Hair and how: Katha Mediatix ties up with Jawed Habib salons to offer in-salon branding

A five-year contract between Katha Group and Jawed Habib's salons will offer brands a chance to talk to a captive audience across 221 outlets

The OOH specialist firm, Katha Mediatix has recently acquired the rights to market spaces inside the popular hair and beauty salon chain, Jawed Habib. This tie-up is for a period of five years, and branding will be offered to advertisers across all 221 Jawed Habib Centers across the country, including the latest salon at the Mumbai Airport.

Speaking on the tie-up, Romeer Sen, executive director, Katha Mediatix tells afaqs! "Salon branding is a new concept in the Indian market. We tied up with the finest, as Jawed Habib is a brand in himself. He's one of the best and most well-known hair stylists in the country; he's on the advisory board of Unilever as well."

He adds that Katha has been working on acquiring new mediums that work for clients, enabling them to reach specific target audiences.

On the captive audience in the salons, Sen says, "On an average, a customer spends 30 minutes in a salon; and there are many ways an advertiser can cash on this. Thus, salon branding provides advertisers with a platform that captivates and entertains consumers. It helps get the relevant message in front of the right audience at the right time."

Interestingly, the Jawed Habib salons have a new format as well. While an average of about Rs 1,000 is spent at salons usually, Jawed Habib recently set up affordable outlets called the Hair Express Salons, which offer haircuts from Rs 99 onwards. Branding will be offered at these outlets too.

Katha is marketing the spaces inside the salons to a variety of brands and services. This includes TV channels - wherein only that channel will be played on TV screens inside; magazines and newspapers -- where only specific publications will be available to inside the salons.

Katha is also in talks with telecom service providers to set up branded charging kiosks; and also an energy drink brand that's entering the Indian market, as these salons usually offer patrons a welcome drink. Besides this, spaces available include scrollers, posters, magazine racks, tent cards, neon signs and LCD screens, adding up to about 200 sq ft of branding space.

While he chooses not to reveal the price tag that comes with advertising in these salons, Sen points out that it is "not as expensive as a hoarding site". The company plans to roll out the in-salon advertising by mid-October.