Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director, Madison Communications, is decidedly upbeat. Sam Balsara is a powerhouse, a giant of a man in the Indian advertising and media business. Apart from being responsible for the media spends of several hard task master multinational advertisers and for an agency which is today a force to reckon with, he is also leading several industry initiatives.
The management graduate (from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Bombay) has put in around 25 years in managerial positions in leading marketing and advertising companies. Balsara founded Madison Communications in 1988 with three blue chip accounts Godrej, Tata (Nelco) and Mafatlal. Over the last few years, Balsara has acquired a reputation in media having successfully handled the first AOR in the country for Procter & Gamble.
In this interview with allaboutoutdoor, Balsara highlights the high points of the media arm and touches on various other aspects that keep the Madison juggernaut rolling. We present some excerpts:-
1. Congratulations on bagging Britannia Industries. Madison Media has been on the growth path over the last few months despite the general slowdown. What do you think has worked for the agency?
I think our policy of slow, steady growth and building the agency brick by brick based on strong fundamentals has served us in good stead. Also I think our policy of placing our client’s interest ahead of our own has been recognized and appreciated.
2. With other wings like PR, Creative, Outdoor and Merchandising in the same umbrella, which segment is the chief contributor to Madison’s turnover?
Madison Media is the largest contributor to Madison World, followed by our 2 Outdoor companies – MOMS & Platinum Outdoor. Having said that most of our other units also grew anywhere between 10 – 50% last year, though on small and varying bases.
3. How do you place the outdoor wing in this roster? Also, please elaborate on the role of MOMS & Platinum in the same.
As indicated above, MOMS and Platinum Outdoor are our key OOH units in Madison World and have performed exceedingly well under the leadership of Arminio Ribeiro. MOMS continues to do extremely well under its 2 COOs, Rajneesh Bahl and Dipankar Sanyal and Platinum Outdoor under Gour Gupta and Lokesh Kumar. Platinum Outdoor now also offers unique design and execution services in the area of Outdoor, BTL, Signage and Environment design which makes Platinum’s offering very wide and complete.
4. Recently MOMS made headlines by becoming the OOH Partner for Tata Indicom. Please tell us more about it.
We are very delighted that TATA Indicom has chosen MOMS as its single Outdoor Media Partner across all circles in India for CDMA and GSM. Platinum now handles many circles of IDEA.
5. How far has the use of research in OOH come both nationally and globally? MRUC has recently come up with the IOS. Will it be successful in bridging the gap?
For research to gain ground, you need visionary Media owners and visionary Media agencies willing to sacrifice a part of their immediate profits for the long term growth of the medium. The fact that the Outdoor industry is fragmented and has thousands of small media owners comes in the way of investing money in research. Again, if there is going to be agglomeration and consolidation, it has to happen on reasonable terms that enable the medium to be offered to the advertiser at the same rates. Consolidation should not mean, the advertiser has to pay more. This is why the IOS took a long time coming, but it is a very significant first step towards arriving at a method in the madness of Outdoor. I hope we can rapidly extend the study to other cities and vested interest do not stall its usage.
6. Can research be useful for campaign monitoring? What kind of post campaign surveys can be done?
Research should be used for Campaign planning and buying rather than for post-campaign evaluation.
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7. What is the role of innovation in outdoor? Please site a few examples of innovative campaign you have come across recently.
Innovation plays a big role in all media campaigns, not just Outdoor, but Outdoor lends itself more to innovation more than other media. You will therefore see in most Award shows around the world, Outdoor has the maximum number of entries and you see the maximum number of emails floating around sighting interesting Outdoor campaigns that make you chuckle. At MOMS and Platinum Outdoor we place considerable emphasis on innovation, but we want our people to innovate in such a way that the innovation focuses on and enhances the core brand equity of the advertised brand and not focus on innovation for the sake of innovation. For example, if you take the Maaza innovation (visual attached) not only does it stand out, but it also communicates instantly in an interesting way that the product is natural and nature fresh and wholesome and not synthetic. Some other examples are attached.
a) Dell’s own huge office buildings provided an economical and wonderful platform to project the Dell message of Choose Your Own Path through the help of Mannequins.
b) The premium space of Marine Drive was utilized in such a way to make the emerging familiar site of a DTH dish synonymous with DishTV.
8. Where do you see OOH industry three years down the line?
Larger, more regulated, more accountable and more sophisticated
9. What is your vision for Madison in the next few years. How do you place MOMS & Platinum in this vision?
MOMS and Platinum Outdoor are 2 important planets in the Madison orbit. Madison World’s vision is to get better and better at providing solutions to advertisers to help them build their brand equity and profits in a sustainable way. | 
