Hyderabad-based Bell Plus Media, which carved a niche for itself in digital out of home advertising services, is racing ahead in the highly-competitive segment. The company has expanded its presence to all metro cities in India within two years of its inception and it currently has over 3,200 digital advertisement screens spread across hundreds of residential, commercial complexes as well as malls. And it is serving a long list of clients including Apple, Audi, Malabar, Apollo Hospitals, Tanishq, Medicover, Swiggy and Zomato.

"We are now the fastest growing company in the digital out of home advertising services in India. We are the first company to set up dual display digital screens," said Gayathri Reddy Chappidi and Dev Abhilash Reddy Kothapu, the startup's co-founders.

"Our success lies in offering customised services to all our clients. We offer innovative designs and displays at affordable prices, using advanced software technologies," they said.

In Hyderabad, the digital out of home (DOOH) company has set up digital screens at major places like T-Hub, residential and commercial complexes of DLF, Lodha, My home, Aparna, Aurobindo, Lanco Hills, etc. It also has its presence at several shopping destinations like Inorbit Mall.

Dual display is the specialty

"We provide an effective platform for companies and brands to reach their customer base at affordable prices. We have screen sizes up to 65 inches with an inbuilt sensor that reveals the viewers' count. Dual display is the specialty of these screens," said Gayathri Reddy.

While advertisements are displayed on the upper portion of the digital screen, the lower strip is used for showing announcements by societies and local events.

"We offer rent to residential societies and commercial complexes for allowing us to set up our screens. They can also display their announcements free of cost. For advertising clients, we give Bell Plus application so that they can have access to the data related to their advertisements such as the number of times an advertisement is displayed, the number of viewers and technical issues if any," Gayathri Reddy explained.

20,000 screens by December 2023

According to Gayathri Reddy, Bell Plus Media was started in January 2021. "Our first project was at MyHome Abhra. Its Association Secretary KSP Reddy encouraged us a lot. Motivated by this success, we bagged 10 contracts within a month. We established 900 screens in the first year of operations, adding 2,300 screens in the second year. Our company clocked decent growth even during the pandemic.

At present, we have presence in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi and Goa. Currently, there are 80 employees. We are assembling screens in Chennai," she said.

In March 2022, the company received a seed fund of Rs 7.5 crore from Hyderabad Angels, Atlanta Syndicate and four others. "We will go for second round of funding soon. By the end of 2023, we will have 20,000 screens across 20 cities and our headcount will reach 200. We will also expand to Tier 2 cities like Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada," said Dev Abhilash Reddy.

According to him, digital outdoor advertising has the potential to reach 14 per cent of the country's population. "For this, 5 lakh screens are required across the country. The industry is growing at 14 per cent annually. There is a chance of the segment clocking 32 per cent growth in three years. And India will clock the highest growth among Asian countries," he said.

Keen on entrepreneurship from college days

Dev Abhilash Reddy (Computer Science) and Gayathri Reddy (Electrical) completed their B Tech in 2016 from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. Keen on becoming entrepreneurs, they set up Entrepreneurs' Club in the college in 2015. Both went to do their MBA from Woxsen University, Hyderabad.

Further, Gayathri did her Executive MBA in International Economics and Trade from Cambridge University, London while Abhilash pursued Executive MBA from Nanyang University, Singapore. Thereafter, Abhilash worked in a top advertising company for six months. In 2020, both went to China and studied the digital outdoor advertising segment there for a month.

The turning point...

These young entrepreneurs say that the China tour has turned out to be the turning point for them. After the tour, they came to a conclusion that their digital outdoor advertising idea would be successful. It's now a reality in the form of Bell Plus Media.

Awards

Gayathri Reddy received the Outstanding Leadership Award in the Marketing and Advertising Category at the Marketing 2.0 Conference held in Dubai while Dev Abhilash Reddy was honoured with the Dynamic Entrepreneur of the Year-2022 award from Icons of Asia in Delhi this year. The young couple got married recently.