Aegis Media's Posterscope Group launches second OOH agency, Brandscope

With a two-fold aim to put a brand at the heart of a solution and to handle conflicting businesses, Aegis Media has launched its second OOH agency, Brandscope.

Marketing communications group, Aegis Media has announced the launch of Brandscope, an OOH agency that aims to revolutionise the Indian OOH scenario, through environment -driven out-of-home solutions. After the success of Posterscope in India, Brandscope will be the second OOH agency from the same stable. Internationally, it is part of Posterscope Worldwide, which is present in 26 countries across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and South Africa.

Discussing the launch, Ashish Bhasin, chairman India and CEO, South East Asia, Aegis Media and director, Posterscope, APAC says, "Brandscope is a unique proposition that puts the brand at the heart of an OOH solution, using the world's latest tools and a global knowledge bank."

He adds, "Till now, outdoor campaigns have been looked at from the media buying point of view, where there is a focus on who can provide media cheaper. But through Brandscope, as the name suggests, the campaign will be looked at from the brand's premise. For example, we may do a soap-shaped hoarding for a soap brand to build that instant connect."

Haresh Nayak, MD, Posterscope will be the domain expert on OOH for both the OOH businesses in India.

Nayak adds, "Brandscope will look into the brand's personality and its promise through its creative use of OOH. It will not necessarily look at using an existing medium, but will be more about innovation and creativity in the ambient space, keeping in mind the brand's aspirations and the communication premise. We believe that the future of OOH depends on how well we can use the environment and ambience to engage the audience with the brand."

Besides the focus on a brand's premise, another reason for launching Brandscope is also to handle conflicting businesses, Bhasin informs afaqs!. "It's been two years since Posterscope's launch and we're now handling approximately 55 clients. We'd like to expand our franchise now and one of the reasons is to handle conflicting businesses. There may come a point where Posterscope and Brandscope pitch against each other as well," he says.

The company has also announced that Fabian Cowan would be the business head of Brandscope in India. Cowan's last assignment was at OOH Media in Mumbai as head sales, West. He has a collective experience of over 15 years in media sales, sales strategy planning, business operations and content development, working with companies such as Digital Signage Network, Emerging Media, Radio One, Midday Multimedia and Sesa Seat Info Systems.

Brandscope will launch its operations in India with five clients, namely, Indiabulls, Fin Air, Arcil, JK Paper and Kewal Kiran. More client acquisition announcements are likely to be made before the year ends.

Starting with a team of seven in India, Brandscope intends to expand the team to 18 in 2011. It will initially operate out of Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, adding more centres as required.