Ogilvy Live Keen on Continuing Show

It's being billed as their "royal misadventure." But, Ogilvy Live, upbeat organisers of the ongoing month-long Great Mall of Hyderabad: The Royal Indian Shopping Adventure, are yet keen on putting up the next year show too.

"Currently we have only this year's contract for organising the festival, but we are hopeful that the state government and the Tourism Department will choose us as partners next year too. We will decide on whether we'll be going for it next year following an assessment at the end of the festival, but we would want to build the annual fest as an Ogilvy Live brand," Mr Gautam Mukherjea, head Ogilvy Live told ET denying rumours that the company was planning to drop out of organising the event next year in view of the criticism.

There has been criticism from various quarters of corporates, the public and media, saying they are disappointed with the lowly tax sops, the lack of international participation due to the aftermath of the WTC attacks and the war situation, and the scale of business.

But, Ogilvy, which has invested Rs 18 crores on the entire event, says it is more than happy with the response.

"More than Rs 10 crores worth shopping has been done at NAC alone, and these are estimates just from coupons alone redeemed against Rs 250 plus worth of purchases per coupon. There have been purchases that may not have been redeemed against coupons, being of value lesser than Rs 250. And the shopping figures are also those excluding the shopping done at the 1,000 retail shops --the Great Mall official retail participants across the city," he said.

The company has already secured sponsorships worth Rs 6.5 crores from various companies and Rs 4-5 crores from participant stall rentals. It expects an overall Rs 7-8 crores from entry fee and ticketing.

Currently, the festival is averaging walk-ins of an average 15,000 on weekdays to over a lakh during weekends at the NAC. Also, the other venue at Necklace Road, attracting large crowds due to its adventure zone consisting of bungee jumping, rock climbing and paraballooning events, is averaging walk-ins of about 12,000 on weekdays and 25,000 on weekends. Similar is the crowd at Shilparamam, the organisers said.

"We expect about 1.5 million visitors by the close of the festival, ending November 14," Mr Mukerjea said. "There have been negative as well as the positive side to the event. We could have easily postponed the event, but we put it within a record span of three months. And people are enjoying themselves with whatever the festival has to offer," he added.