has been instrumental in our growth thus far.”

The final word belongs to Razi with a focus on scalability, one of the important factors of consolidation. He said: “This is the way forward. In fact, we are open to further consolidation by means of mergers, franchise options as well as management monitoring. What this means is smaller players now have an option of being part of the bigger picture.”

Industry views:

Pratap Bose, chief operating officer, Mudra Max 

“Sixth Element is a venture which I have been advocating for many years now. I am glad and proud that the majority of the Pune market will now stand as a single entity to face up to the challenges of the future. It takes a lot of effort, planning and energy to have worthy and influential media owners to join hands and stand up together. I have a firm belief that this venture will go a long way in resolving the issues that threaten the OOH market today and I look forward to their success."

Alok Jalan, managing director, Laqshya Media

“I feel this is a positive step towards consolidation in the highly fragmented OOH Media Industry. I envisage more such consolidation happening in the near future which would drive this industry towards a more professional approach. Value can only be created through consolidation and this is a welcome step in that direction. My best wishes to all stake holders for the new venture.”

Imtiyaz N Vilatra, managing partner, Milestone Media

“This is a positive development for not just Pune's OOH market, but for the industry as a whole.  Too much of fragmentation only leads to doubling of efforts and inventory without commensurate returns. This association may signal a tectonic shift which has been a long time in the making in outdoor media. Consolidation is the new buzz word in various industries, be it telecom, pharma or media. Visionary leaders have realised that consolidation is now synonymous with growth and are acting on their beliefs. This is a far-sighted amalgamation which bodes well for Pune's OOH industry.”

Abhijit Sengupta, chief executive officer, Outdoor Advertising Professionals (OAP)

"It is a very interesting development, and in the right direction. For decades the industry has been talking about collaboration if not consolidation, but nothing happened. And here there are three absolutely separate entities moving towards consolidation. It’s worth giving them a big round of applause, especially where the maximum amount of divergent views and modus operandi exists."

Indrajit Sen, executive director, IOAA

“Three cheers for these three bold, courageous and mature individuals and their companies. We have been advocating this now for quite some time. Some talks were held in Mumbai about 3-4 years back but nothing came out of it. Consolidation is the golden path forward - there cannot be any doubts on this. If it’s not acquisitions, then it has to be through mergers or even joint marketing efforts. Ultimately, the face to clients need to be much larger and with single intent. Only then can growth happen. Not only do we most heartily welcome this, we would do our bit in holding up this example to others in the business in other cities. Congratulations and our very best wishes to Sixth Element.”