Future Group plans TV lounge for liquor, tobacco
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Media is set to launch Future TV Lounge next month to capture a slice of the lucrative liquor and tobacco advertising that is banned in the general media. Future TV Lounge would be a special vehicle that would put up television screens for advertising in hotel lounge, restaurants, bars and pubs.
Indian law bars advertising of liquor and tobacco products in the media but allows it at the point of consumption. Future TV Lounge aims to take advantage of this and put up screens at dining places that will attract liquor and tobacco product makers to advertise. Future TV Lounge will offer these companies a suitable platform to broadcast audio-visual promotional campaign to a very targeted audience.
With the ban on such ads in general media reducing advertising avenues for them, liquor and tobacco majors have been eyeing innovative ways to promote themselves. One of the frequently used means has been brand extension, whereby new products in different categories unrelated to the core business of the firm, such as apparel or mineral water, are launched under the existing brand names of liquor and tobacco products
