B2B advertising site to go online in July

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI

AdExIndia.com, touted as India's first B2B exchange site in the advertising industry, is scheduled for launch in the middle of July. The site is being promoted by Vikram Chakravarty, who was formerly a manager with Monitor Co, a strategy management consultancy.

In an exclusive interview to agencyfaqs!, a company spokesperson revealed that the site would enable buyers and sellers of advertising space and time - be it for TV, print, radio, billboards or the Internet - to conduct transactions online. Sellers can list all available space and time on the site, along with any additional information, and buyers can bid for space and time online.

The site also promises two kinds of auction facilities - the standard bid-up auction for ‘price discovery' of highly rated shows, and ‘reverse auction or Dutch auction' for a quick disposal of inventory.

The company feels there is potential for such a site as it would facilitate information flows, unclog cumbersome transaction routes, allow the industry to have price transparency and provide a method for clearing inventory.

The site hopes to cash in on the booming space- and time-buying and selling market in India, the size of which the company puts at Rs 10,000 crore. The company is confident that the site would do well as, "similar sites have done very well in the US."

Further, the company is banking on its "cutting edge technology" and "an elegant and customized method for transaction that replicates the real world."

The company claims to have tied up with key buyers "representing over 40 per cent of the industry" and "over 12 key sellers" and hopes to set the industry standard. Apart from Chakravarty, the board consists of such names as Ashish Chakravarty, ex-CEO, Indusind Media and Communications, Ranjan Kapur, CEO, Ogilvy & Mather, and Tarun Seth, CEO, Shilputshi.

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