Viveat Susan Pinto
Media

Xanadu Consulting forays into media representation in Pune

The group, which is into media consultancy and recruitment, will also handle ad sales for media players in the city

Pune, as a revenue centre in advertising circles, has always been a distant second to Mumbai. Compared to Mumbai's advertising market of Rs 1,500-crore, Pune clocks just about Rs 175-200 crore.

A result of this lopsided market size is that Pune, more often than not, remains underutilised, with print and allied media players looking to generate quick "campaign business" from the city.

What's more, typically, a number of medium to large media companies outsource their ad sales function to individual media representatives in the city, which make the business all the more unorganized.

There is also no concerted effort as such to generate revenues via innovative media solutions. Nor do mid-sized media players, or for that matter, even bigger publication houses and TV channels have strong offices to fully explore and exploit the market.

Seeing an opportunity for itself, Pune-based Xanadu Consulting Group, which specialises in media consultancy and recruitment, has ventured into media representation, implying that it will handle advertising sales for players across the board in the city.

Jaisurya Das, managing director and principal consultant, says, "I have newspapers, magazines, websites and TV channels on my list as prospective clients. And, I have been in touch with a lot of players....the response has been positive so far."

"What we bring to the table is our level of expertise, knowledge and a certain sophistication and finesse that individuals reps cannot provide," he says. "We have a proper office, people on board, which means that the client's work does not suffer in any way."

Presently, Xanadu's consulting business accounts for about 60 per cent of its turnover, followed by recruitment at 40 per cent. Plans are to change the skew over time so that media representation accounts for about 50 per cent of its revenues. "That is the target in mind, and we are pretty gung-ho about the new venture," adds Das.

Xanadu's regular clients include the Sakal Group, Mid-Day, Radio Mirchi and Mathrubhumi among others. © 2004 agencyfaqs!

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