MAM
Midday Outdoors acquires rights of mobile van ads in Mumbai
| MUMBAI: Midday Outdoors has acquired the rights of mobile van advertising in Mumbai city from Emcon and has become the dominant player in this particular stream of business. |
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While speaking to indiantelevision.com, Midday Outdoors western region head Joseph Ramsey also points out that there has been a growth in the outdoor advertising market. “We have bagged major telecom clients such Reliance and Tata Indicom. In fact, the WLL mobile companies are using outdoors in a major way in their effort to lure consumers with their new schemes and offers. TV channels have increased their spend on outdoors include Zee TV, Sahara TV and Sony TV.” Recently, Zee TV has taken up several hoardings (including suburban railway stations) in Mumbai for its new show Awaaz; Sahara hoardings for Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny have been dotting the city’s landscape since May; Sony has also been using outdoor advertising for Naam Gum Jayegaamongst others. However, Ramsey says that the latest development in the outdoor advertising scene in Mumbai – namely gantries that have come up – has run into rough weather. Consumer activist Anita Pandole, who has been spearheading the movement for removal of hoardings (wherein trees have been cut for hampering visibility of hoarding and others that come under the CRZ category) has actively taken up the case of the gantries. The efforts of Pandole has resulted in a stay order from the high court as far as gantries are concerned.  Joseph also adds that a new innovation in bus shelters that has come up recently is a neon bus shelter mounted at Peddar Road in south Mumbai. Midday Outdoors claims to have become one of the leading outdoor player and control over 33,000 sites spanning well over a million square feet in Mumbai. The outdoor business currently controls some of the largest and most prestigious tender contracts in outdoor signage through existing contracts with BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport) and MSRDC (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation). |
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
