The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai year-end

Mumbai always prides itself (with good reason) on being the commercial capital of India. It is thus in the fitness of things that its closes its year on March 31 and looks ahead to a bright new year ahead.

Finance

If finance is the carrot and stick that makes Mumbai the mare run, the stock markets showed Mumbaikars that Dalal Street can be as fickle as Dame Fortune herself. Yet the mood on the street is still bullish, and as long as that remains, Mumbai is in good shape. Last year had a couple of mega IPOs that warmed the cockles of sections of the advertising industry. ONGC and TCS lead the pack, with Jet Airways cantering home with surprisingly good results. With this year looking packed with public issues, one can see the resurgence of the "financial agencies" which will no doubt pull out their magical "expertise" as their USP.

Looking up

Look up Mumbai, the action is all in the air.

Air India branded its "Express" and promised to bridge the "Gulf" with cheap fares. The Middle-Eastern airlines responded with delectable offerings from some new names like Ethihaad and Air Arabia and suddenly it was cheaper to go to Sharjah from Mumbai than to Chennai.

Jet launched its international services with some trademark classy stuff in terms of advertising. Though I would be pretty miffed if I was a SriLankan. I thought Jet flew to Colombo for quite some time now. So why the new "international" launch? Unless Singapore is more "international" than Sri Lanka. Wonder what they will say when they launch New York.

Indian Airlines was evidently satisfied with the Abby they won for that cute commercial with the little girl.

Keeping quiet

Mumbai is plastered with billboards starring a variety of people with an adhesive plaster stuck across their lips. All might be revealed by the time this appears (high time too) but till then I don't want to spoil a good tease so, "main chup rahoongi." Yet, in my characteristic style, allow me to say that media houses are the flavour of the day and Mumbai will be all the more exciting when The Hindustan Times and Zee Bhaskar launch their offerings.

Maharashtra Times

And while we are on the topic of media, I must observe that niche marketing seems to be the order of the day.

Maharashtra Times unleashed a mini barrage of advertising that it is the number one Marathi newspaper in town. The fine print added that a recent readership survey put them at the No.1 slot in the area called Greater Mumbai. Now frankly, I don't think too many people would even know the boundaries of Greater Mumbai, especially not the younger crowd that everyone seems to be targeting now. And in any case, any Mumbaikar worth her salt will tell you that the real growth has been in the suburbs of Mumbai, which incidentally do not fall in the area known as Greater Mumbai.

Cannes fever

A spate of advertising has begun drumming up the hype for the Cannes advertising festival due to be held in June. One is sure the response to the call for entries will be pretty heavy. After all, everyone wants to capture a Gold Lion. Maybe as a direct result of the heavy Indian presence both at the entries, and the delegate level the number of Indians on the jury is also increasing. One used to marvel at the lone Indian on the jury a couple of years ago. Now one is told there are four Indians on the jury this year. Well, let's be positive and say this shows the increasing importance India plays on the world advertising stage.

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